South Dakota is one step closer to reporting people who meet certain mental illness requirements to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. NICS is the system gun retailers use to determine if a person is eligible to buy a gun.
South Dakota currently reports convicted felons to NICS. House Bill 1229 adds people who are adjudicated and committed to a hospital for mental illness, plus those who have been acquitted from trials because of mental illness. The measure also includes a reinstatement process where a person deemed mentally ill and reported to NICS can petition to be removed. Senator Craig Tieszen says reporting mentally ill people to the database doesn’t solve gun violence, but it’s a small step.
“We don’t want them to have easy access to firearms, do we? It’s not in their best interest. This is danger to themselves or others. I read an email from mental health advocates suggesting that, ‘If you have a 29-year-old daughter…’ well I do. And if my 29-year-old daughter is mentally ill and a danger to herself or others, my goodness I’m gonna take all my guns and lock them up tight, and I’m going to hope she can’t go down to the gun store and purchase a gun unabated,” Tieszen says.
Tieszen says the reinstatement process allows people who have recovered from mental illness to regain their gun rights. No opponents testified against the bill, but two committee members voted against it. They are concerned about taking away 2nd Amendment rights and ostracizing the mentally ill. It now heads to the full Senate.