Amendment? How about that. Did you or I have any say so in this so-called amendment process? Nope. Will the states ratify it? Nope. Completely outside the Constitution. In addition, Erick Erickson at RedState brings up some interesting points about the details...theRightScoop: Toomey and Manchin came out earlier today to discuss their compromise amendment on universal background checks. ... What they basically said in their meeting this morning was that gun sales at gun shows would now have to go through background checks. My problem is I thought they already did. If you sale any guns made past 1898 or so you have to have a FFL and thus you have to perform background checks. But they also claim that private sales (you and your neighbor) are excluded from these checks.
The proposal will allow a doctor to add a patient to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) without ever telling the patient he or she has been added.Precisely right on that last point! And I don't at all trust this administration to determine what mental illness is and who it applies to, particularly with their biased track record.
There would be no due process requirement. Not all doctors will be able to do it with the same ease, but many will. Knowing a doctor could add him to a federal database as mentally ill without his knowledge could potentially dissuade a patient from going to the doctor in the first place to get help.
Worse, if the doctor does so and makes a mistake, the patient would have to actively work through the system to get himself removed — guilty before being proven innocent. In some states, should a doctor flag you as having mental illness without your knowledge, you may very well see the state come collect your previously purchased guns.
Activist mental health providers will probably be overly aggressive in adding people to the list. Give it five years in liberal areas and people who believe in the physical resurrection of Christ will probably get automatic entry onto the list.
Mental health is a serious issue and the Toomey-Manchin legislation could have negative consequences. Worse, it would still not stop a Columbine, a Newtown, or the daily massacres in Chicago.
Fact is, though they pontificate about this deal not infringing on the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens, it will indeed do exactly that with expanded background checks atop the already existing ones, followed by assured restrictions on private sales. As Erickson states, "This proposal will scratch the itch to do something, but will do nothing at all except expand bureaucracy. ... But by God they're going to do something!!" And that attitude of just 'doing something' exemplifies the illogic being exhibited throughout this entire debate, as with most others. I don't think it's a stretch to refer to this as a mental disability persistent throughout Washington these days, do you?
Look for some undermining decision to be passed in the dark of night on Thursday. God be with Ted, tomorrow evening.
H/t: WeaselZippers
ADDENDUM: Warning to Senators of both parties: You will be scored!
TheHill: The National Rifle Association (NRA) said Wednesday it would score senators both on the Manchin-Toomey background check deal reached Wednesday and the final cloture vote on the Senate's gun bill...
