President Trump tweeted Thursday that Americans need to be more vigilant about people with mental illness to prevent school shootings — but a year ago this month he revoked an Obama-era rule that would have blocked some mentally ill people from buying guns.
“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!” the president wrote.
But Trump, at the urging of the National Rifle Association, quashed a policy that would have forced Social Security officials to report records of some mentally ill people getting benefits to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NPR reported at the time.
People who had been deemed mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs — about 75,000 people — would have been covered by the policy.
The president, Republican lawmakers and the NRA argued that the rule violated people’s Second Amendment rights without due process.
GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said at the time that “if a specific individual is likely to be violent due to the nature of their mental illness, then the government should have to prove it,” the network reported.
The rule was a response to the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20-year-old maniac Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 students and six teachers.
The Associated Press reported at the time that it was “crafted as part of Obama’s efforts to strengthen the federal background check system” in the wake of that tragedy.
Nikolas Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, opened fire Wednesday afternoon with an AR-15 rifle that he purchased legally about a year ago, authorities said.
The 19-year-old was charged Thursday morning with 17 counts of premeditated murder, and was set to appear in a Broward County court later Thursday.