New Firearms Regulations

The O’Malley regime has acted to impose yet another hoop for prospective gun owners to jump through. In addition to the current requirements of a seven-day waiting period, a training requirement for buyers and the near impossibility of an average citizen qualifying for a permit to carry a firearm now the buyer must waive their right to privacy and allow any record of inpatient mental treatment to be made available to the state police.

Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration has quietly issued a new gun purchase regulation that requires prospective buyers to sign a waiver releasing their mental health records to the Maryland State Police.

The rule, which came in response to the killings at Virginia Tech and took effect Aug. 1, is intended to help police determine whether someone should be prevented for mental health reasons from buying a gun. It would apply to people who have been ordered into treatment by a court or who have checked into a state psychiatric hospital for at least 30 days.

I’m not against keeping crazies unarmed. Far from it. I am simply unconvinced that much is intended here other than trying to discourage persons who would purchase fire arms from doing so. One rather suspects the real agenda here is to hold purchasing of weapons hostage to the responsiveness of yet another database.

Trending: Thank You

Privacy advocates should be appalled at the notion of having to waive your right to privacy in your medical care in order to exercise a right guaranteed under the Constitution. They should also be appalled at the idea of persons with no need to know having access to a database containing very sensitive medical information.

But don’t expect cries of outrage.