New York law strips 34,500 law-abiding citizens of their lawful right to bear arms with ZERO due process

A New York law may be infringing on the rights of many Americans and undermining mental health efforts in that state. The law, known as the Safe Act, requires, as part of its implementation, for mental health professionals to report the names of any people who could be dangerous to others. If so declared, those people are stripped of their right to bear arms. There are serious problems with the law in practice.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A fast-growing database of New Yorkers that contains 34,500 names serves as a blacklist for anyone wanting to buy or possess a firearm in New York. Under a provision of the Safe Act, a law passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings in Connecticut, people deemed a risk to themselves or others will have their firearms taken away.

The law sounds fair in theory. The safety of our communities can be dramatically improved by keeping firearms out of the hands of citizens who pose a threat to themselves or others. However, in reality there are a number of problems with the law.

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First, the Constitution does not make any exceptions for people who are mentally ill. All citizens have the right to bear arms. However, interpretations of the Second Amendment already permit firearm bans and confiscation for a variety of other reasons. For example, convicted felons are often barred from owning firearms, a provision which most people agree is reasonable.

However, the Safe Act requires mandatory reporting on behalf of front-line mental health workers, and in a culture where people are terrified of liability, this can encourage referrals out of an abundance of caution. This means citizens are too easily referred. 

Although the law proscribes oversight from officials, many have confessed to the New York Times that when faced with several cases per day, sometimes hundreds within short spans of time, they simply rubber stamp the names coming to them. This strips Constitutional protection away from citizens by omitting due process.

While many citizens who make the list make specific threats or take powerful medications to regulate their behavior, some can be added to the list merely for being depressed or who admit to having the wrong kinds of thoughts at the wrong time.

As a result, a person who is no genuine danger to themselves or others can be fairly arbitrarily added to the list. At which point a mental health professional working in the field makes a suggestion, it is as good as law.

Citizens who are added to the list can challenge the addition in court, but this isn't an easy thing to do. Most citizens will not challenge their addition to the database because they simply do not feel the hassle is worth the effort. It many cases, they may not even be told they are being added to the list.

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The law has another consequence, as significant as the civil rights infringement. That is, people may refuse mental health treatment because they fear being added to the database. This means people who need help might not seek it, or even refuse it. This increases danger.

Finally, Obamacare, which is moving the nation towards a national system for care with records now databased and sharable, could result in the expansion of such a program across all 50 states.

All it will take is for you to complain about insomnia, to say the wrong thing in a counseling session, or to be prescribed a psychoactive medication and you're on the list. You have gone from law abiding citizen with a personal issue to a potential felon without any oversight from the judicial system or an opportunity to defend yourself.

Reasonable citizens will agree that some people should not be trusted with firearms. While the ownership of a firearm is a Constitutionally-ensured natural right which belongs to all citizens, there must be some reasonable limits on liberties. However, well-intentioned laws like the Safe Act often do as much harm as good.

The Safe Act should be amended to identify genuinely dangerous people and to provide a working system of due process before stripping someone of a Constitutional right. Unfortunately, our government tends to treat the Constitution as a suggestion and as a result, you could already be a potential felon and not even know it.

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