Republicans vote to scrap Obama-era gun regulation preventing mentally ill from buying firearms

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The US Senate has voted to scrap regulations proposed during Barack Obama’s administration to prevent the sale of guns to people with mental disorders.

The Republican-led Senate now only requires Donald Trump’s agreement to stop the legislation going through and the President is expected to sign the measure.

The planned legislation came as part of Mr Obama’s efforts to improve and strengthen background checks on the availability of firearms in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre in which 26 children and staff were murdered.

In the shooting, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who suffered from several mental impairments including Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder, shot his mother dead at home, and then went to the school where he fatally shot 20 students between six and seven years old, as well as six teachers. He then turned the gun on himself.

The massacre was the deadliest school shooting in US history, leaving 28 dead in total, and prompted President Obama to call for more stringent background checks and a ban on certain kinds of semi-automatic assault weapons.

At the time, the US’s National Rifle Association (NRA) said “gun-free zones” attracted school shootings.

But now, the senate, with NRA backing and support from some disabled advocacy groups, has made Mr Obama’s proposed restriction regulations invalid.

The Senate voted 57-43 in favour of revoking the measure and passing the resolution to Mr Trump to sign-off.

Senator Charles Grassley, who pushed for the repeal, said the regulations are filled with “vague characteristics that do not fit into the federal mentally defective standard” for prohibiting someone from buying or owning a gun.

In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the rule advanced a harmful stereotype that people with mental disabilities, “a vast and diverse group of citizens, are violent.”

Senator Chris Murphy, a vocal opponent of the repeal said he didn't know how he could explain to his constituents that Congress was making it easier rather than harder for people with serious mental illness to have a gun, according to reports from the Associated Press.