NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said this morning that the right reforms to America’s mental-health system would involve more involuntary committing of patients who raise “red flags,” including the Navy Yard shooter, who had told his employers and family about his mental-health issues.
NBC’s David Gregory asked him how a group “keenly concerned with core rights” and “the rights of individuals” such as the NRA balances those concerns against desire to strengthen mental-health treatment. LaPierre was blunt, saying people demonstrating symptoms like this week’s shooter “need to be committed, and if they’re committed, they’re not at the Navy Yard.”
Gregory asked if the NRA would support restrictions on gun rights of citizens with mental-health problems who aren’t committed, and LaPierre argued that the existing background-check system merely needs to be fixed — “even those who’ve been adjudicated dangerous” and those with criminal records don’t always show up in federal background checks, LaPierre noted.
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