President Trump signed a measure into law that rescinds an Obama-era rule aimed at blocking gun sales to certain mentally ill people, NPR reports. The Senate passed the bill 57-43 last month, after a similar House vote. The Obama administration policy would have required the Social Security Administration to report the records of some mentally ill beneficiaries to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. About 75,000 people who have been deemed mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs would have been affected.
The reporting was strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association, and Republicans argued it infringed on Second Amendment rights by denying due process.” The rule was written in response to the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., where 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot dead 20 students and six teachers.