A federal court ruling upholding gun rights for people who had a past mental illness is being closely watched as a potential Supreme Court test case.

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in Tyler v. Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Department that a “strict scrutiny” test should be applied to a gun ownership case, potentially invalidating a federal law that restricts gun ownership by someone “adjudicated as a mental defective or who has been committed to a mental institution”

According to court documents, Clifford Tyler, now 73, was committed to a Michigan mental institution for about a month in 1985 after suffering issues after a divorce. After he was released and returned to work, Tyler had no other instances of being committed.

Tyler applied a gun permit in 2011, but he was denied under a federal law that excludes ownership for people with any past history of mental illness unless they fall into a category of exception.

However, Tyler wasn’t eligible for a federal-state program that gives some people an exception, because Michigan doesn’t take part in it. Tyler also didn’t qualify for a federally based program, because Congress has refused to fund the program since 1992 and it doesn’t pay government workers to review applications for people like Tyler.
http://news.yahoo.com/appeals-court-...111808837.html

This whole "mental defective" or "committed to mental institution" bullshit has been abused far too long to deny folks their gun rights just because they once suffered from mild mental illness such as depression after a divorce and were unfortunate enough to be court-ordered to go through an impatient treatment program. Way too many veterans diagnosed with PTSD being targeted as well.

I'm hoping this new Republican congress finally addresses this issue in a meaningful way. Namely restoring funding for review applications -- not just for "mentally defective" adjudicated folks, but for federal felons who have turned their lives around as well.