Why the ACLU supported Trump when he scrapped rule limiting guns for mentally ill

In the wakeof the Florida school shooting, U.S. President Donald Trump is facing heatforhaving rescindedan Obama-era rule that would have blockedguns from getting inthe hands of the mentally ill.

Trump referred to mental health issues shortly after the Wednesdayshooting spree at a school in Parkland, Fla.,that left 17 people dead. The presidenttook to Twitter to claimthere were "so many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed."

He raised the issue again in his televised public address, saying that the government was committed to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health."

Yet some have pointed out it was Trump who blocked a regulation implemented by then-president Barack Obamathatmay have made it more difficult for thousands of people with mental disorders from being able to purchase a firearm.

'You did that'

Trump likes to "say this is a mental health issue, but one of your very first acts as president, Mr. Trump, was to actuallyroll back the regulations that were designed to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill," said TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

"You did that."

In February 2017,Trump repealed an Obama-era rule to strengthen the federal gun background check system after the2012 shooting of 20 young students and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School inNewtown, Conn.

There are laws in the United States regarding the sale of weapons to some mentally ill individuals. It isunlawful to sell a firearm to a person who"has been adjudicated as a mental defective" or "has been committed to any mental institution."

Obama's regulationwould also have requiredtheSocial Security Administrationto send the namesof some people unable to manage their disability benefits because of mental impairments to the criminal background check system database.

Those people, estimated to number around 75,000, could have been prevented from owning or purchasing a firearm and may have been forcedto prove why they were competent enough to do so, opponents of the regulationargued.

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Those opposed, not surprisingly, included the gun lobby group the National Rifle Association.But on this particularissue, Trump also had backing from an organization usually highly critical of him: The American Civil Liberties Union.

Inablog postlast year, the ACLU said thatwhile it does not oppose gun control laws, those laws need to be be fair and not based on prejudice and stereotype.

Thousands of Americans whose disability benefits are managed by someone else range from young people with depression and financial inexperience to older adults with Down syndrome needing help with a limited budget, the ACLU wrote.

"But no data none show that these individuals have a propensity for violence in general or gun violence in particular," the ACLU said.

'Disturbing trend'

To add innocent Americans to this criminal database because of a mental disability"is a disturbing trend," it said.

The regulation was also opposed by advocates for people with disabilities and mental health issues.

"There is, simply put, no nexus between the inability to manage money and the ability to safely and responsibly own, possess or use a firearm," wrote the National Council on Disability.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness said the rule "may deter individuals from applying for these benefits for fear that their names will be added to a public database maintained by the FBI."

Meanwhile, the American Association of People with Disabilities argued that the rule sends an "extraordinarily damaging message" that "people with mental impairments could should be feared and shunned."

Still, some gun control advocates were upset with the decision to rescind Obama's regulation.Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told the Associated Press atthe time that scrapping the regulation was "heartless."

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Democratic SenatorChris Murphy told the Associated Presshe didn't know how he could explain to his constituents, including those in Newtown, that Congress was making it easier rather than harder for people with serious mental illness to have a gun.

"If you can't manage your own financial affairs, how can we expect that you're going to be a responsible steward of a dangerous, lethal firearm," Murphy said.