• By D'Angelo Gore, FactCheck.org*
• Posted on October 6, 2017

A: Yes. The Social Security Administration is no longer required to submit the names of certain mentally disabled beneficiaries to a federal agency that conducts gun background checks.

FULL QUESTION: Is it true that President Obama passed a bill that prohibited mentally ill people from purchasing a gun and that President Trump rescinded this bill?

FULL ANSWER:  The deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas has again brought attention to legislation signed by President Donald Trump that eliminated a Social Security Administration reporting requirement regarding beneficiaries deemed to have a mental impairment.

FactCheck.org readers have asked about the measure, and comedian Jimmy Kimmel referenced it during the opening monologue of his nightly talk show on Oct. 2.

"President Trump spoke this morning, he said he was praying for those who lost their lives," an emotional Kimmel said. "You know, in February, he also signed a bill that made it easier for people with severe mental illness to buy guns legally."

The late-night host was referring to H.J.Res. 40, which became law on Feb. 28.

That joint resolution didn't affect "all people with severe mental illness", as Kimmel's comment may have suggested. It rescinded a Social Security Administration rule requiring the agency to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System disability applicants unable to manage their finances due to a mental health condition.

The rule applied to "a narrow group of people who have been determined by the Social Security Administration to lack the capacity, on the basis of a mental disorder, to manage their affairs, specifically their benefit payments," wrote Lindsay Nichols, federal policy director for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, in testimony to Congress in February 2017.

First, let's look at how the background check system ? which was launched in November 1998 ? works.

Under federal law, individuals "committed to any mental institution" or "adjudicated as a mental defective" by a court, board, commission or other lawful authority are prohibited from purchasing or possessing a gun.

Adjudicated as a mental defective means people who ?  "as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease"  ? lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, or are a danger to themselves or someone else. It also includes people found insane by a court in a criminal case, or found incompetent to stand trial, or not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsibility.

States can report those individuals to the NICS database used by federally licensed firearms dealers to screen for prohibited gun buyers. As of Dec. 31, 2016, there were more than 4.6 million active records in the NICS database for people with "adjudicated mental health" issues, according to FBI data.

When a customer applies to buy a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer, the seller initiates the required background check by phone or online. NICS then runs the would-be gun buyer's name and other identifying information against several nationally held databases to determine if the applicant is legally permitted to buy a gun. In addition to mental health records, those databases contain criminal records, court records (such as warrants and protection orders), as well as immigration and naturalization records if the applicant is not a US citizen.

The dealer can complete the sale if there is no match for the applicant in the system. But if there is a match, the gun purchase can be delayed for up to 72 hours while examiners review the case and determine if the person is indeed prohibited from purchasing a weapon.

The SSA's final rule, which was issued in December 2016, was created to comply with the reporting requirements mandated by the NICS Improvement Amendment Act of 2007, which was signed into law in January 2008 by President George W. Bush. The law required federal agencies to report individuals prohibited from acquiring guns to the NICS.

After the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, President Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum advising the Justice Department to make sure that federal agencies were complying with the 2008 law by reporting relevant records to the national background check system.

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