Congress has sent President Donald Trump legislation that reverses an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.
This comes after the U.S. Senate voted 57 to 43 to support the resolution.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut was one of the ‘no’ votes. He criticized the Republican majority for supporting the measure.
“The existing law says that individuals who lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs should be included on the list of those prohibited from buying weapons and today we are undermining that existing law, we are undermining the enforcement of current statute,” argued Murphy.
The Obama rule would have prevented an estimated 75,000 people with mental disorders from being able to purchase a firearm. It was crafted in the wake of the 2012 massacre of 20 young students and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The 20-year-old responsible for the massacre had been diagnosed with mental illness.