Jonathan Perlow reports:
New York state is collecting confidential information on mental health patients to create a database of people it deems unfit to carry a firearm, according to a federal class action.
Lead plaintiff Donald Montgomery claims the state created a reporting system, as part of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (Safe Act), that forces health professionals to transmit mental health patients’ confidential information to a database shared by various government agencies, including law enforcement. It was part of the state’s response to the rash of mass shootings over the past several years, in particular, that in Newtown, Conn.
Montgomery estimates that medical providers have reported such information on more than 60,000 people.
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