New rights

As President Obama was leaving office his determination to reduce gun ownership got the best of him and he passed an executive order denying guns to people declared by social security to have a mental illness. This involved some 75,000 people many of whom were suffering from things like eating disorders and others who were having difficulty taking care of their personal finances. Democrats in congress praised this order saying that mentally ill people should not have the right to own a gun. The ACLU stepped in and said this was just one more way to stigmatize mental patients and should be rescinded. These people have a right to guns unless the government evaluates them on an individual basis where they have the option to defend their position before they are automatically banned. Four Democratic senators and an independent who are up for re-election in 2018 sided with their Republican colleagues on Wednesday by voting to revoke a two-month-old Obama administration gun regulation that prevents certain individuals with mental health conditions from buying firearms. The measure now moves to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it into law. This was the same argument used by the ACLU when government tried to ban guns to people on the no-fly list saying it should be done case by case and not a blanket order. These two situations represent the old discussion between individual rights and group rights. Over the years individual rights have been overtaken by group rights and many are concerned about this trend.