Feds more concerned with right to privacy than state bureaucrats?

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Published on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00

Written by Jeff Garvas

During the decade-long fight to restore Ohioans' self-defense rights, the gun ban lobby tried everything to derail the effort. At nearly every turn, the Ohio Senate and Gov. Taft seemed all too willing to let the opposition write our new law.

One of the issues the extremists fought for was a background check that included scans for persons who were "mentally ill". As with all their roadblocks, they resorted to falsehoods and twisted facts to try and make their case.

On May 14, 2003, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence director Toby Hoover testified in a Senate committee hearing on HB12 that under the House version of the bill, a sheriff cannot deny a person a carry license who otherwise qualifies for a license, if he personally knows he is mentally ill.

The TRUTH was then, and is today, that sheriffs can refuse to issue a permit for someone he knows to be a mentally ill. In this scenario, the person would then be able to go to court to dispute the denial, and the sheriff can present his evidence.

They were still making these sorts of claims in the hours before final passage of HB12. In a Jan. 5 letter to the Columbus Dispatch, Hoover stated that "permits should not be issued until databases for mentally ill and criminal records are at least 95 percent complete in Ohio."

All too willing to accomodate the opponents, the Legislature included a provision for such a database, which we now know conflicts with Federal laws governing a persons' right to privacy concerning medical records.

Coupling this revelation with the public records compromise which gives the media access to lists of licenseholders, it is clear that Governor Taft, and some in the Ohio Senate, are less concerned with Ohioans' right to privacy than even the Federal government.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for the full story.

Federal law may stymie gun checks
Mental health status data ruled private

Dayton Daily News
January 28, 2004

COLUMBUS -- A new federal privacy law may stand in the way of thorough background checks on people applying for concealed-weapons permits in Ohio.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office is researching how to comply with federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, but also check to make sure gun permit applicants have not been committed to mental hospitals.

The federal law requires that medical records be available only as they're needed for health care, payment and quality control.

Ohio's new gun permit law, which takes effect April 8, disqualifies applicants who have felony convictions, have protective orders against them or who have been committed — involuntarily or voluntarily — to a mental institution.

Checking mental records would require hospitals to share information that is confidential under HIPAA.

There also is no central repository of protective orders issued by Ohio courts, posing another difficulty in doing background checks. Attorney General Jim Petro aims to create a database of protective orders for law enforcement officials to use.

"There's a lot of challenges and loopholes here that we need to close by April 8," said James V. Canepa, chief deputy Attorney General.

The Attorney General's Office is preparing a permit application form that will be used by Ohio's 88 county sheriffs, and working out reciprocity agreements with 45 other states to honor their concealed-weapons permits.

Even if applicants voluntarily waived their HIPAA rights, mental hospitals still may not be permitted to release the information, Canepa said.

Sheriff's offices may have to rely on checking court records to see if applicants were involuntarily committed to mental hospitals, he said.

The Attorney General's Office wants to have a database of mental competency cases so they are easily checked, Canepa said.

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