On February 2, 2017, the House of Representatives passed a Congressional Review Act disapproval resolution ( H.J.Res. 40 ) to overturn a final rule promulgated by the Social Security Administration (SSA) regarding implementation of firearms restrictions for certain persons. The House joint resolution passed by recorded vote: 235-180 (Roll no. 77). On February 15, 2017, the Senate passed this resolution by a recorded vote: 57-43 (Roll no. 66). On February 28, 2017, President Donald Trump signed this resolution into law ( P.L. 115-8 ) effectively vacating the SSA final rule. The resolution also bars the SSA from promulgating any rule in the future that would be "substantially the same" as the disapproved rule unless the administration receives a new statutory authorization to do so. The SSA final rule was intended to implement provisions of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA), which strengthened existing provisions of federal law that set out reporting requirements for any federal agency holding records on persons prohibited from possessing firearms. NIAA mandates that agencies must share those records with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for inclusion in a computer index accessible to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). As described below, some of these prohibiting records are based upon findings of "mental incompetency" made during certain federal benefit claims processes administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) since 1998 and similar findings that would have been made by the SSA beginning in December 2017 under the vacated final rule. Such mental incompetency determinations hinge on a regulatory definition promulgated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 1998 that defines persons who are found to lack the mental capacity to handle their own affairs as "adjudicated as a mental defective" for the purposes of gun control. As a result, such persons are prohibited from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing firearms or ammunition. In the past, Congress has considered legislation that would redefine "mental incompetency" for the purposes of gun control, such that firearms ineligibility based on a person's mental incompetency would only be based on an involuntary commitment to a mental institution or finding by a magistrate or judicial authority ruling that the beneficiary is a danger to themselves or others. Since the release of this report, the House has passed a bill ( H.R. 1181 ) that would clarify the conditions under which veterans and survivors who are beneficiaries of programs administered by the VA may be treated as "adjudicated as a mental defective." As amended by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, 1993 (Brady Act), the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) requires background checks to be completed for all unlicensed persons seeking to obtain firearms from federally licensed gun dealers (otherwise referred to as federal firearms licensees, or FFLs). Pursuant to the Brady Act, the FBI activated NICS on November 30, 1998. This national computer network allows FFLs to initiate a background check through either the FBI or a state point of contact (POC), before transferring a firearm to an unlicensed, private person. Under the GCA, there are nine classes of persons prohibited from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing firearms or ammunition: persons convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year; fugitives from justice; unlawful users or addicts of any controlled substance as defined in Section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. §802); persons adjudicated as "mental defective" or committed to mental institutions; unauthorized immigrants and nonimmigrant visitors (with exceptions in the latter case); persons dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces; persons who have renounced their U.S. citizenship; persons under court-order restraints related to harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such intimate partner; and persons convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. In addition, there is a 10 th class of persons prohibited from shipping, transporting, or receiving (but not possessing) firearms or ammunition: persons under indictment in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year. It is also unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of a firearm or ammunition to any of the prohibited persons enumerated above, if the transferor (seller) has reasonable cause to believe that the transferee (buyer) is prohibited from receiving those items. To implement the Brady Act, inter-agency discussions were held in 1996/1997 about who should be considered "adjudicated as a mental defective" for the purposes of gun control. These discussions were largely led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency principally responsible for administering and enforcing federal gun control laws. On June 27, 1997, the ATF promulgated a final rule defining the following terms: "Adjudicated as a mental defective" includes a determination by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence or a mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease, (1) is a danger to himself or others, or (2) lacks the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs. The term also includes (1) a finding of insanity by a court in a criminal case and (2) those persons found incompetent to stand trial or found not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsibility pursuant to articles 50a and 72b of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. Sections 850a, 876(b). "Committed to a mental institution" means a formal commitment of a person to a mental institution by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority. The term includes commitments: (1) to a mental institution involuntarily; (2) for mental defectiveness or mental illness; or (3) for other reasons, such as drug use. The term does not include a person who is admitted to a mental institution for observation or who is voluntarily admitted. "Mental institution" includes mental health facilities, mental hospitals, sanitariums, psychiatric facilities, and other facilities that provide diagnoses by licensed professionals of mental retardation or mental illness, including psychiatric wards in general hospitals. In its final rule, ATF noted that the VA had commented on the proposed rulemaking and had "correctly interpreted" the proposed definition of "adjudicated as a mental defective" to include persons who have been determined to be "mentally incompetent" by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). Under current VA procedures, an individual is considered "mentally incompetent" if he or she lacks the mental capacity to contract or manage his or her own affairs for reasons related to injury or disease (under 38 C.F.R. §3.353). In a proposed rulemaking, the ATF opined that the inclusion of "mentally incompetent" in the definition of "mental defective" was wholly consistent with the legislative history of the 1968 Gun Control Act. In the wake of the December 2012, Newtown, CT, mass shooting, the ATF issued proposed regulations to clarify further individuals who might fall under this definition. This proposed regulation has not been made final. It is significant to note that the NICS index is not intended to be a registry of all individuals diagnosed with a mental illness. The vacated SSA rule calls into question, who ought to be prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms and ammunition, among those persons deemed mentally incompetent for the purposes of federal benefit claims processing? Moreover, the subsequent legislative history shows that some Members of Congress have long taken issue with the ATF interpretation of the term "adjudicated as a mental defective." In April 2007, a lone assailant armed with two pistols shot to death 32 individuals and nonfatally wounded another 17, before shooting himself to death at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. Due to his disturbing on-campus behavior, the assailant had previously been evaluated by health care professionals and ordered by a judge to undergo "outpatient" mental health treatment, because he was deemed to be a threat to himself or others. At that time, however, Virginia state law only referred the subjects of "inpatient" court orders for such treatment to the FBI for inclusion in the NICS index. Following this massacre, the Virginia governor, now-Senator Timothy Kaine, reviewed the state statute and determined that henceforward subjects of either court-ordered inpatient or outpatient mental health care under such circumstances would be referred to the FBI for inclusion in the NICS index. In response to the Virginia Tech mass shooting, Congress passed the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA). This act includes provisions designed to encourage states to make available to the Attorney General certain records related to persons who are disqualified from acquiring firearms, particularly disqualifying records related to mental health adjudications, as well as domestic violence misdemeanor convictions and restraining orders. To accomplish this, the act establishes a framework of incentives and disincentives whereby the Attorney General is authorized to either waive a grant match requirement or reduce a law enforcement assistance grant depending upon a state's compliance with the act's goals of bringing such firearms-related disqualifying records online. During congressional debate, however, some Members expressed opposition to the NIAA based on the assertion that, under these amendments, any veteran who was or had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and was found to be a "danger to himself or others would have his gun rights taken away ... forever." Members of Congress included a provision in NIAA that required agencies to inform a claimant beforehand that they could lose their gun rights and privileges if they are found to be mentally incompetent as a condition of a benefit program's administration and eligibility.