Branstad signs gun/mental health bill into law (The Des Moines Register)

Iowa will report to the federal government the names of people who suffer from certain mental disorders under a bill signed into law today by Gov. Terry Branstad. Those people will then be flagged by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System if they try to obtain guns and prevented from doing so. Senate File 456, likewise, will give Iowans who have resolved issues — such as soldiers who have addressed problems with post-traumatic stress disorders — the ability to petition the government and ultimately become re-eligible to legally purchase a gun. The bill corrects what some said were flaws in the “shall issue” gun bill lawmakers approved last year that limited the reasons that any of Iowa’s 99 county sheriffs could use to deny issuing a gun permit to citizens.