N.H. gun buying laws tightened on the mentally ill

New Hampshire in April began turning over the names of dangerously mentally ill residents to the FBI's gun buyer background checks program, reversing a longstanding policy not to do so.

The change began April 6 and allows the state to send the names to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

The change was disclosed on Friday in a letter from state Attorney General Joseph Foster to Linda Dalianis, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

Individual prohibited from buying firearms are typically felons, fugitives, certain aliens and in certain cases domestic abuse, but a Medicaid expansion bill signed by the governor would add those "adjudicated as a mental defective or [ ] committed to a mental institution."

Foster further noted, "Any individual seeking to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed dealer must certify in writing, under pains and penalties of perjury, that he or she is not prohibited from purchasing the firearm under any of these categories. Before the gun sale is completed, the firearms dealer is required to contact NICS to confirm that the potential purchaser is, in fact, not prohibited from making the purchase.

This language authorizes the reporting to NICS the names of a very limited group of individuals: those who have been found not guilty of a criminal offense by reason of insanity and those whom the probate court has found pose "a potentially serious likelihood of danger to [themselves] or others," requiring commitment on an involuntary basis.