Attorney General Joseph Foster says New Hampshire will start reporting certain individuals suffering from mental illness to the national gun background check system.
Federal law prohibits the possession of firearms by people who have been "adjudicated as a mental defective" or committed to a hospital. But New Hampshire is one of a few states that doesn't report these records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Foster says a line in the bill reauthorizing Medicaid expansion gives the state authority to report people who have been involuntarily committed, found not guilty in a court by reason of insanity or committed after being found incompetent to stand trial.
But Republican Rep. JR Hoell, author of the amendment to include this language, says sending names to NICS was not his intent.
You can read the attorney general's memo explaining the new provision here.
