Chairman Mike Thompson, Mental Health, Public Health Experts Unveil Report Providing Recommendations for Firearms Access by People with Elevated Violence Risk

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5), Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, joined mental health and public health experts today to unveil a comprehensive report detailing evidence-based federal policy recommendations on gun violence prevention and mental health.

The report, Guns, Public Health and Mental Illness: An Evidence-Based Approach for Federal Policy, comes from the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy, a coalition of the nation's leading researchers, practitioners and advocates in gun violence prevention and mental and public health. A full copy of the report is available here.

"Improving our mental health system is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to reducing and preventing gun violence," said Thompson. "This report provides evidence based recommendations for federal policy from mental and public health experts. We need to listen to the experts and act on their recommendations."

Recommendations for federal policy offered by the Consortium include making an addition to existing federal mental health firearm disqualification criteria; updating the current process and standards for restoration of an individual's ability to purchase and possess firearms, following a federal disqualification due to mental illness; as well as enacting new prohibitions on an individual's ability to purchase buy and possess a firearm based on the presence of evidence-based risk factors for violence such as a prior conviction for a violent misdemeanor.

"Every year tens of thousands of families mourn the loss of loved ones who have died by their own hand or by the hand of angry or disturbed partners or relatives, not to mention the victims of predatory violence by armed criminals," said Richard Bonnie, director of the University of Virginia Law School's Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy and the Harrison Foundation professor of medicine and law. "The relation between mental illness, violence and firearms is a complex problem without a single solution. The most prudent response is likely to be a series of small but firm steps on many different fronts. That is the approach we are offering today."

"Far too many people with backgrounds indicating that they are at high risk for committing violence are able to purchase and own firearms under current federal law," said Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and a member of the Consortium that issued the report. "Research has shown that policies which expand firearm prohibitions for high-risk individuals are associated with significant reductions in violence and fewer lives cut short from gun violence."

"We agree with Vice President Biden that increased public funding is important for improved mental health care, but we also need to make sure that those with an elevated risk of violence don't have access to firearms," said Josh Horwitz, Consortium member and executive director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. "The approach that this esteemed group of mental and public health experts offers takes the next step toward stopping gun violence in this country."


Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California's 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Rep. Thompson is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and chairs the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.

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