PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A narrowly divided South Dakota House committee has rejected a bill that sought to keep guns out of the hands of people found to be mentally ill and a danger to others.
The Health and Human Services Committee voted 7-5 to defeat the measure.
The bill sought to prevent people from buying or possessing guns if they had been involuntarily committed for mental illness treatment and found to be a danger to others.
The measure's main sponsor, House Democratic Leader Bernie Hunhoff of Yankton, says the names of those people would have been sent to a national database that is checked when someone seeks to buy a gun. He says many other states already send that information to the national database.
Opponents say the measure would not make society safer.
