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Counter to Bloomberg media blitz against Sen. Jeff Flake
At Factcheck.org. The Bloomberg claim is that Flake said he supported background checks, then voted against expanding them. Flake's response is that he supported "strengthening" background checks, i.e., including more data, not that he supported broadening them.
A strange thing: Flake supported a rival bill, which Bloomberg's gang criticizes because it would not have included as a bar mental commitments made by doctors rather than judges. I can't think of any State where a real commitment is made by doctors acting alone, and doubt that would be constitutional. Doctors can make a temporary commitment for observation, but that's never been a bar to firearms possession if things ended there.
In Pennsylvania, a mental health professional can order a 302 commitment - temporarily holding someone for 72 hours. BATFE treats that temporary commitment as an adjudication of mental defectiveness and therefore as a prohibition on firearms possession.
Until 2008, BATFE didn't treat 302 commitments that way, but now they do. Josh Prince covers this on his blog:
http://blog.princelaw.com/2013/02/02/pennsylvania-state-police-to-share-mental-health-records-with-federal-bureau-of-investigation/