Keeping Guns out of the wrong hands

In the presidential debate, President Obama was asked about gun control, and in turn her answered that his goal was to keep them out of criminals hands, and of those who were mental ill.
Wait....What?
There is a law that states.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 restricts “prohibited persons” from purchasing firearms, including individuals addicted to controlled substances, those involuntarily committed to a mental institution or adjudicated as incompetent or dangerous, or those who receive a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The Gun Control Act incentivizes states to further regulate by making it a federal offense to sell firearms to individuals whose possession would violate state law. Given the ineffectiveness of current restrictions on access to firearms for “dangerous” individuals with mental illness, the government must improve safeguards against firearms-related violence.

I agree, that we should, but what is considered mentally ill? 25% of our country has a mental disorder diagnosed or not. Does that mean all of them are restricted from firearms?
And how will you know? Those mentally ill look the same as those who are not mentally ill, you won't be able to tell the difference especially when they haven't been diagnosed and there are no records that they are. 

And those that are criminals who to say that they are not mentally ill? Are we  considering mentally ill a felony? 

The contribution to public safety of these laws is likely to be small because only 3% – 5% of violent acts are attributable to serious mental illness, and most do not involve guns.(Emphasis added.)

The categories of persons with mental illnesses targeted by the laws may not be at higher risk of violence than other subgroups in this population.

There is a law that has negatively impacted this by stating: 

“The laws may deter people from seeking treatment for fear of losing the right to possess firearms and may reinforce stereotypes of persons with mental illnesses as dangerous.”

Many people will see this as he is getting all the crazies with guns off the street when the people with guns on the street, are not mentally ill. 

Focusing on those mentally ill will not solve violent crimes problems and even then you have the people who have not been named criminals who have guns and than go and do something violent. 


There is no real way out and with broad generalization with no research is not the right way to go either. 


http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/10/17/keeping-guns-out-of-the-hands-of-the-mentally-ill/