This topic is going to cover the mental health background check or, as some people have started to call it, the “HIPPA waiver”.
This topic/issue has really been blown out of proportion mostly by people spreading bad information and/or people not knowing how to read the law.
Does everyone remember I-594 back in 2013? If you don’t, here is a refresher otherwise feel free to skip to the next paragraph. This was the law that took away our ability for private party sales. Remember the good ole days of doing a letter of sale and checking that they had a CPL. This is the law that took that ability away. In that law was also a section for mental health background check. After that law passed police had to start doing mental health background checks for people who purchased pistols and got a CPL or renewed one.
The police fill out a form and send it to DSHS.
DSHS then check their system to make sure of the following:
- There are no court orders by the judge to have your gun rights removed due to mental defect.
- You have not been admitted to a mental health institution (Eastern/Western State).
- There are no court order to be admitted to Eastern/Western State.
In a nutshell, if you have purchased a pistol or renewed your CPL after 2013, you have had this check.
I1639 changes the following.
- Expands the check to SAR
- Turns it into a yearly check
2013 law “A signed application to purchase a pistol shall constitute a waiver of confidentiality and written request that the health care authority, mental health institutions, and other health care facilities release, to an inquiring court or law enforcement agency, information relevant to the applicant’s eligibility to purchase a pistol to an inquiring court or law enforcement agency.”
2019 law “A signed application to purchase a pistol or semiautomatic assault rifle shall constitute a waiver of confidentiality and written request that the health care authority, mental health institutions, and other health care facilities release, to an inquiring court or law enforcement agency, information relevant to the applicant’s eligibility to purchase a pistol or semiautomatic assault rifle to an inquiring court or law enforcement agency.”
RCW 9.41.094
Therefore, the ONLY THING they added was SAR to the section.
Yes, there is a section that allows police and courts to pull this information, but they would need a warrant to do that – meaning they would need probable cause that you committed a crime.
PLEASE help us in dispelling this myth as it has really been blown out of proportion.