South Dakota's House Minority Leader says a bill addressing mental illness and possession of firearms will be introduced next legislative session, despite the current bill failing in committee.
House Bill 1188 failed to pass the House Health and Human Services Committee Thursday. The bill seeks 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 bill was dropped by a narrow 7-5 vote.
Hunhoff said opponents were mainly hung up on the idea of violating gun rights.
"It's going to take some time for the legislators and the public to get their heads around this idea," Hunhoff said. "It's not something we've talked about before, but in the wake of Newtown, Aurora and Tucson people are realizing we have some responsibility to curb gun violence."
The House minority leader said 30-some states already have laws like HB1188. Hunhoff said if South Dakota doesn't pass the bill now then the federal government will come down and tell the states to do it, which could have broader impacts and infringe on more gun rights.
Hunhoff said he and other sponsors of the bill need to find a comfort level so the legislature doesn't feel it's overstepping its bounds.
"I thought we wrote the bill as narrowly as we possibly could, but we need to go back and see if we can further address some of the concerns," Hunhoff said.
