Christie: Let’s make involuntary commitment of the mentally ill easier

“We need to make it easier for folks to be involuntarily committed who are showing signs of mental illness,” Christie said. “Doctors are being hamstrung.”

The governor insisted that additional restrictions on gun ownership would not stem the tide of gun violence, but that a more aggressive government focus on mental health could save lives. Christie alleged that the government knows what’s best for mentally disturbed individuals, and said, “We need to protect these human beings from themselves.”

Christie’s vision of a hands on governmental approach to mental health is not new. In 2014, he vetoed a bill that would have required notifying law enforcement officers when people who had been committed to a psychiatric facility sought to expunge their record from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System so that they could purchase a firearm, as the Star Ledger reported. Christie’s veto argued that the reform did not go far enough.

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“I cannot endorse a continued path of patchwork proposals and fragmented statutes that add further confusion to an already cumbersome area of law,” Christie wrote. “Instead, we must seek real reform. It is our responsibility to enact a comprehensive set of solutions that build safer communities and ensure that individuals with mental illness get the treatment they need.”

Christie, who ranks fifth in the Washington Examiner‘s post-debate GOP presidential power rankings, has argued that less government is better while on the campaign trail. But the governor has flirted with bigger government at home, including expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. The governor appears to have made the bet that the American people will favor a more paternalistic Uncle Sam on mental health issues.