Reporting Requirements and the New York SAFE Act of 2013

Following the Sandy Hook school shooting in December of 2012, the state of New York took the increased public support for gun control measures as an opportunity to amend its existing assault weapons ban, creating the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms (SAFE) Act of 2013. This paper focuses on the SAFE Act provision that creates a reporting requirement for mental health professionals, and compares it to existing reporting requirements for health care professionals in other contexts, including the reporting of communicable diseases, individuals considered medically unfit to drive, cases of suspected child abuse, and of pregnant women who use illegal drugs. The SAFE Act’s misguided attempt at protecting public health and safety through this reporting requirement does not meet the five criteria outlined by Childress et al. (effectiveness, necessity, least infringement, benefits proportional to harms, and justifiable to the public) needed for a public health intervention that conflicts with moral considerations