Shooting Rampage at Northern Illinois U.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Lady Brave

The reporting of mental health commitments to NICS is not mandatory and most states do not do an automatic check for commitments when running backgrounds. Truth be told, most states rely on the applicant to voluntarily disclose their mental health history when he/she submits a firearms purchase application. Unfortunately, right now, we rely on the honor system to find out if someone has prior mental health issues. On top of that, some states refuse to disclose mental health information all together.

I don't know what VA's gun law is with regards to mental health commitments. I do know that the VT shooter was not prohibited to purchase firearms under federal law. You cannot be denied firearms under federal law if you are committed to an institution or hospital and only held for observation. I can't remember who actually had him initially committed, but the hospital chose not to formally commit him and only held him for observation. He did not qualify as a prohibited person because the hospital ultimately did not find him to be a mental defective or incompetent while he received treatment.

VA is one of the leading states that cooperates with NICS in reporting mental health commitments. According to the NICS rep I spoke with about the VT shooter, VA did everything to the letter with regards to his background check. The shooter simply slid through a very small crack in the statute. Until the Feds fix that crack and make all mental health commitments a prohibitive category, regardless of the diagnosis or treatment a person receives, crazy people will continue to be approved for firearms purchases.

Everything I read about the VT shooting and I live in the area so there was a ton of stuff to read. Is that by Va. standards what he was committed for should have made it illegal in Va. for him to buy a fire arm and should have been report as such. He did not fall through some crack in the system it was a failure on someones part to report this to the proper people.

[Lady Brave]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Everything I read about the VT shooting and I live in the area so there was a ton of stuff to read. Is that by Va. standards what he was committed for should have made it illegal in Va. for him to buy a fire arm and should have been report as such. He did not fall through some crack in the system it was a failure on someones part to report this to the proper people.

The key word is "committed" and he wasn't formally committed by the hospital. I'll have to disagree with you that the proper procedures weren't followed. I talked with the NICS rep who was involved in investigating that case. They looked to see if both the federal and state laws were complied with regarding his prior commitment and their findings were that he did not qualify as a prohibited person under the statutes because he was held for observation only. I saw more articles after that incident that reported poorly researched information than I can count. Don't believe everything you read.

There's a bigger picture here that people need to look at. There are countless people out there who suffer from serious mental conditions that should prohibit them from obtaining firearms. However, these people don't exhibit outward behaviors that warrant them being committed. So they don't fall into the prohibited category. Most people do seek treatment on their own, but we have no way of knowing that unless they choose to disclose it. Furthermore, by law, I'm not allowed to ask people if they have been treated for a mental condition. I can only ask if they've been committed. That part of the law is pretty eff'd up if you ask me. In my perfect world, anyone attempting to purchase a firearm should have to provide a letter from their physician as to their mental competency before they're allowed to buy one.