News
Dec 01 2007
Editorial: In dangerous hands
Federal law has banned the sale of guns to people who are judged to be mentally defective for 40 years, but the FBI database that gun dealers consult when selling a firearm is woefully incomplete.
That's frightening, and last spring's shooting spree on the Virginia Tech campus underscored the weaknesses in the background check system.
Seung Hui Cho had been found dangerously mentally ill by a Virginia state court. But since he was not hospitalized but only ordered to go to outpatient treatment, that state didn't report his name to the FBI. His name wasn't on the list that two gun dealers checked before selling him the firearms he used to kill 32 people and himself.
Since then, Virginia has tightened its rules and now blocks gun sales to those involuntarily committed for outpatient as well as inpatient treatment.
But that tragedy is prompting a national enforcement push. States report mental health information on a voluntary basis -- a 1995 Supreme Court ruling said that the federal government can't compel states to provide the information. But this year the number of states that chose to do so went from 23 to 32.
As a result, the number of people on the FBI's list has gone from 175,000 to 400,000. The state of California alone provided more than 200,000 names in October, and Ohio provided 7,000.
Even with that expansion, though, the list is incomplete. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says that the list is missing four of every five Americans who has been deemed a danger to themselves or others.
That's worrisome, and a law that seeks to encourage states to submit timely background check data to the FBI through financial rewards and the threat of penalties is a reasonable response. The measure, which the National Rifle Association supported, easily passed the House.
But Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, has put a hold on the measure. He opposes it because he thinks it will be expensive to implement and because it doesn't include a mechanism for challenging inclusion on the list.
Keeping guns out of the hands of unstable people shouldn't be controversial, though. It's essential for public safety. Congress should pass this legislation, and states should cooperate with efforts to make the FBI's database as complete as possible.
That's frightening, and last spring's shooting spree on the Virginia Tech campus underscored the weaknesses in the background check system.
Seung Hui Cho had been found dangerously mentally ill by a Virginia state court. But since he was not hospitalized but only ordered to go to outpatient treatment, that state didn't report his name to the FBI. His name wasn't on the list that two gun dealers checked before selling him the firearms he used to kill 32 people and himself.
Since then, Virginia has tightened its rules and now blocks gun sales to those involuntarily committed for outpatient as well as inpatient treatment.
But that tragedy is prompting a national enforcement push. States report mental health information on a voluntary basis -- a 1995 Supreme Court ruling said that the federal government can't compel states to provide the information. But this year the number of states that chose to do so went from 23 to 32.
As a result, the number of people on the FBI's list has gone from 175,000 to 400,000. The state of California alone provided more than 200,000 names in October, and Ohio provided 7,000.
Even with that expansion, though, the list is incomplete. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says that the list is missing four of every five Americans who has been deemed a danger to themselves or others.
That's worrisome, and a law that seeks to encourage states to submit timely background check data to the FBI through financial rewards and the threat of penalties is a reasonable response. The measure, which the National Rifle Association supported, easily passed the House.
But Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, has put a hold on the measure. He opposes it because he thinks it will be expensive to implement and because it doesn't include a mechanism for challenging inclusion on the list.
Keeping guns out of the hands of unstable people shouldn't be controversial, though. It's essential for public safety. Congress should pass this legislation, and states should cooperate with efforts to make the FBI's database as complete as possible.
