The FBI has more than doubled the number of Americans banned from buying guns due to mental illness since the Virginia Tech massacre, according to new US Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
Yet critics say that weaknesses in states’ reporting systems mean that most people who are too dangerous to own firearms can still easily obtain them.
The FBI’s “Mental Defective File” now contains 400,000 names, up from 175,000 at the time of the massacre in April. The file is part of a national database gun dealers are required to check before selling firearms.
“Instant background checks are essential to keeping guns out of the wrong hands, while still protecting the privacy of our citizens,” said Attorney General Mukasey as he announced the figures. “But as we learned in the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the checks must be accurate and complete to be effective. We’re making progress, and I hope that even more states will submit this information.”
Federal law prohibits gun sales to people judged to be seriously mentally ill. However, implementation of this law is hamstrung by a 1995 Supreme Court ruling that prevents the federal government from forcing states to provide data. Currently, eighteen states provide no mental health data to the FBI.
Some groups say that as a result, four out of five people who are clearly too disturbed to be sold firearms are not on the list.
“If people realized how weak our system is in terms of background checks for people who are dangerously mentally ill, they would be shocked,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “It’s clear that there could be another Virginia Tech killer buying a gun today, and there’s nothing that can be done about it.”
Even in states that voluntarily supply data to the FBI, such as Virginia, there are fatal flaws in the reporting systems.
In December 2005, Seung Hui Cho was judged to be “seriously mentally ill” and “an imminent danger to others”. He was ordered by a Virginia court to undergo outpatient treatment, yet because he had not been ordered into hospital, the state did not provide his name and details to the FBI.
Sixteen months later, gun dealers ran background checks on Cho, including checking the FBI’s “Mental Defective File”, and sold him the 9mm Glock 19 and the Walther .22-caliber pistol he used to kill 32 people and himself at the Virginia Tech campus.
House Democrats recently negotiated the support of the National Rifle Association to help pass legislation that encourages states to submit mental health information to the FBI for its background check database. The bill includes financial incentives as well as penalties.
However, the legislation has hit a snag in the Senate, with opposition led by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) who is concerned that the law will cost too much to implement and that there is no appeals process for people banned from buying guns due to mental illness.
