By Greg Bluestein, Associated PressUpdated 2/19/2011 2:26:32 AM

ATLANTA — More than half the states are not complying with a post-Virginia Tech law that requires them to share the names of mentally ill people with the national background-check system to prevent them from buying guns, an Associated Press review has found.

A memorial honors Virginia Tech shooting victims on April 22, 2007, in Blacksburg, Va. The rampage led to a law that aims to limit gun purchases.


The deadline for complying with the three-year-old law was last month. But nine states haven't supplied any names to the database. Seventeen others have sent in fewer than 25, meaning gun dealers around the U.S. could be running names of would-be buyers against a woefully incomplete list.

Officials blame privacy laws, antiquated record-keeping and a severe lack of funding for the gap the AP found through public records requests.

Eleven states have provided more than 1,000 records apiece to the federal database, yet gun-control groups have estimated more than 1 million files are missing nationwide.

"If the mental health records are not current from our sister states, the quality of our background check is going to be compromised," said Sean Byrne, acting commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services in New York, a state that has submitted more than 100,000 records.

Congress has doled out only a fraction of the $1.3 billion it promised between 2009 and 2013 to help states and courts cover the costs of the 2008 law.

For some states, the amount of federal grant money they could be penalized for not complying is less than what it would cost them to get their records-sharing systems up to speed.

The Jan. 8 shooting rampage in Tucson, that killed six people and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wounded has put more emphasis on the struggle to disarm the mentally ill, even though the man arrested in the attack wouldn't have been on the no-purchase list. Jared Loughner was considered so mentally unstable that he was kicked out of community college, yet because he was never deemed mentally ill by a judge or committed to an institution, he was able to legally buy the gun police said he used.

Since 1968, federal law has banned certain mentally ill people from buying guns, including those who have been deemed a danger to themselves or others, involuntarily committed or judged not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial. The nationwide background-check system — which is also used to prevent convicted felons from buying guns — was established under the 1993 Brady Bill.

A few state agencies shared mental health records voluntarily for years, but the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 spurred passage of legislation that required states to submit the records or risk losing up to 5% of the federal funding they receive to fight crime.

In the Virginia Tech rampage, student Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people to death and committed suicide. He was able to buy two guns, even though he had been ruled a danger to himself during a court hearing in 2005 and was ordered to undergo outpatient mental health treatment.

Federal officials said that Cho should have been barred from buying weapons but that the records were never forwarded to the background-check system. Virginia officials, however, said state law required the names of only those committed to mental hospitals. The loophole has since been closed by state law, and people in Virginia who undergo outpatient treatment are now entered into the database.

California has shared records of more than 250,000 people, Virginia more than 100,000, according to records AP obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request in late 2010.

The states that have failed to submit any mental health records are: Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota.

Seventeen states submitted very few records: Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Any penalties for failing to comply with the 2008 law are probably years away — they don't become mandatory until 2018, and federal authorities can forgive states in the meantime.

If the penalties are imposed, some states could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. But in several states, sharing the records could require millions of dollars in upgrades.

In fiscal year 2009, the U.S. government dispensed about $10 million to the states to comply, not the $187.5 million pledged, according to the Justice Department. A year later, $20 million was provided.

"Unfortunately, our Congress talked the talk but did not walk the walk," said Abby Spangler, founder of ProtestEasyGuns.com, a gun-control group.

Several states have also struggled to amend their privacy laws that restrict the release of health information, and others have had to create an appeals process for those who say they have been wrongly barred for mental health reasons from buying a gun.

Gerard Ramker, deputy director of the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, said the department is aware that states are struggling to comply with the law.

"There may be technological barriers between local and state agencies that keep record systems from communicating with each other," Ramker said. "Also, state laws or regulations could prohibit agencies from sharing mental health information with law enforcement authorities."

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who ran for Congress after her husband was killed and her son paralyzed in a 1993 shooting rampage on a Long Island Rail Road train, introduced the measure.

"When we started talking to states, we learned that some of these records are kept in boxes down in some basements, so this is labor-intensive at the very least," she said. "It's going forward. I sure would like to see more states implementing this, but we're fighting for the money."



USAToday.com

A list is the fix? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, BEWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.


Def a prob with mental health services in the US, a list in not the fix.

This just shows Mental Health needs Correcting and Nothing much is Yet being done.

I know of a case where a gun owning man had a psychotic episode. Owing to the danger to the public, the police took him into custody and he was placed in a hospital. The court ordered that his guns be left with a trusted friend until such time as he was well again. He was treated & released, and when it was obvious that he was back to normal, he got his guns back. That was some 35 years ago. He's been fine ever since.

I would like to suggest a "sane" modification to the gun buyer's "blacklist." In Canada we used to have what were called FACs (Firearms acquisition certificates) that proved you were not mentally ill or incompetent in the handling of guns. It was required by law that you present your FAC anytime you bought a gun, whether new in a store, or used, privately.

If the FAC (or something like it) became mandatory for firearms purchase, I would think doctors could, upon treating someone who might be at risk of irrational behaviour, demand that the FAC and all the patient' guns be entrusted into the care of some designated trustee, such as a responsible friend, or peace officer until such time as the danger of violence passes. The police could be called to ensure compliance with the doctor's order and to investigate as to whether the patient is telling the truth if he says he has no guns (no 3rd degree stuff, just calling friends & family).

If a plan such as this could be implemented, it could at least preserve even a mentally ill persons right to own guns and further to discourage access to guns of people who should not be in possession of them.

Follow: Video, Maryrose Kristopik, Newtown Elementary School Shooting, Nicholas Sabillon, Nicholas Sabillon Sandy Hook, Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, Newtown, Sandy Hook, Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, School Shootings, Crime News

A quick-thinking music teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School found a secure spot for her students as soon as she heard the first salvo from the shooter's gun.

Killer Adam Lanza arrived moments later at their locked closet door, pounding and yelling "Let me in," while the students in Maryrose Kristopik's class quietly hid inside, AFP reported.

"We were all really scared and then we prayed," said 9-year-old Nicholas Sabillon, who was interviewed with his parents. "Miss Kristopik gave us all lollipops. We thought it would be our last snack."

The sound of shattering glass and additional menacing yells from Lanza tormented the students. But Sabillon says they remained silent and carefully held their musical instruments so they wouldn't produce a sound.

At some point, Lanza, 20, left the room and killed himself after he'd murdered 20 students and six adults.

Police scoured the schoolhouse, then led students to a nearby fire station, which became the meeting point for parents searching for their children.

Sabillon's parents Jose and Sherry arrived like many other Newtown parents, unaware that students had been killed at all.

Interesting story.
And, I agree with the above statement.