Mental Health and Guns: Do Background Checks Do Enough?

April 19, 2007

By MICHAEL LUO

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/us/19weapons.html?ref=us

WASHINGTON, April 18 — Revelations about Cho Seung-Hui’s 2005 stay in
a psychiatric center under a magistrateÂ’s order have raised questions
about whether background checks adequately scrutinize the mental
health history of potential gun buyers.

Federal law prohibits those who have been “adjudicated as a mental
defective” by a court, as well as those who have been involuntarily
committed to a mental health facility, from buying a firearm.

Only 17 states, however, submit such mental health information to the
background check systems they use on gun purchases, said Dennis
Henigan, legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Although Virginia has some of the most permissive gun laws in the
country, the state does, in fact, include such mental health records
in the background checks it conducts when someone tries to buy a
handgun, said Donna Tate, program manager in the firearms transaction
center for the Virginia State Police.

“We determined Mr. Cho to be lawfully eligible to purchase a gun on
two occasions,” Ms. Tate said, referring to the Glock 9-millimeter
handgun and .22-caliber pistol recovered after the shootings.

A magistrate ordered that Mr. Cho be evaluated at Carilion Saint
Albans Behavioral Health Center on Dec. 13, 2005, after two women who
were students complained about his behavior. The next day, a special
justice approved outpatient treatment for Mr. Cho and he was free to
go, which may explain why no red flags were raised by the stateÂ’s
background check system when he bought the weapons this year.

Ms. Tate said that she was not familiar with the specifics of Mr.
ChoÂ’s case but said it was up to the courts to decide whether an
involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility qualifies for
notification to the state police system.

Gun control advocates seized upon the revelations about Mr. ChoÂ’s
psychiatric history to call for more complete background checks on gun
buyers, particularly expanding the number of situations in which
someone may be disqualified from buying a gun because of mental health
issues.

“The problem with the federal system and the problem with the Virginia
system is the premium is on speed,” Mr. Henigan said.

Massachusetts, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the country,
prohibits anyone who has ever been confined to a mental institution
from buying a gun, although the person can provide a written affidavit
from a physician to obtain an exception.

Opponents of stricter gun control measures say such restrictions might
not have helped prevent the massacre in Virginia.

“A guy like that probably shouldn’t have been able to buy a gun,” said
Mike McHugh, president of the Virginia Gun Owners Coalition. “But my
point is, that’s not going to stop a guy like this.”

Gun control advocates conceded that an array of issues would
complicate efforts to tighten such laws, including privacy concerns
and difficulties in determining whether someone is mentally unstable.

“If you cataloged every American who has been depressed, you’d
probably have a majority of the population,” said Ladd Everitt, a
spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

But Mr. Everitt added: “I think it’s something that should be looked
at. ThatÂ’s as far as I would go. I think itÂ’s a debate we should
have.”

A 2002 report by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation cited a
Government Accountability Office study that said that for every 75,000
people who had tried to buy a gun, only one was denied by the
background check system because of mental health criteria. The report
cited another G.A.O. study that estimated that background check
information was missing for as many as 2.6 million people who have
been involuntarily institutionalized.

Virginia is what those in the gun world call a shall issue state,
meaning anyone who is not excluded under certain restrictions can
obtain a gun. But in more restrictive states like California, New
Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Massachusetts and others, people are first
referred to local police departments for an extensive vetting process.
In some cases, references must be provided; there is usually a waiting
period.

“This kid never would have gotten a gun in New York, New Jersey or any
state that does that in a million years,” Mr. Everitt said. “There’s
just no way.”

Representative Carolyn McCarthy, Democrat of New York, whose husband
was killed in 1993 by a gunman on a Long Island Rail Road train, has
been pushing House leaders this week to move quickly on a bill that
would require states to automate their criminal history records so
that computer databases used to conduct background checks on gun
buyers are more complete. The bill would also require states to submit
their mental health records to their background check systems and give
them money to allow them to do so, said George Burke, a spokesman for
Ms. McCarthy.

But even some leading Democrats in Congress have been reluctant to
push gun control legislation, particularly in light of their efforts
to keep their recent electoral gains in more conservative districts
they captured during the 2006 elections.