Sunday, December 23, 2012

Gun Gaps, Mental Health & Public Safety


Mental Health and Gun Background Checks

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 
Many states are researching the need to share mental health records in a better manner than it is being done today. Every time there is a mass shooting, it is revealed the shooter has experienced mental health issues that may have prevented the shooter from buying a firearm if the background check was done in an appropriate manner. This is only one element of problem but it needs to be addressed at the local and federal levels.

According to a news story in the Main newspaper Sun Journal, that state has a horrendous record of maintaining mental health records for such a purpose. It is likely that you will find this symptom occur in many other states as it reveals a serious breakdown or linkage in sharing important information that could prevent some of the tragedies occurring today.

Staff writer Bonnie Washuk writes “When it comes to sharing mental health records with safety officials for gun background checks, Maine is among the worst performing states, according to a national group promoting gun control.” She refers to a report that reveals how the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is flawed because of submissions omitted or lacking to make the process work better.

Ms. Washuk adds “Under existing laws, the Maine court system is required to send mental health records to the Maine Department of Public Safety, then to the federal NICS, in three cases: When the court has involuntarily committed a mentally ill person, when a person has committed a crime and been found not responsible because of mental illness, and when the court finds a person not competent to stand trial.”

In their report, the Mayors Against Illegal Guns report “August 16, 2012 - Mayors Against Illegal Guns has launched an interactive map showing how many mental health records each state has submitted to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and comparing this performance with the best-performing states.

Based on new FBI data updating the coalition's November 2011 Fatal Gaps[1] report, the map shows that 21 states have each submitted fewer than 100 records. The report writes “Since its creation in 1999, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has blocked more than 1.6 million permit applications and gun sales to felons, the seriously mentally ill, drug abusers and other dangerous people who are prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms.”

“Completing the necessary paperwork for a background check takes a gun buyer mere minutes, and more than 91 percent of these electronic screens are completed instantaneously. And, amidst a polarized national debate about gun control, the background check system enjoys nearly universal public support. Despite its relative success, NICS has serious gaps and limitations that still allow firearms to be sold to dangerous people, including some of the nation’s worst mass murderers.”

But, for complex legal and logistical reasons discussed in this report, records about the kinds of serious mental health and drug abuse problems that disqualify people from gun ownership have proven more difficult to capture.

Arizona legislators need to assure that there are no barriers within existing laws that prevent the transfer of such information. Arizona legislators must ensure funding for establishing a sound and efficient electronic infrastructure is created for civil and criminal records to improve background checks specifically for those who have a mental illness or disability as well as those convicted of felonious crimes and have established criminal histories.

This is not to imply that all mental health persons are a threat to society or posses a propensity to be violent. It is likely that only a small percentage actually fall into this risk category but since this is about preventive measures and identifying those ineligible for such firearms purchases, it must be included in the criminal information system to disqualify them from purchasing a firearm. 

Legislators could amend the laws to include mandatory reporting by the Corrections Department to forward all names of those felons incarcerated and having a mental illness on file. 

This database could be incorporated with the Department of Public Safety and strengthen the NICS report status giving them more access to two additional sources for the database.  The first being an ex-felon convicted and the second being an ex-felon with mental health illness on file.

The fact is we are already doing such reporting under the law called Megan’s Law for sex offenders throughout the state. It would take another stroke of the keyboards to add this data to the system and make our communities safer.

In addition, closing loopholes in the background checks for every state is essential to maintain adequate control over information sharing and validating the criminal justice information process to be effective and instrumental in the prevention of having guns fall into the wrong hands in our communities.

There are currently federal grants available to make such changes if the state wants to apply for such additional funding resources.

Sources:

www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/.../maig_mimeo

http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2012/12/19/report-maine-shares-few-mental-health-records-back/1296712

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