How They Got Their Guns

[workinclasszero]

How They Got Their Guns
By LARRY BUCHANAN, JOSH KELLER, RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and DANIEL VICTOR OCT. 3, 2015

Criminal histories and documented mental health problems did not prevent at least eight of the gunmen in 14 recent mass shootings from obtaining their weapons, after federal background checks led to approval of the purchases of the guns used.



OCT. 1, 2015

Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, where he was a student. He was armed with six guns, including a Glock pistol, a Smith & Wesson pistol, a Taurus pistol and a Del-Ton assault rifle, according to The Associated Press.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/03/us/how-mass-shooters-got-their-guns.html

[hack89]

1. Time to start tracking mental health patients better

That's what NY did after Sandy Hook. A database where Healthcare professionals can identify patients who are a threat to themselves or others.

[Duckhunter935]

2. Sounds like

that is something that needs to happen. Good accurate data into the existing instant check system.

[Lizzie Poppet]

3. That data needs to be available to the NICS database...

...and a careful expansion of disqualifying diagnoses would help, too.

Mind you, such steps would only meaningfully effect the rate of mass shootings. Despite the near-obsessive focus on these incidents, they represent only a small minority of shootings overall. Steps that managed to reduce the number of handguns in criminal hands would have a much greater effect in lowering the death toll.

[Marr]

4. I agree-- and the bar for disallowing gun purchases for mental illness needs to be severely lowered.

At present, you must have been deemed by a court to be 'mentally defective' in order to be barred from purchasing firearms. This decision ought to be made by mental health specialists, and they need a lot of latitude in determining risk.

[branford]

6. No, decisions to curtail constitutional rights should not be made by anyone but the courts.

If a medical professional has evidence that a patient is a danger to himself or others, the professional can seek a court order where due process and other protections are paramount. Moreover, any "latitude" has to be consistent with statistical and diagnostic data. For instance, you cannot deny the RKBA to every male under 40 who's angry.

Additionally, if the mental health bar is lowered, don't be surprised if a great many more people choose not to seek any treatment at all, and overall violent crime and suicide rates demonstrably increase.

There are no easy answers, and the ancillary effects of certain proposals cannot be ignored, nor constitutional protections abrogated.

[hack89]

7. Temporary bans followed up by due process

It should never be easy to permanently remove civil rights.

[pipoman]

5. Regardless of the source of the guns

It is pretty much consistently people with mental health issues who do these things...