Bill would ban mentally ill from guns

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 9, 2008 - Page: 5A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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More than a year after a mentally ill student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, Louisiana legislators are considering a bill to prohibit similarly unstable people from buying firearms.

House Bill 76 would require courts in Louisiana to report orders regarding mental health judgments and treatments to the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

The department, in turn, would provide the information to the FBI’s background check database, used when people try to buy a firearm.

Tara Mica, a lobbyist with the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action, said the U.S. Congress recently passed improvements to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, encouraging states to report mental health information to the FBI.

Mica said the changes were in response to the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007, when a mentally ill student gunned down 32 people on campus before killing himself.

Mica said the shooter had been ordered by a court to receive outpatient mental health treatment.

“Because Virginia didn’t report that record up, it was not included in the NICS system when that person went to purchase a firearm,” she told the Louisiana House Administration of Criminal Justice committee Thursday.

Under HB76, people immediately flagged are those who are ordered by a court to receive inpatient mental health services, those restricted based on their mental health, those with a mental retardation committed to a care facility, those determined mentally incapable of proceeding with a criminal trial, or those acquitted in a criminal case by reason of insanity.

The measure, sponsored by state Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, won approval in the committee and will next be considered on the House floor.

Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport, said it was a good bill, considering another measure to allow college students to carry guns on campus is up for debate in the House.

“One of my concerns were that if someone had a mental problem, and they were able to get their hand on a gun or be able to get the license, we would really have even a larger problem than we have with just someone 21 having a gun,” Norton said.

Mark Thomas, testifying on behalf of nonprofit Mental Health America of Louisiana, said HB76 is too broad and would restrict anyone who receives any sort of mental health treatment.

“You can receive treatment for a variety of reasons,” he said.