For years, state governments have had trouble keeping guns away from the mentally ill. According to The National Conference of State Legislatures, approximately 45 states in the U.S. prohibit anyone that has been diagnosed with a mental illness to possess a firearm.
Nonetheless, there have been numerous gun-related criminal cases involving the mentally ill, with the most recent crime in early October. Aaron Alexis, a former Navy reservist killed 12 people in a mass shooting at a military facility in Washington, DC. According to the Associated Press, Alexis suffered from paranoia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and psychosis.
A similar incident occurred on July 2012 at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado with James Holmes. Holmes was accused of injuring 70 people and killing 12. His mental records show that he had been seeing a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado Denver before the shootings and showed signs of manic dysphoria — a psychiatric condition that combines the symptoms of mania and depression.
Regardless of the number of states with laws banning the mentally ill from using or possessing guns, people with mental illnesses continue to get a hold of guns, as shown throughout the crimes they have committed when using guns.
In places such as Wal-Mart, anyone can buy an inexpensive gun. The only requirement Wal-Mart has is that purchasers fill out a federal background check. The check is supposed to stop certain people–including the mentally ill with a history of violence–from buying guns. The form asks for the information required to perform “instant background checks” and ensures that the buyer attests to not being a felon, a mental patient, or under a restraining order for domestic violence.
Though these checks are performed, many mentally ill customers continue to get their guns with ease at Wal-Mart. For example, in November 2012, a man with schizophrenia, Gerald Hume, claimed to have bought guns at his local Oklahoma Wal-Mart without difficulty, even after the background check.
“He bought them like any normal person would–he got them at Walmart,” said Oklahoma City Police Captain Dexter Nelson.
According to federal records, these background checks have kept “more than 1.5 million guns out of the wrong hands.”
The problem isn’t the background check itself; it is the lack of data that is within the system of mental institutes according to each person. Not everyone that goes to a local gun shop or grocery store that sells guns has a thorough diagnosis of his or her mental state.
Aside from that, many gun shops lack the authority to perform background checks that consist of thorough evaluations of buyers’ mental states.
The background check as it currently exists will continue to fail because the information that it is based on is insufficient to begin with.
