> > Sorry if this has already been discussed on the list, but could > >someone point me, please, to the specific regulations or other documents > >describing how information -- including mental illness adjudication > >information -- is to be gathered for NICS? As you might gather, I'm > >trying to figure out precisely how information about adjudications of > >mental illness, such as the 2005 adjudication as to the Virginia Tech > >murderer, are supposed to get into the system. Thanks,
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:HR04757:@@@D&summ2=m&; ".... an adjudication as a mental defective occurs when a court, board, commission, or other government entity determines that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease: (1) is a danger to himself or to others; or (2) lacks the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs. ___Makes exceptions with respect to___: (1) a person in a mental institution for observation or voluntarily committed to a mental institution; or (2) information protected by doctor-patient privilege." "Requires the Attorney General to make grants to each State to establish or upgrade information and identification technologies for firearms eligibility determinations. Lists as permissible uses of grants: (1) building databases that are directly related to checks under NICS; (2) assisting States in establishing or enhancing their own capacities to perform NICS background checks; (3) improving final dispositions of criminal records; (4) supplying mental health records to NICS; and (5) supplying court-ordered domestic restraining orders and records of domestic violence misdemeanors for inclusion in NICS. Requires a State, as a condition of receiving a grant, to specify the projects for which grant amounts will be used and to use such amounts only as specified. Makes a State that violates this provision liable to the Attorney General for the full amount granted." ----------- May(not) be more at the Attorney General's office web site. As I recall, states were given discursion as to adding mental health data, and the definition of things like "lacks mental capacity." When passed, many states had no central mental health tracking systems, and those that did had differing definitions of what constituted adjudication. But, specific to the VA Tech incident --- even though a judge had heard Cho's case, Cho voluntarily entered a facility, and by not being forced by a court to do so, kept his psychiatric treatment confidential per the so called "Our Lady of Peace Act". http://mccain.senate.gov/press_office/view_article.cfm?id=474 A bit outdated .. From 2002 "On the issue of mental health, 33 states keep no mental health disqualifying records and no state supplies mental health disqualifying records to NICS. The General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that 2.7 million mental illness records should be in the NICS databases, but less than 100,000 records are available (nearly all from VA mental hospitals). States have supplied only 41 mental health records to NICS. Combined with the federal records, the GAO estimates that only 8.6% of the records of those disqualified from buying a firearm for mental health reasons are accessible on the NICS database." ---- Guy Smith Author, Gun Facts [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.GunFacts.info _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
