New information will be added to the state database of criminal records that prevents felons and others from legally buying firearms, per an executive order by Governor Tim Kaine, issued April 30. Now, when someone is adjudicated to be mentally ill, his or her records are put in the criminal records database, with “no distinction” made based on whether inpatient or outpatient treatment has been ordered.
 Governor Tim Kaine passed an executive order April 30 that closes the gun loophole that allowed Seung-Hui Cho to purchase guns used in his Virginia Tech killing spree. |
“The key factor should be the danger finding, and not whether the judicially-mandated treatment is performed in an institution or on an outpatient basis,” Kaine said in a statement.
The order comes in direct response to the April 16 Virginia Tech shooting—an investigation revealed that the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, bought firearms even though he had been involuntarily hospitalized and ordered to seek outpatient treatment. Though federal law dictates that Cho shouldn’t have been able to buy the weapons that killed 32 at Virginia Tech, his name turned up no hits against the Virginia Criminal Information Network.
Attorney General Bob McDonnell and Kaine’s offices have both said the order closes a big loophole in the state’s gun laws.
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“Quite honestly we’re not committing that many people to inpatient care anymore. It’s a pretty significant loophole,” says State Senator R. Creigh Deeds, who thinks Kaine is well within his bounds to interpret existing law. “It’s what most people thought the law was already. If you have mental incompetence, you can’t buy a firearm,” Deeds says.
Though the National Rifle Association has said it supports mental health checks, other gun rights advocates told The New York Times that the records-sharing could be a violation of civil liberties, and mental health experts have said the process could contribute to the stigmatization of mental illness.
A spokeswoman with the Virginia State Police, Corinne Geller, assures that the records can’t be shared with employers, and are only used to regulate firearm purchases. Besides, when someone is deemed to be a danger to themselves or others by a magistrate judge, as Cho was, it’s already part of the public record in the form of court documents.
“We’re so sensitive about people’s privacy,” Senator Deeds says, “but how can we prevent to a reasonable degree something like [the Tech incident] from happening?”
Other time-worn gun control debates have been revived by the Tech incident. The General Assembly will likely re-examine the “gun show loophole,” which allows private buyers and sellers to do a quick cash-for-gun exchange with no background check. Proposed bans on those sales die perennially in the majority pro-gun assembly.
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