Mentally ill can get guns easily

Leon Novak, owner of Center Mass Firearms in Las Vegas, remembers the time a customer came in the door "swaying back and forth a lot,'' wanting to buy a weapon.

A bottle of prescription drugs fell out of his pocket, and Novak's wife, a registered nurse, read the prescription.

"We denied him on the spot,'' Novak said.

Without a database containing the names of the mentally ill, alert gun shop proprietors like Novak may be the only thing standing in the way of someone with a severe mental disorder purchasing a handgun in Nevada.

Though state laws restrict people who are mentally ill from owning firearms, they're not practical enough to enforce, officials say.

"When I watched the poor gun shop owner on television who sold the gun to the student, I felt really bad," Novak said about the Virginia gun dealer who sold handguns to Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech student who went on a shooting rampage Monday morning, killing 32 on campus before committing suicide. "He did what he was supposed to do. He did the background check, which, in my opinion, is pretty thorough.

"But there is no way for a gun shop owner to know if someone is mentally ill. When we run the background check, all we are told is deny, delay or approve. That's it.''

Monday's rampage has raised questions about whether state and federal gun control laws are strong enough to prevent future such incidents. Though it is not publicly known if Cho suffered from a mental disorder, a Virginia judge in 2005 signed a short-term commitment order for him after Virginia Tech officials discovered he was in need of mental health care. His medical records are private.

Since he was never committed to a hospital, Cho had the legal right to buy a gun under Virginia and federal gun control laws.

He would have had the same right in Nevada.

Novak said every federal firearms licensee is mandated to conduct background checks on customers applying for firearm permits or explosives in Nevada.

The background checks, which cost $25, go through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, and Nevada's State Criminal History Records Repository, which is operated by the Nevada Department of Public Safety. The NICS system is linked with the National Crime Information Center and the Interstate Identification Index, both FBI databases containing criminal records.

Federal law does not require that private sellers -- persons other than firearms dealers -- conduct background checks on prospective buyers.

Nevada's law prohibits any person from owning or possessing a firearm if they:

• Have been convicted of a felony in Nevada, any other state, or under federal law.

• Are fugitives from justice.

• Are unlawful users of, or are addicted to, any controlled substance.

• Have been adjudicated mentally ill or have been committed to any mental health facility.

• Are illegally or unlawfully in the United States.

The law mirrors the Federal Gun Control Act.

However, Family Court Judge William Voy said no statutory mechanism allows him to give law enforcement or state officials the records of mentally ill people who have been civilly or involuntarily committed to a mental health facility.

Voy presides over mental health civil commitment cases in Clark County. He said roughly 130 cases are heard each week to determine if someone who is mentally ill should be involuntarily committed to a mental institution. Some of those cases are repeaters.

Carlos Brandenburg, director of Nevada's Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services, made comments similar to Voy's. The agency runs all of the state-run mental health facilities, such as the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital, and provides outpatient mental health services.

Brandenburg said the agency has an internal database of clients but that information is not available to any other agency or person unless the client provides written consent.

"I know that in the past I have received requests from the state of Oregon where someone was trying to obtain a permit for a gun,'' Brandenburg said.

"The person apparently told some folks of their hospitalization in Nevada. They (the state of Oregon) sent us a form to fill out. The individual had signed the form, so we provided that information to Oregon. Unless the individual has provided written consent to share that information, we wouldn't.''

Although the mentally ill who are convicted felons are listed in the State Criminal Repository and one or more of the FBI criminal databases, no registry lists individuals who are just mentally ill or who have ever spent time in a mental hospital in Nevada.

The only way to know that is if they voluntarily provide the information while filling out a gun permit.

Because people with mental disorders are perceived to be violent, there has been an increase in state legislation restricting the ability of the mentally ill to purchase or possess firearms, according to an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The article, "Firearm laws, Patients, and the Roles of Psychiatrists," detailed a survey of states between late 2001 and February 2005 to identify if they mandate psychiatrists to report gun possession to state justice or police departments.

The report, published in August, showed 20 states and the District of Columbia maintain mental health databases, though different systems were used.

For example, in Arizona persons may not possess a firearm if they are found to be a danger to themselves or others under a court order and whose court-ordered treatment has not been terminated.

In California, it is unlawful for anyone to own or possess a firearm if they're a felon, a drug addict, a present or former mental patient, were ever committed for mental observation, or were acquitted on a charge by reason of insanity.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said four years ago she took a look at Nevada's gun control laws to see if it would be possible to strengthen them with respect to the mentally ill. She also enlisted the help of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

She discovered that would be no easy task.

"How do you adjudicate someone mentally ill?'' Leslie asked. "That's the question I kept coming back to. In order to do that, you would need a judge or the court system. That information would also have to be put into the state repository. We don't have a process for that, unless of course they commit a crime. Our repository doesn't have the resources needed to take on this responsibility.''

Leslie said she all but gave up on pushing for a change when she saw there would be major roadblocks when dealing with privacy issues involving medical records as well as concerns about civil liberties.

Rosetta Johnson, a mental health advocate from Reno, said Nevada's laws with respect to the mentally ill are weak.

"Nevada is among five states with the worst mental health laws,'' Johnson said. "You cannot force anybody into treatment unless they are a danger to themselves or others. When they reach that point, it is already too late. If there were more open laws to make it possible for a family member, or anybody close to this person, to get them the treatment they need, maybe we'd have a better sense of who is mentally ill in the state. Maybe this could open the door to keeping guns out of the hands of the wrong people before something happens like it did in Virginia.''

No bills are being pushed by Nevada legislators to strengthen gun control laws specific to the mentally ill, but the window is still open to do so, said Loren Malkiewich, director of the state's Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Leslie said that is definitely something legislators need to address, though she feels it may be too late this legislative session.

She said it is something she will take up during the interim session.

"To be successful you would have to involve the court system, the service system, civil liberties folks and gun shop owners. We have to create some sort of law that meets everybody's needs. There's just not a quick fix to it.''