The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a measure (.pdf) that would require states to improve background checks and efforts to keep guns away from criminals and the mentally ill, a step that many lawmakers and even the National Rifle Association felt was necessary after the tragic shooting rampage at Virginia Tech in April. The legislation marks the first major change to the nation's gun control laws since 1994, the last time the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.
Although the 1968 Gun Control Act prohibits anyone a court considers mentally unstable from owning a firearm, most states fail to upload information about the mentally ill to a National Instant Criminal Background Check System that allows gun shop owners to vet their customers.
Millions of criminal records are not accessible by NICS and millions others are missing critical data,” said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-New York). McCarthy's husband was killed by a gunman. “Each year, tens of thousands of barred individuals slip through the cracks of the system and gain access to firearms," she said. "Simply put, the NICS system must be updated on both the state and federal level.
Seung-hui
Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter who murdered 32 students and teachers and who had been ordered by a court to get help for his mental illness, should have been stopped from buying the two handguns he used in his rampage. But his name had never been added to the watchlist. McCarthy's bill, which the NRA helped draft, would require states to keep the NICS current. The legislation is expected to pass the Senate.
