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Ban on Sale Of Guns to Mentally Ill Is Expanded
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Kaine and McDonnell said they will decide whether additional gun control measures are needed after an eight-member state panel completes its investigation of the April 16 shootings. The panel, headed by retired state police superintendent W. Gerald Massengill, is planning to hold its first meeting next week.
Officials with the National Rifle Association, which holds considerable sway in state politics, have said they support Kaine's effort to deal with the loophole. But other gun rights advocates say they are wary of additional restrictions.
"Cho would have gotten a gun one way or another. The question should be what are we going to do to allow people to better protect themselves?" said Mike McHugh, president of the Virginia Gun Owners Coalition.
Despite the Virginia Tech shootings and the subsequent nationwide scrutiny of the state's gun laws, McDonnell said Virginia is a leader in efforts to restrict the sale of firearms to the mentally ill. Virginia is one of 22 states that report mental health records to the FBI's national instant background check system. Since it started in 2003, Virginia has reported more than 80,000 records, more than any state.
Even so, the system failed to catch Cho when he purchased his weapons this year.
In 2005, the General Assembly changed the criteria under which state officials had to report a patient to the central criminal records database.
Under the old law, a person was to be reported to the database if he had been declared mentally ill and dangerous and had been "committed to a hospital." Starting in October 2005, the word "hospital" was replaced with "facility."
Cho was declared mentally ill in December 2005 after being evaluated at New River Valley Community Services in Blacksburg, leading some to argue that he should have been covered under the law even if he received outpatient services.
But when he filled out his application to purchase his weapons, Cho checked that he had never been ordered to seek mental counseling.
Kaine said Thursday that Cho was not entered into the database because there were "different interpretations" about what "facility" meant.
"Some courts had been reporting involuntary commitments to outpatient facilities, and some had not," Kaine said. The governor later added, "In the future, people who lie on forms will be caught."
