Franklin
Posted on 04/09/2002 5:58:50 AM PDT by areafiftyone
(Lynbrook, Long Island-AP) -- Senator Charles Schumer says there's a loophole that allows people with mental illness or restraining orders against them to buy a gun. Schumer says the person accused of shooting a priest and a woman at a Lynbrook, Long Island church last month had a history of mental illness. Schumer says state records covering mentally ill patients are not forwarded to the F-B-I - so federal background checks don't see any ``red flags.''
He wants the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System to get notices of people in mental hospitals so a background check would show they should not be sold a gun. Schumer says 34-year-old Peter Troy bought his .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle on March 8th. Four days later he allegedly shot the gun in Our Lady of Peace Church in Lynbrook, killing the Reverend Lawrence Penzes and a female parishioner. Schumer says Troy had been admitted to Bellevue Hospital and the Nassau University Medical Center on at least two occasions, but his background check did not reveal that. Schumer says federal background checks ``are only as good as the records that are in the system.'' Schumer adds that Troy's mother had a restraining order issued against him in February 1998. He says that fact, also was missed by the background check.
Would this be a check form of the box -- I am qualified to purchase a gun because of:
__mental illness
__restraining order?
Heehee
No, it already is that way, at least in my state. The headline is misleading. What Schumer wants is centralized record-keeping to confirm the status of the purchaser.
NYC has had way more than its share of people with known psycho record that come out after the fact shoving people in front of subway trains, hacking ferry passengers to death with toy swords, firebombs aboard subway trains, etc. In fact, NYC's "crazy crime" problem seems to be that it is a magnet for psychos and the homeless - rather than either guns or toy swords or glass jars full of gasoline - and has a deserved reputation for easy plea bargains that keep many violent criminals who'd be jailed anywhere else on its streets.
Scandals of antigun politicians - from Kalifornia to Manhattan!
Could cost Shumer his seat.
Heheheh... rather than put that pressure on the voters, let's just not let the mentally incompetent run for office, that should take care of the entire DemoPublican Party.
Is this suppose to be a bad thing?
Is the centralized, Federal nanny state supposed to be a bad thing?
What does that have to do with anything. Is it bad that fellons shouldn't be able to get guns? Is it bad to know who is a fellon?
Who keeps track of fellons? You are not born with a mental record to be kept track of. You have to be found crazy to get a mental record.
That's my point -- some semi-literate wrote it to say that Schumer wants to restrict gun sales so that only the mentally ill or the legally restrained are allowed to buy them.
Felons having guns wasn't a problem until the nanny state started disarming the rest of us through unconstitutional restrictions.
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