Text Size
Print
Email
Top Stories
- Text Size
- Print
- Email
Obama needs state help to improve background checks for gun purchases
President Barack Obama’s new steps to reduce gun violence center on strengthening background checks, and he needs state help.
The administration is asking states to make sure they’re sending complete information on criminal, domestic violence and mental health records to the national database for background checks.
Indiana has lagged in this area, particularly on submitting mental health records.
“There remains a significant gap nationwide in the reporting of individuals subject to this particular disqualification,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch wrote in a letter to governors.
Gov. Mike Pence referred questions to the Indiana State Police, which maintains the records.
Capt. David R. Bursten said the state made a huge leap forward in digitizing more than 2 million criminal history files the past three years and continues to work with local courts to get new records in a timely manner. Currently, less than half the state’s criminal records include the court’s final determination on a charge. That’s either because the case is pending, or the court hasn’t transmitted the full record.
“This is significantly higher than a substantial number of other states,” Bursten said of the state’s 40 percent disposition rate for criminal histories. “However, we are continuing to work to obtain a 100 percent disposition rate.”
The FBI estimates that more than 87 million state arrests nationwide were missing dispositions.
The administration plans to release the number of records states have submitted to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Tracking by private groups shows Indiana is not submitting as many mental health records per capita as most states.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun makers, retailers and shooting ranges, ranks Indiana 37th for the 6,936 mental health records submitted through April 2015.
“Where (Indiana) has been the weakest is on the mental health records,” said Paul Helmke, former head of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and a professor at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
The federal government can't require states to submit those records to NICS. But many stepped up efforts after a student at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in 2007.
A Virginia judge had found the shooter, Seung Hui Cho, mentally ill in 2005. But that court record was not submitted to NICS, enabling Cho to pass background checks to buy the handguns he used.
At the time of that shooting, Indiana had submitted only one record, Helmke said.
But Indiana was among 18 states that quickly passed laws requiring mental health records to go to NICS.
Indiana’s law, however, did not require that the state submit records for people previously found to have mental health issues that would disqualify them from buying a gun. Because there was no existing depository of such records, state lawmakers only required that mental health reports be submitted to NICS at the time the determination was made.
Indiana did receive a $1.2 million federal grant in 2012 to improve record submission. The grant was to help expand a statewide court case management system and help the Indiana State Police upgrade its criminal history records information system.
Bursten, the State Police spokesman, said Indiana is one of only a few states that has digitized all its criminal histories. The state also last year revamped its criminal history system to force updates to a record whenever a criminal history is queried.
In addition to encouraging states to improve submission of mental health and criminal records, the Obama administration also announced this week that it’s hiring more than 230 examiners and other aides to process background checks. (The system receives more than 63,000 background checks a day.)
2024 The Background Investigator. All Rights Reserved.