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States that have enacted such laws have, in fact, subsequently submitted greater numbers of records. Since the Virginia Tech shooting, about half of the states have enacted laws authorizing and requiring the submission of mental health records to NICS, as described below.

As of August 31, 2021, there were over 6 million mental health records in NICS 6.

The number of mental health records in NICS increased by more than 700% between the Virginia Tech shooting and January 31, 2014.

Our nation’s leaders, including President Obama, have joined these calls, 4 and states have begun to respond. Other mass shootings, including those in Tucson, AZ, on January 8, 2011, in Aurora, CO, on July 20, 2012, and in Newtown, CT, on December 14, 2012, have also resulted in renewed calls for better laws addressing guns and mental illness. While Virginia law at that time required that some mental health records be submitted to the databases used for background checks, it did not require reporting of all people prohibited from possessing firearms for mental health reasons. 3 However, the unstable gunman was able to purchase firearms through two licensed dealers after two background checks.

The most tragic incident involving a state’s failure to report mental health records occurred in April 2007, when Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and injured 17 others before committing suicide on the college campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. Cho was, in fact, prohibited from purchasing a firearm under federal law because of a history of mental illness. As a result, some individuals known to pose a serious risk to themselves and others can pass background checks and obtain firearms.

However, federal law cannot require states to make information identifying these people available to the federal or state agencies that perform background checks, 2 and many states fail to voluntarily report the necessary records to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), especially with respect to people prohibited from possessing guns for mental health reasons. 1Ĭonfronting the Inevitability Myth: Saving Lives from Gun Suicide

Currently, laws are in place that require licensed dealers (but not unlicensed sellers) to conduct a background check prior to the transfer of a firearm to screen out these and other prohibited purchasers. BackgroundĮven though federal law prohibits the sale of firearms to certain individuals with a history of mental illness, history has shown that it’s still too easy for people experiencing a mental health crisis to obtain firearms. With a more comprehensive system for reporting mental illnesses and conducting background checks, we can avoid putting guns in the hands of people who pose threats to themselves or others. State laws requiring stakeholders to report records to the federal background check system are critical to ensuring the effectiveness of these background checks.Įven in the wake of devastating tragedies such as the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007, the system intended to limit access to firearms for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis still includes dangerous loopholes. To be effective, background checks rely on a search of complete and accurate records to identify people who are legally prohibited from accessing guns.