Gap That Could Lead to Murder : Legal loophole could let some who were dangerous psychotics buy guns

No reasonable person would argue that former mental patients once considered to be dangerous ought to have easy access to firearms. But a new law, effective last January, could have this ominous effect. That’s because of a provision that, inadvertently, serves to block the California Department of Justice from conducting background checks on those committed to mental institutions before 1991.

The law was intended to ensure that patients who voluntarily seek psychiatric care not lose the right to purchase a gun after successfully completing treatment. But the measure has had an unintended consequence: It effectively prevents the state Department of Justice from fully accessing the mental health records of some who at one time were among the state’s most dangerous patients.

Now, because of the new law, state law enforcement officials cannot check on records before 1991. Under the California law mandating a 15-day waiting period for buying handguns, shotguns and rifles, the state receives, and is authorized to examine, mental health records going back five years. As of 1993, that means that the records from the years of 1989 and 1990 would not be examined.

What happened in 1992 shows why that dangerous two-year gap must be closed. The Justice Department routinely obtained documentation on 100,000 people involuntarily committed to mental hospitals after they were deemed to present a danger. Eventually about 200 of those were denied guns during checks made when they attempted to purchase a firearm.

Some advocates of gun control complain that officials do not search the records aggressively enough. But the law has succeeded in stopping thousands of unfit people--even convicted murderers, sex offenders and kidnapers--from buying guns.

From a public safety standpoint, there is no question that the loophole in the law should be closed. If it is not, the fear is that Californians once considered to be among the state’s most deranged and unstable people could have virtually unlimited access to firearms. That isn’t in the best interest of anyone, not even the people the new law was designed to protect.