by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Fallout from the mass shooting Apr. 16 at Virginia Tech predictably led almost immediately to the announcement that legislation would be introduced to expand the National Instant Check System (NICS) to include data on mentally ill persons not allowed by law to purchase firearms.
Within days of the shooting, The Washington Post reported that the National Rifle Association (NRA) had allegedly “begun negotiations with senior Democrats over legislation to bolster” the NICS system. Leading that effort, according to the newspaper, was Michigan Congressman John Dingell, a former NRA board member.
Gunman Cho Sueng-Hui (or Sueng-Hui Cho, as some newspapers are reporting his name) apparently should have been blocked from buying either the 9mm Glock or the .22-caliber Walther pistol he used in the killings because he had been ordered by a court to undergo treatment for mental disorder. However, he was not committed because a judge modified the original order.
But just as predictable as the announcement of new legislation came a firestorm of anger from some corners of the gun rights movement that the NRA would even think of adding more information to the NICS databanks to disqualify even more people from buying and owning guns. Others argued that the NRA should demand something in return, such as the repeal of a gun control law, or passage of a law requiring universal recognition of all concealed carry licenses by all of the states.
Discussions raged on two of the nation’s busiest gun rights forums, KeepAnd-BearArms.com and TheHighRoad.org, with sentiments split, and at times bristling. Some accused the NRA of “folding” under pressure while others insisted that mental patients should be identified in NICS data as being disqualified from firearms ownership.
As this issue was going to press, the legislation in question had yet to be written, and a source at the NRA told Gun Week that until a written bill is available, nobody could say how NRA would react.
The newspaper suggested that Democrats are still mindful of gunowner backlash and losing Congress in 1994 and the White House race in 2000. According to The Post, “Democratic leaders are anxious to bring the NRA aboard as they try to respond” to the Virginia Tech shootings.
But instead of getting on board with legislation that would add mentally ill data to the NICS system, some gunowners want NICS abolished. They see it as a “prior restraint” to the exercise of a constitutionally-protected civil right.
While the more strident gun activists clearly voiced their opposition to legislation, and spared no criticism of the NRA for possibly being involved, others were just as adamant that the NRA is a strong gun rights forcet that has kept the gun control floodgates largely closed.
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told Gun Week that the NRA has been on record for years supporting inclusion of mental health records in the NICS system; however, opposition has traditionally come from the medical community and the ACLU.