Privacy laws and gun violence

Several years a go a frantic parent called me at the university looking for her daughter. I was her academic adviser. She'd tried to contact her kid but no luck. She wanted to know if I had heard from her daughter recently. Was she attending classes, the mom asked? Was she in an accident?

Sadly, at that time I could not share any information with the mother. Why? Because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

This is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It applies to all schools that receive funds from the U.S. Department of Education - that basically means all schools in the United States.

FERPA ' … gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records.” but, '… these rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level.” Most of my students fit the latter category. All college students fit.

I referred the parent to university administration but I could not follow up on this because I did not have the right to do anything beyond referral. I'm not sure how much they were able to help.

I have been very patient and quiet after every mass shooting in the United States. The tragedy of these atrocities is simply too deep. We hear a lot about the mental health solution. I agree. We need more and better mental health services for everyone. Most of the shooters at military bases, in movie theaters, high schools, colleges, military recruiting centers, corporations, or other venues had serious mental health problems. Many even had received treatment.

So why were they able to obtain guns? Because we have 'doctor-patient confidentiality” laws.

'Doctor-patient confidentiality is based on the notion that a person shouldn't be worried about seeking medical treatment for fear that his or her condition will be disclosed to others. The objective of this confidential relationship is to make patients feel comfortable enough to provide any and all relevant information. This helps the doctor to make a correct diagnosis, and ultimately to provide the patient with the best possible care. As a result, once a doctor takes a patient on, he or she cannot divulge any medical information about the patient to a third party without the patient's consent. This means that it is virtually impossible to gain access to mental health information that could save many lives.

Until we have a serious conversation about this huge issue and change the law to match the existential crisis we face we will no doubt lament many, many more massacres.

Of course we should be doing thorough background checks on gun buyers. None one wants potential terrorists, drug dealers, gang bangers or criminals buying guns. There is a national agreement on that.

But in actuality, almost none of the shooters would have been screened out. Some were in the military. Others bought their guns legally. Some simply got or took them from a family member. So if a hunter has some legally bought guns at home it's almost impossible to prevent a family member from accessing them.

Background check would not have kept guns out of the hands of most of these shooters. They were not on any lists.

And psychiatrists or counselors with rare exceptions cannot report potentially dangerous people who will misuse those guns.

Presidential candidates are lining up all along the spectrum of guns and mental health. Stay tuned.

' Steffen Schmidt is professor of political science at Iowa State University. Comments: Steffenschmidt2005@gmail.com