Poor mental-health information hampers gun permit process

In the wake of last month's Arizona shootings allegedly by a man whose erratic behavior was known to authorities, Iowans have little assurance that state law will keep guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable here.

“By and large, there has been very little checking in Iowa of the mental competency of gun permit applicants,” said Sam Knowles, bureau chief of the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

The accused Tucson shooter, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, had a history of erratic behavior that was known to the Pima County sheriff and others. Yet he was able to buy a semi-automatic handgun at a local store, because there was no record of his behavior in the federal database used by gun sellers to screen purchasers. On Jan. 8, Loughner allegedly opened fire outside a grocery store, killing six and wounding 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Loughner had never been committed to a mental health facility or legally judged mentally incompetent - the two mental health criteria that can be, but not necessarily are, included in that database.

That same database, the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Checks System, is all that stands between mentally ill Iowans and a license to own and carry handguns, Knowles said.

While the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits the possession of firearms by the mentally ill, it specifies that people can be deprived of that right only if they have been declared mentally unfit by a court or have been committed to an institution for the mentally ill.

Theoretically, the FBI's database, which is used to perform background checks on applicants for permits to own and carry weapons in Iowa and other states, would flag applicants with the two disqualifying mental health statuses.

It contains “very spotty” mental-health-related information, though, Knowles said.

The new state law that liberalized the issuance of weapons permits includes a provision requiring the Department of Public Safety to forward disqualifying mental health information to the database. That part of the law has not been implemented, and when it is, perhaps as soon as this month, the data will be only from that date forward.

Because the database provides little information on the mental health of weapons permit applicants, “the mentally ill are going to continue to be able to get guns and permits,” Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said.

Pulkrabek and Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner say the law that changed Iowa from a “may issue” to a “shall issue” state makes it more likely that mentally ill Iowans will own and carry weapons.

“Before, all we needed was a phone call from a friend or relative to alert us to the situation. Then we could interview the subject ourselves and make our own determination on fitness for a permit,” Gardner said.

Few people under treatment for mental illness actually reach the legal threshold of having been committed or deemed mentally incompetent, Pulkrabek said.

To compensate for the lack of information, Gardner said his office checks its own database for committal orders it has served, “but we have access to only 1/99th of the state's records,” he said.

Given the value Americans attach to liberty, said Sean McClanahan, president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, he doubts that any acceptable law could have prevented the Arizona shootings.