Our new AG announced today that the FBI's Gun Ban List Doubled since the Virginia Tech shootings. The WaPo story explains that "...the FBI's Mental Defective File has ballooned from 175,000 names in June to nearly 400,000." This is part of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. Seems enforcement of this law has been, uh, lax.
Not that lax enforcement has been a theme for the last, oh, six years....
An example of lax enforcement? Well, this one runs from the feds right down to the states.
The vast majority of the new individuals were identified by California, which provided more than 200,000 names to the FBI in October, the Justice Department said. Ohio provided more than 7,000 new names, while the number of states reporting mental health data to the FBI grew from 22 to 28.
That's it? Only 28 states report data about people with mental health problems so we can ban them from buying guns? 28? Unfortunately, the story doesn't say which states...
But wait, there are more surprises!
The Virginia Tech shooting has prompted an effort by federal lawmakers and many states to improve monitoring of those covered by the ban. The House has overwhelmingly approved legislation that would encourage states to submit timely background check data to the FBI, but the measure has stalled in the Senate.
I'm shocked! Shocked to see stalling going on here! I wonder who's doing the stalling in a "deliberative" body where 20 states can stop a vote? It's looking a lot less like a good Otto Preminger political thriller in the Senate these days. Or maybe a lot more. I can't decide.
Finally, they point out what two Governors are doing to fix the problem.
In Virginia, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) tightened a loophole in April by ordering state agencies to block gun sales to those involuntarily committed for inpatient or outpatient mental health treatment. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) also issued a new gun purchase regulation that requires buyers to sign a waiver that releases mental health records to state police.
If there are any Republicans who are doing something about this, I hope someone will mention it here for the sake of fairness. I'm sure there are some Republicans with some common sense about gun laws.