After recent mass shootings across the country, local police say any gun control efforts should include background checks for mental health.
OKLAHOMA CITY –
Oklahoma police chiefs are speaking out about gun control. They’re supporting a bill that would crack down on mental health checks for gun buyers.
There’s already a law on the books that prohibits people with certain mental health issues to buy a gun. Those records are kept in a federal database.
But Oklahoma records are not included, because the state doesn’t submit them. And those in law enforcement want that loophole closed.
After recent mass shootings across the country, local police say any gun control efforts should include background checks for mental health.
“Although this is a divisive subject, gun control in general, I think we can all agree that anyone that goes on a rampage probably has some mental health issues at the time they commit the crime,” Stillwater Director of Public Safety Norm McNickle said.
McNickle is the president of the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police. The group says it’s too easy right now for guns to get in the wrong hands, and here’s why.
When you go to buy a gun in Oklahoma, you’ll fill out a federal form.
One of the questions asks whether the potential gun buyer has ever been adjudicated as mentally ill or institutionalized.
“Oklahoma does not report that,” McNickle says, “and all a person has to do is check the box,‘no,’ and no one would ever know.”
House Bill 1240,authored by Rep. Steve Martin, would close the loophole, requiring mental health records in Oklahoma to be submitted to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
That’s what gun dealers check during a sale.
“You would be amazed at how many people are evaluated by a mental health professional, go before a judge, and they are found to be a danger to themselves or others,” said McNickle. “We’re talking thousands in the state of Oklahoma in a year’s period of time.”
Again, those records are kept when the court decides whether a person is mentally competent.
If passed, the bill would require county court clerks offices to submit those records to the federal database
The bill has passed the House and now moves to the Senate. The OACP says it supports the implementation of existing gun control laws and opposes the assault weapons ban.
There’s already a law on the books that prohibits people with certain mental health issues to buy a gun. Those records are kept in a federal database.
But Oklahoma records are not included, because the state doesn’t submit them. And those in law enforcement want that loophole closed.
After recent mass shootings across the country, local police say any gun control efforts should include background checks for mental health.
“Although this is a divisive subject, gun control in general, I think we can all agree that anyone that goes on a rampage probably has some mental health issues at the time they commit the crime,” Stillwater Director of Public Safety Norm McNickle said.
McNickle is the president of the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police. The group says it’s too easy right now for guns to get in the wrong hands, and here’s why.
When you go to buy a gun in Oklahoma, you’ll fill out a federal form.
One of the questions asks whether the potential gun buyer has ever been adjudicated as mentally ill or institutionalized.
“Oklahoma does not report that,” McNickle says, “and all a person has to do is check the box,‘no,’ and no one would ever know.”
House Bill 1240,authored by Rep. Steve Martin, would close the loophole, requiring mental health records in Oklahoma to be submitted to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
That’s what gun dealers check during a sale.
“You would be amazed at how many people are evaluated by a mental health professional, go before a judge, and they are found to be a danger to themselves or others,” said McNickle. “We’re talking thousands in the state of Oklahoma in a year’s period of time.”
Again, those records are kept when the court decides whether a person is mentally competent.
If passed, the bill would require county court clerks offices to submit those records to the federal database
The bill has passed the House and now moves to the Senate. The OACP says it supports the implementation of existing gun control laws and opposes the assault weapons ban.
