Unusual Allies and more NICS improvement stuff
The radical extremist gun lobby says we should improve the NICS:
With the Virginia Tech shootings resurrecting calls for tighter gun controls, the National Rifle Association has begun negotiations with senior Democrats over legislation to bolster the national background-check system and potentially block gun purchases by the mentally ill.
Rep. John D. Dingell (Mich.), a gun-rights Democrat who once served on the NRA’s board of directors, is leading talks with the powerful gun lobby in hopes of producing a deal by early next week, Democratic aides and lawmakers said.
Under the bill, states would be given money to help them supply the federal government with information on mental-illness adjudications and other run-ins with the law that are supposed to disqualify individuals from firearms purchases. For the first time, states would face penalties for not keeping the National Instant Criminal Background Check System current.
The bill is authored by Carolyn “Barrel Shroud” McCarthy. More:
Since 1968, individuals deemed mentally ill by the legal system are not supposed to be able to buy guns. A court’s ordering Cho into treatment in late 2005 should have been reported to the federal background check system, congressional aides said. Instead, his background check came up clean, and he legally bought the two handguns used to kill 32 students and teachers before he committed suicide.
“The states are not putting records into the system,” McCarthy said yesterday.
My thoughts on the bill are here.
Via David, who’s none too happy.
