Crowe's bill would fix loophole in mental health reporting for firearm purchases
Johnson City PressMar 19, 2018
Although its illegal for anyone who has been involuntarily committed to a mental health institution to possess a gun, most
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A 2013 state law mandates that mental health hospitals, licensed under Title 33, report involuntary commitments within three business days to local law enforcement, who then report the person's information to the
Those agencies then input the person's information into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which licensed gun dealers use to run background checks on anyone attempting to buy a gun.
However, not every person involuntarily committed for mental health treatment is listed in the NICS system.
For instance, if person was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric wing of a
"More than half of the hospitals that accepted involuntary commitments are acute care hospitals that have psychiatric units or wings,"
Between
During that same period, the
"Right now, out of all 95 counties, about 60 or so have zero or one report out of the county, and we know that is not correct," TBI senior policy adviser
Speaking to the
"We started to realize by looking at the data that this can't be right. There can't be this many people not entered," Musice said.
Crowe's bill, which passed the
"We need some kind of enforcement mechanism to say that you are actually doing this, because looking at those numbers, we know that we're not getting the reports that we should," Musice said.
According to the bill, the hospital must document its compliance with a record of communication with local law enforcement with respect to involuntary commitments. A hospital's failure to comply with the reporting requirements will subject the hospital to civil penalties or other action against the hospital's license.
"We must ensure our existing gun laws are properly enforced," Crowe said. "The verification process established by this legislation will close a major gap in how we protect our schools and all Tennesseans."
Crowe's bill also expands the amount of information that will be reported to the NICS system, requiring not just the name and date of birth, but also the person's race, sex and
Musice said about 73 percent of current NICS entries are just name and date of birth, which at times, makes it difficult on law enforcement in distinguishing between individuals.
It's also a federal crime for prohibited gun purchasers to attempt to even attempt to purchase a gun, but Musice said law enforcement agencies usually use their own discretion when charging someone for making an attempt.
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A 2015 state law, introduced by Haile, does establish procedures for an individual prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons to petition a court for those rights back.
Between 1998 and 2017, the TBI has blocked 254,637, or 3.82 percent of 6.14 million attempted firearm purchases in