RGJ investigates: Courts failed to send 1,945 guardianship cases to database to prevent gun purchase

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Courts across Nevada failed to send almost 2,000 guardianship cases involving those with mental illnesses to a database of people who are not allowed to have firearms, according to the final report on a statewide audit sparked by a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation.

The RGJ reviewed 274 of the cases identified as missed by the Washoe District Court and found that many were considered violent, including a woman who wanted to kill her daughter-in-law, a man arrested dozens of times for assaults and a student arrested twice this year for violence at school and once for attacking his mother.

“He has a history of throwing things, attacking teachers, teacher’s aides,” the student’s grandmother, Lois Denaut, said.

Nevada courts are required by law to send guardianship records to the Department of Public Safety so they can be added to the National Instant Background Check System, used during gun sales. But the RGJ discovered while reporting on a Reno police sergeant who sold a private gun to a mentally ill man that a glitch caused the courts to miss these cases.

full: http://www.webcitation.org/6L5jovfKG

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1. An existing law Not enforced.