Reply #9: Panel votes to report mental commitments to gun database (AL) [View All]

[CO Liberal]

A move in the right direction. Too bad two cops had to die before they decided to fix the problem... - Wayne

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Panel votes to report mental commitments to gun database

The Associated Press
January 14, 2004

Following the killing of two police officers, a state commission decided Alabama should start giving information to a national gun database about Alabamians involuntarily committed to mental hospitals.

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information System Commission voted Tuesday to try to make Alabama one of the states that reports commitments and mental defect data to the database used by gun dealers to check whether customers are qualified to purchase guns.

Mark Hartley, criminal history project leader for the Criminal Justice Information System, said the agency will look for a way to obtain electronic information on commitments and transfer them to the database in Clarksburg, W.Va., that is overseen by the FBI. He said the Legislature may need to pass legislation to address privacy issues about the commitment records being sent to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Farron Barksdale, who had a history of mental commitments, is accused of gunning down two Athens police officers on Jan. 2 with a rifle he purchased Dec. 24 at a Huntsville gun shop. The gun dealer ran a background check on Barksdale using the federal database, and he passed because Alabama had not reported any of his commitments.

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http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040114/APN/401140746