Monday, August 27, 2012

The Background Check System Needs to be Fixed


 The Denver Post reports

More than 2 million qualifying mental-illness records are missing from the NICS index, according to the National Center for State Courts and SEARCH, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics.

Judges who find a defendant mentally defective under the law are required to add that person's name to the index.

"Part of the reason they don't report is lack of funding, and part is they just don't make this system a priority," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
This is disgraceful and something should be done.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

5 comments:

  1. This is exactly what people don't understand about wanting to increase gun regulations, back ground checks, checks for purchasing ammunition and micro-labeling of ammunition. Where in the world is the man power and hundreds of millions dollars going to come from to build all of those systems to do all of that checking?

    We are broke! As of the time of this posting the national debt per citizen is: $51,010.73. We cannot afford to add any new systems or burden on the existing system. Sorry, but we're simply broke.

    We need to worry about fixing our economy and getting people back to work so there isn't wide spread pandemonium going on because so many people are without work, unable to earn a living. When there is an abundance of jobs and people are able to feed their families and themselves then the people will feel like there is a future to work towards. The majority of society wants to be productive and prosperous and if they have the availability to do so they would rather chose that vs. theft and violence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So very true.

      And we should all note something about our national debt per citizen of $51,010.73. If you consider a typical family of four, that family owes $204,000!!!!! That is like having a mortgage on a home. So every family in this country should be paying about $860 per month (assuming 3% interest rate) just to pay down our national debt over the next 30 years.

      For many people, that isn't possible -- especially on top of ordinary taxes.

      Delete
  2. Governmental systems are always failure prone. Three primary causes (among many possible) are lack of funding, apathy, and corruption.

    Gun grabbers keep telling us how we will all be safer if we would just give up our guns and finally trust government to protect us. And yet they cannot tell us why perpetual political funding problems and perpetual problems of human nature such as apathy and corruption would not affect gun control programs.

    And one more small detail. They cannot tell us how to make criminals slow down their attacks so a victim can calmly call 911 and wait 10 to 20 minutes for police to arrive.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mikeb, you're constantly bloviating about how bad it is that crazy people can get guns, but how about showing us how many crazy people commit crimes? How about also discussing the reliability of mental health adjudications.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is there really involved with adding these criminals to a registry? Someone along the line has to process them anyway, how long does it take to add them to the registry too? This would make background screening even more comprehensive, safe, and complete! It is crazy that something so simple can cause such a stir!

    ReplyDelete