Gun Policy News
Dangerous Omissions, US Controversy over Mental Background Checks
10 July 2011
New York Times, Editorial
The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre, Seung-Hui Cho, should never have been allowed to buy the weapons he used in the 2007 rampage. He had been found mentally ill and ordered into treatment by a court, yet that record never made it into the database of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System used for screening prospective gun purchasers.
Prompted by that tragedy, Congress approved a law, signed by President Bush in 2008, authorizing new grant money... (GunPolicy.org)