Had Seung-Hui Cho ever been committed involuntarily to a mental hospital or declared legally insane, he presumably could not have bought the guns he used to slaughter 32 people at Virginia Tech. But because Cho had been ordered by a judge only to undergo outpatient treatment, he passed the background check that enabled him to buy guns from a reputable dealer.
Now Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine wants to close that “loophole” by issuing an executive order expanding the amount of mental-health information Virginia will send to the feds. Kaine’s remedy is the political equivalent of chicken soup: It might make some people feel better, but it will have no real curative effect. In fact, it could do more harm than good.
States are not requiredto provide their citizens’ mental health records to the FBI’s National Crime Information Background Check System (NICS). Indeed, many states have privacy laws expressly forbidding such information to be shared. Among the 22 states that turn over mental health records to the feds voluntarily, Virginia leads the nation to date, sending the FBI the mental health records of more than 80,000 Virginians.
Kaine has been vague about how many more records he wants included, but that is the crucial question. Does he plan to submit the names of everyone who has been ordered to receive outpatient treatment? What about people who commit themselves voluntarily? It doesn’t matter how many names are in the database; anyone who wants a gun can get one. The danger is in putting increasing amounts of personal information where it will be used for public consumption.
In this age of hysteria, Americans can’t even engage in routine activities such as getting a job, coaching a Little League team or volunteering at a hospital without undergoing a background check. If it is deemed reasonable to see someone’s credit report before she’s allowed to become a candy striper, how difficult could it be to make the argument that her mental-health records are relevant?
A government that demands access to individuals’ bank account information, library records and travel itineraries in the name of security can certainly claim that it needs the names of individuals seeking treatment for emotional disturbances. Once that information is in a government database, it will follow someone forever. Knowing that, many people who need help won’t seek it — and more tragedy could result.
Even if Cho’s name had been flagged, he could have bought the guns on the street. Or, without using guns, he could have set fire to the buildings, thrown bombs in the windows, or done any number of deadly things. The main weapons used for mass destruction recently in this country are fertilizer and box-cutters.
How much evidence would it take to convince the gun-control crowd that gun-control doesn’t work? Until last month, the District of Columbia had the strictest gun-control laws in the country — and the highest murder rate. In 2005, there were 196 homicides in the District. Prince George’s county alone had 164 murders, although Maryland’s gun laws are almost as strict. Meanwhile, Fairfax County, with it “lax” gun laws, had only 20 homicides.
We know with absolute certainty that one thing would have prevented the massacre at Virginia Tech: If Cho had been confined some place getting his court-ordered treatment. Virginians spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to operate 10 state mental hospitals with hundreds of empty beds. As of June 2006, those institutions employed more than 9,000 staff members treating only 3,000 patients. Where is the sense in allowing dangerous people to stay on the streets while we’re paying for the facilities and staff who could protect them from themselves and others?
Virginia Tech’s policy forbids stalking; at the very least, Cho could have been expelled. Deemed by a judge to be a threat to himself, he should have been institutionalized. But it is naïve to think that any bureaucratic hurdle would have deterred him from destruction. Virginia’s gun laws were not the problem — and more government is not the solution.
Examiner columnist Melanie Scarborough lives in Alexandria.
