A person can walk into a gun store, he appears to be normal, he strikes up a conversation with the shop owner. The Shop owner has no idea if he has a mental illness or not. A week later the gun is used in a shooting.
This is not about the gun or where to get a gun, it's about it being very hard to tell whether someone is disturbed enough to be homicidal. Like that Elliot Rogers kid who suddenly snapped, who knows how long he was bottling up those emotions. I don't think mental health clinics or whatever they are called are doing enough.
What do you think can be done about this?
-
Background checks. Submit to a mental checkup by an authorized professional. Training in how to handle a firearm, clean a firearm, and to safely keep it away from other people. Registration of the gun owner and the firearm that they're buying to provide some sort of responsibility and liability. Right now, I can go to the gun store in this town, and buy myself a rifle, a pistol, or even a shotgun without any mental checkup. All I need to do is show that I've had training in how to shoot a gun, that's it. Really, it's that lax. All I need is money and I can buy myself any gun I want without any registration, or to see if I'm mentally fit to own a gun.