Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130300
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
KEEPING GUNS FROM DISTURBED NOT EASY, SOME SAY
Keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally disturbed is not simple, and authorities cautioned Thursday that Darryl Quentin Smith's shooting spree in Newport News will not prompt immediate changes in the state's already stiffening gun laws."If there was anything we could do to strengthen [the law], I would. But I think that could cause problems unless we could clearly define mental health," said Speaker of the House Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, one of the most powerful legislative supporters of gun restrictions.
Even Del. Robert McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach, who tried unsuccessfully this past General Assembly session to enact a law prohibiting gun sales to anyone ever committed to a mental institution, warned, "We do have to be somewhat careful with definitions in this thing."
But the violent spree of Smith, who was diagnosed as manic depressive in 1985, "is one more example of why more regulation is needed in this area," McDonnell said. "It's pretty self-evident that mixing guns with mental instability is an awful dangerous combination."
The General Assembly already planned to study ways of limiting gun sales to people with mental problems, thanks to a resolution McDonnell introduced. And Gov. Douglas Wilder said Thursday through a spokesman that he might conduct an independent review.
Wilder earlier said in a prepared statement that he wished the one-gun-per-month purchase limit just passed by the General Assembly had "been in effect when this untimely event occurred. [The shooting] may very well have been prevented."
However, the new law's expanded background check, which presumably could have revealed some of Smith's problems, would only be used if someone tried to buy more than one gun. Smith bought a single .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol, and so would have had no trouble making the purchase.
Even a tougher federal law couldn't stop the sale. When he bought the gun, Smith had to fill out a federal background disclosure form that asks, "Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?"
An answer of "Yes" would have kept Smith from buying the gun. He answered "No," according to the man who sold him the weapon.
Smith was taken to Eastern State Hospital in 1985 under a detention order after he allegedly assaulted his father.
After four days, doctors diagnosed Smith as manic depressive and released him. That, said a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, does not constitute being committed to an institution. So Smith's answer of "No" on the gun form apparently was accurate.
The only similar state restriction prohibits selling a gun to anyone committed to a mental institution after being acquitted of a crime by reason of insanity.
That law, limited as it is, is one of only a few in the nation that tie mental health to buying a gun. A spokeswoman for the lobbying group Handgun Control Inc. said she knew of only six states besides Virginia with related statutes.
McDonnell wants Virginia to emulate one of those states, Illinois, by linking the state police computer to the state Department of Mental Health so that even confidential records could be considered during gun purchases.
That raises disturbing questions for groups that otherwise support gun control, such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
"A strict law that says no one with a mental disability can purchase a gun would likely be unconstitutional," said Kent Willis of the Virginia ACLU. "Someone needs to come up with sophisticated rules and regulations that have a rational basis for excluding some people from having guns, based on a public safety rationale."