Wal-Mart sued over gun sale

From: Jeannie Wilson (jwilson421_at_comcastspamkills.net)
Date: 12/22/04 

Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 07:36:07 -0600

What do you all think?
From:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002127008_gunsuit22.html

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Wal-Mart sued over sale of gun to suicide victim

By Liz Austin

The Associated Press

AP

Lavern Bracy, left, shown in April 2000 with daughter Shayla Stewart,
right, is suing Wal-Mart for selling a gun to Stewart.

 DALLAS — Near the end of her short life, Shayla Stewart, a diagnosed
manic-depressive and schizophrenic, assaulted police officers and was
arrested for attacking a fellow customer at a Denton Wal-Mart where she had
a prescription for anti-psychotic medication.

Given all those signs, her parents say, another Wal-Mart just seven miles
away should have never sold her the shotgun she used to kill herself at age
24 in 2003.

Her mother, Lavern Bracy, is suing the world's biggest retail chain for $25
million, saying clerks should have known about her daughter's illness or
done more to find out.

The case, filed earlier this month, has reignited a debate over the
confidentiality of mental-health records and the effectiveness of
background checks on would-be gun buyers.

"We know that if they had so much as said, 'Why do you want this?' we would
not be having this conversation because Shayla would have had a meltdown,"
said her stepfather, Garrett Bracy.

The Bracys said Wal-Mart's gun department could have checked the company's
own security files or the pharmacy department's prescription records before
selling her the weapon.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher declined to comment on the lawsuit.

But pharmacy prescription records are confidential under a 1996 federal
law, so stores cannot use them when deciding whether to sell a gun.

Also, Wal-Mart did a background check on Stewart, as required under federal
law, but her name did not show up in the FBI database. The reason: The
database contains no mental-health records from Texas and 37 other states.

 
Texas does not submit mental-health records because state law deems them
confidential, said Paul Mascot, an attorney with the Texas Department of
State Health Services. Other states have not computerized their record-
keeping systems or do not store them in a central location for use by the
FBI.

Federal law prohibits stores from selling guns to people who, like Stewart,
have a history of serious mental illness.

Would-be buyers must fill out a form that asks about mental health. On
Stewart's form, a box that asked whether she had been involuntarily
committed to an institution or declared dangerously mentally ill by a judge
was incorrectly marked no. (Her mother's attorneys question whether Stewart
filled out the form herself or a clerk did it for her.) Wal-Mart ran a
background check anyway, as required by federal law.

Michael Faenza, president and chief executive of the National Mental Health
Association, applauds Texas' refusal to share information with the FBI
database. He said it would not be fair to violate patients' privacy when
there is no data to support claims that mentally ill people are more
violent than others.

"The tragedies that families face when people are killed is terrible. And,
frankly, I wish handguns were not so available in this country," he said.
"But it's not right, in our minds, to make social policy based on just a
few cases."

Garrett Bracy couldn't disagree more.

He and his wife watched his stepdaughter's six-year decline from a
straight-A high-school student to a violent and unpredictable stranger. She
was hospitalized five times, twice under court orders. Her longest
hospitalization, lasting a month, came in 2002 after she refused to leave
her room or take her medication.

The suggestion that Wal-Mart should have checked prescription records
infuriates Erich Pratt, a spokesman for the Virginia-based group Gun Owners
of America.

"Does that mean mental illness prevents everyone on Prozac from owning a
gun? Or women with PMS?" he asked.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who ran for Congress after her husband was
killed and son wounded in 1993 by a gunman on a Long Island Rail Road
train, wants to strengthen the federal background check system by
encouraging states to share mental-health records. She has introduced
legislation that would give states grants to automate and turn over the
information.

She drafted the bill after a priest and a parishioner were shot to death by
a schizophrenic man in a New York church in 2002. He, too, should not have
been allowed to buy a gun.

"When you see these deaths that could have been prevented, it's a shame,"
McCarthy said.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Wal-Mart sued over gun sale
    ... store to store. ... so stores cannot use them when deciding whether to sell a gun. ... Thus the reignited debate. ... > database contains no mental-health records from Texas and 37 other states. ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: Tighter gun-buy checks advance
    ... WASHINGTON -- Two weeks before students return to classes at Virginia Tech, a Senate panel voted yesterday to strengthen the national instant background-check system for gun buyers. ... "Seung-Hui Cho was not eligible to buy a weapon given his mental-health history, but he was still able to pass a background check because data was missing from the system," Leahy said. ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Re: Tighter gun-buy checks advance
    ... Obtaining the gun illegally comes in two basic varieties. ... WASHINGTON -- Two weeks before students return to classes at Virginia Tech, a Senate panel voted yesterday to strengthen the national instant background-check system for gun buyers. ... "Seung-Hui Cho was not eligible to buy a weapon given his mental-health history, but he was still able to pass a background check because data was missing from the system," Leahy said. ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Re: Wal-Mart Edges Toward the Dark Side
    ... ## system to record when a gun sold at Wal-Mart is later used in a crime. ... If a prior purchasor's gun was used in a crime, ... #BTW,How is Wal-Mart supposed to know when a gun sold by them HAS been "used ...
    (rec.guns)
  • Re: Wal-Mart Edges Toward the Dark Side
    ... # system to record when a gun sold at Wal-Mart is later used in a crime. ... If a prior purchasor's gun was used in a crime, ... BTW,How is Wal-Mart supposed to know when a gun sold by them HAS been "used ...
    (rec.guns)