Re: Wal-Mart sued over gun sale

From: ajpdla (ajpdla_at_pacifier.com)
Date: 12/23/04 

Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:14:38 -0800

"Jeannie Wilson" <jwilson421@comcastspamkills.net> wrote in message
news:Xns95C755A4BF2E2jwilson421comcastnet@216.196.97.136...
> What do you all think?

Another purely emotional case being filed for pure financial gain. I'm sad;
so make the other guy pay.

> 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.

I don't know of any case where reports such as these are transmitted from
store to store. So, upon that basis alone, there should be no case to make
here.

> 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.

Okay. Let's just interrogate everyone before we sell them ANYTHING. ANd
question why they would want ANY particular product and for what particular
reason it is intended to be used.

> 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.

Well, both have their own respective problems.

> "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.

Hearsay. Inadmissible.

> 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.

Could have, maybe. But I don't believe legally obligated to do so. Again,
I don't believe there would be filesharing in this case anyway amongst
stores.

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

Why should she? It's unfounded.

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

Thus the reignited debate.

> 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.

Thus the reignited debate.

> 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.

Thus the reignited debate.

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

Thus the reignited debate.

> 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.

I don't see any informatio in this article re: whether the deceased had EVER
been involuntarily committed. Had she? And it's really immaterial whether
the clerk filled out the form or the deceased did. The clerk would just
testify that she filled it out with answers verbally given to her BY the
deceased.

> 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.

Thus the reignited debate.

> "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."

Ahem, guns don't kill people. People kill people.

> Garrett Bracy couldn't disagree more.

Smart man.

> 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.

Nope. The 2nd Amendment guarantees it, in a sense.

> 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.

Based on emotion. Which is understandable. I don't know much about her
personally. But I do remember somewhat of the story. BTW, her husband
wasn't the only one killed on this train. Sad the article didn't point that
out. It's always the "little people" who don't get mentioned.

> 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.

Ah, but could they have been prevented? There's the rub.

We had an incident here in Tillamook about, oh, two years or so ago where a
gentleman walked into a sporting goods store here and asked to see a gun
from behind the counter. Upon being presented the weapon for his
observation, this guy immediately began to run around the store while
attempting to load the gun with bullets he apparently brought with him into
the store or found somewhere in the store before asking to see the weapon.
He ended up firing the gun at himself, hitting himself in the head and
knocking himself unconscious, where he was then transported to the local
hospital and then to Portland, I believe, for further treatment. Some of
the details remain sketchy. However, it was found out that this was this
man's THIRD or FOURTH attempt at taking his own life, all times
unsuccessfully.

I don't really have a point here to make except to say that if someone wants
to end their own life, sooner or later they are going to get the job done.

Aaron

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Blanks" kill actors
    ... Jennifer Cooper had never fired a gun before, but when an intruder ... she heard the chime of her front door ... Colton, Calif., liquor store ...
    (alt.security.alarms)
  • Re: Increased gun crime in Britain
    ... very much in favour of tough, sane, homogeneous gun control ... Chevron convenience store filling newspaper racks when he saw a man ... The wounded robber dropped his shotgun but ran toward Harper, ... who shot him twice more. ...
    (talk.politics.guns)
  • Re: NRA Action Figures Removed From Toys-R-Us
    ... crowded toy store ... blood flowed from her nose, said Scott Barrick, 41. ... "He pulled his gun right next to me. ... Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him ...
    (talk.politics.guns)
  • Re: When faith in humanity strikes a new low
    ... I also notice that the women never get involved in the gun ... I had entered the store as directed by my host to collect some keys from his ... He didn't hear what I said, but thankfully the son came running ... We took risks my travelling ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic)
  • Wal-Mart sued over gun sale
    ... is suing Wal-Mart for selling a gun to Stewart. ... Her mother, Lavern Bracy, is suing the world's biggest retail chain for $25 ... database contains no mental-health records from Texas and 37 other states. ...
    (sci.med.transcription)