COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Sharing some information for background checks about people determined by courts to be mentally ill would make South Carolina safer, the state's top prosecutors said Tuesday.
Flanked by state lawmakers and law enforcement officials, Attorney General Alan Wilson said he supports a bill that would require the state to give federal authorities information about people who have been adjudicated to have a mental health problem.
It's already illegal to sell guns to people with known mental illness, Wilson said. And while 38 states already share some information with the federal government for background check purposes through the National Crime Information Center, other have been allowed to opt out of reporting. That's something Wilson said should now change in South Carolina, particularly in light of events such as the mass school shooting in Newtown, Conn.
"This is not a gun restriction law," said Wilson, a member of the lifetime National Rifle Association. "It is nothing more than a gun reporting law."
The Republican said he was also inspired to take on the issue by the recent arrest of a woman accused of trying to shoot an official at a downtown Charleston school. Earlier this month, authorities say Alice Boland, 28, bought a handgun from a dealer several days before she was arrested on an attempted murder charge, accused of trying to fire it at staff members at Ashley Hall School.
Boland bought the gun despite her 2005 plea of not guilty by reason of mental incompetence to threatening to kill President George W. Bush at a Canadian airport. As a result of her plea, Boland — who federal court records note has disorders including schizophrenia and Asperger's syndrome — was ordered to get mental health treatment and evaluations, but authorities say nothing explicitly barred her from being able to buy a gun in South Carolina.
"There was no flag to flag her," said Wilson. "The gun dealer in Charleston is blame-free. They couldn't have known."
Court records list no attorney for Boland, who is being held in the Charleston County jail. A day after President Barack Obama stressed the need for gun control in his State of the Union address, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham called last week for changes in reporting requirements and said he would introduce federal legislation to that effect.
"Mr. President, you have a chance to enforce existing law in a way that would make us all safer," Graham said. "She is obviously someone who is deeply, deeply mentally troubled."
Instead of expanding the background check program, Graham suggested that the system be made stronger by ensuring information about people with court histories like Boland's is included in the federal databases.
