RICHMOND, Va. — The governor on Monday closed the loophole in state law that allowed the Virginia Tech gunman to buy weapons despite a court ruling that he was a threat and needed psychiatric counseling.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine issued an executive order requiring that a database of people banned from buying guns include the name of anyone who is found to be dangerous and ordered to get involuntary mental health treatment.
Seung-Hui Cho was told to get counseling in 2005 after a judge ruled that he was a danger to himself.
But because Cho was treated as an outpatient and never committed to a mental health hospital, the court's decision was not entered into the database, which gun dealers must check before selling a weapon.
"Whether that treatment is to be provided in an inpatient or outpatient facility is of no moment," Kaine said.
Cho did not disclose his mental health problems or the court-ordered treatment in a form he completed before buying the guns.
"His lie on the form would have been caught," had the order been in place before Cho attempted to buy the guns, Kaine said...
The executive order does not apply to people who seek mental health care of their own will. After the report is added to Virginia's state police database, it becomes part of a federal database that gun dealers nationwide use."
ORDERED to get mental health treatment means so very many things it is impossible to calculate the potential fallout from this.
Who orders whom and for what reasonable cause? Come on folks, you don't need anyone to offer a thousand-word essay on this.
Think about it.
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