The Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, a national advocacy group co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, released new information Wednesday that faults the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for its failure to send mental health records to the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The data updates the group’s 2011 “Fatal Gaps” report and comes with the 20th anniversary of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, the legislation that created NICS. According to the update, Massachusetts has only submitted one health record to the federal database since its creation.
“Massachusetts is one of 15 states with fewer than 100 records in the system,” said Jake Sullivan, federal relations liaison for Menino. “Mayor Menino and Mayor Bloomberg and the thousands of mayors across the country who belong to Mayors Against Illegal Guns believe we need to make sure that for people who shouldn’t have a gun, [we] have a system in check that prevents them from getting weapons.”
Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick and Menino have both taken steps towards making Massachusetts compliant with the NICS, but the decision to submit mental records goes beyond their own actions, Sullivan said.
“It’s certainly not something that the city controls,” he said. “It’s a conversation that Patrick has been trying to lead, and by introducing legislation in the state house, has tried to bring to the forefront. It involves multiple state agencies that have different jurisdictions and leaderships and so you’d have to be very thorough about making sure that you have all those agencies on board to submit the records.”
In the United States, 40 percent of guns are sold without background checks. Last year, this amounted to 6.6 million guns, Sullivan said.
“There are far too many stories, anecdotal and data-driven, that will show you the tragic consequences of what happens when those loopholes [in federal background checks] allow prohibited purchasers to get a firearm,” he said.
Sharon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, is concerned with the danger that these numbers pose for the country.
“It endangers citizens and constituents,” she said. “We need to know who could [have a mental illness] and prevent them from having access to a handgun so they don’t either hurt themselves or others.”
The goal of the NICS is to create a cohesive national background check system for firearms dealers in all states.
Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said this connection between states is the best way to enhance gun safety in the country.
“The problem is that if anyone has a mental health record established in Massachusetts and they go elsewhere to another state, that’s not going to show up at all,” he said. “And we live in a society now that’s pretty mobile. People move around quite a bit, and we need a strong federal record.”
Menino has vowed to take away glaring loopholes in the laws that allow prohibited purchasers to have easy access to firearms. The mental health background checks are meant to enhance safety measures, not invade on the Second Amendment, Sullivan said.
“Since its inception, it has successfully blocked nearly 2 million sales to prohibited purchasers,” he said. “You can’t stop every shooting by these laws — we know that — but there are certain common-sense measures that can make us safer and we know that the background check system works.”
Watts hopes with a push from activist groups and a dedication from political officials, Massachusetts will soon be in compliance with NICS standards.
“It’s the obligation of mayors and elected officials to ensure that they are partnering as much as they can with the federal government to get as much of the research possible about people who are trying to purchase guns so that we can keep people safer,” she said. “You see a lot of instances of mass shootings that could have been stopped, that could have been prevented and should have been. We need to protect people.”
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