Arizona rampage renews issue of gun screenings

Despite evidence that the suspect in Saturday's rampage, Jared Lee Loughner, engaged in bizarre, disruptive behavior well before the shooting, police said he legally purchased the gun used in the attack at a sporting goods store.

"The troubles of the Tucson shooter are more proof that we make it too easy for dangerous and irresponsible people to get guns in this country," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Federal law bars possession of firearms by anyone found by a court or other legal authority to be a danger to themselves or others. Convicted felons, fugitives and people with a record of drug addiction also are banned from owning guns.

There has been no evidence that Loughner, who has been accused of gravely wounding a congresswoman and killing six bystanders on Saturday, had ever been formally judged to be mentally ill. But even if he had been, the former college student might have passed a background check when screened for his gun purchase.

SLOW FURNISHING RECORDS

That is because many states, including Arizona, have been slow in furnishing mental health records to the FBI database used in flagging prospective gun buyers prohibited from owning firearms.

U.S. Justice Department figures show that just a tiny fraction -- less than one percent -- of individuals denied a gun purchase nationwide since the system went into effect in 1998 were disqualified for psychiatric reasons.

State privacy laws have been cited as a chief impediment to greater sharing of mental health records, though experts say the situation has improved since enactment of a law in 2008 to bolster the screening network.

"The background check system is only as good as the records in it, and there are holes still in the system. But it's definitely better than before," said Jim Kessler, a policy executive and co-founder of the Washington think tank Third Way.

In yet another loophole of the system, federal law and most states require no background checks for individuals who buy a weapon from private sellers at gun shows.

Loughner, 22, purchased a semi-automatic Glock pistol -- the gun used in Saturday's shooting -- from a licensed gun dealer in Tucson in late November, authorities said.

Asked whether a history of erratic behavior had come to light when Loughner was screened for his gun purchase, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said on Sunday, "I do not know the answer to that question."

Now charged with the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Loughner has emerged as a profoundly troubled young man. Dupnik described him as mentally unstable and known to have made death threats in the past.

Pima Community College said it suspended Loughner after a series of run-ins with campus police and the emergence of an online video he made that officials found "very disturbing."