Word: teche
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...Some of that confusion has been cleared up in reaction to Virginia Tech. In Virginia, Governor Tim Kaine signed a law on April 9 that will require courts to forward information about all involuntary mental health commitments to the state's central criminal records database. New laws will also broaden the standard Virginia uses to commit people against their will and increase the monitoring of those receiving outpatient care (as Cho was supposed to do but didn't). And Virginia also now requires that universities notify parents if a dependent child receives treatment at a campus counseling center. "I think...
...Before the Virginia Tech shootings, Virginia could have (and should have) reported Seung-Hui Cho's psychological history to the feds, which would have made it harder for him to buy the two guns he used, but it didn't happen. "Virginia just misunderstood what the federal standard was," says Kristen Rand, legislative director at the Violence Policy Center, adding that both state and federal officials were responsible for the bureaucratic confusion over which information to report...
...Nationwide, about 10 more states, including Illinois, have started reporting mental health information to the federal database since the Virginia Tech tragedy - bringing the total to 32. Other states are considering laws to improve their reporting, but many of those bills are not expected to pass into law. For now, in other words, 18 states still would not report someone like Seung Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, to the federal database...
...Congress and the White House point to the bill they did pass after Virginia Tech as evidence of progress. But that law, which would create financial incentives for states to improve their reporting to the federal database, is not very impressive. It just authorizes new incentives; it doesn't appropriate the money for them. In Congress, nothing is real until the cash is actually appropriated (which in this case could happen this summer or fall or... never...
...control proponents say it could be nearly 40% of guns; gun-rights groups say the number is under 3% - mostly just family members selling rifles to each other over kitchen tables. A bill to close the gun-show loophole in Virginia was killed by legislators after the Virginia Tech massacre. Congress has repeatedly failed to pass similar legislation...