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Message: <blockquote data-quote="soberups" data-source="post: 799202" data-attributes="member: 14668">My understanding is that the alleged shooter's behavior prior to the murders never crossed the legal threshold of being clinically diagnosed with a mental illness. He had not been civilly committed, he did not have a restraining order out against him, and he had never been convicted of any crime.  Under Federal law, any person anywhere in the US who buys a gun from a licensed dealer (such as the Sportsmans Warehouse where the alleged shooter bought his Glock) is required to submit to a background check and be fingerprinted. Some states do not have the ability to do an "instant check" and require the purchaser to wait for up to 7 days before taking posession of the gun. Other states...such as mine (Oregon) or Arizona, are able to do the check instantly and if the purchaser does not show up in the database as having a criminal record, an active restraining order, or a verifiable history of medically diagnosed mental illness, they can take posession of the gun immediately. Its important to remember a few facts here. First of all, the alleged shooter bought the gun on November 30th, almost a month and a half prior to the murders. Second of all, the alleged shooter had no criminal record and had never been medically diagnosed with a mental defect or subjected to any sort of civil commitment that would show up on a background check. And thirdly, if the alleged shooter had been flagged and denied on his background check he could have simply gone to the online classified ads and purchased a gun from a private party. Remember that we are talking about a guy who allegedly stalked Rep Giffords for years and had all the time in the world to plan out his premeditated crime...so even if he had walked out of that Sportmans Warehouse empty-handed back on November 30th he still would have had over a month to obtain a gun by other means. I dont necesarily object to the idea of background checks....I submitted to a very thorough one myself when I got my concealed handgun permit....but in a situation such as the tragedy that just occured it is not realistic to think that a background check would have affected the outcome at all.</blockquote>

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