Maggie_T
03-10-2001, 01:14 PM
Comment
BEST45CAL
Forum Host
posts: 144
(2/9/01 12:55:49 am)
Reply
Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
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Feb 8, 2001 - 07:45 PM
White House Gunman Passed Background Check to Buy Gun at Pawn Shop
By Kimberly Hefling
Associated Press Writer
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Despite a history of mental illness and at least one suicide attempt, Robert W. Pickett was able to walk into a pawn shop and buy the gun he later allegedly fired outside the White House, the shop's manager said Thursday.
Pickett, 47, bought the handgun a year ago after passing instant state and federal criminal background checks, said David Sisson, operations manager at Casey's Pawn Shop.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent linked the gun to the pawn shop through a serial number, Sisson said. The ATF referred questions about the sale to U.S. Park Police, which did not return calls.
Pickett, a fired Internal Revenue Service auditor and accountant in Evansville, was shot and wounded Wednesday outside the White House after firing a gun. No one but Pickett was wounded.
His motive was unclear, though park police said he put the barrel of the gun in his mouth.
Evansville police said Pickett did not have a criminal record.
In Indiana, gun buyers must fill out state and federal forms for a background check if they don't already have a permit. Both forms ask whether the applicant has ever been adjudicated mentally defective or been sent to a mental institution by a court.
State Police are called after the forms are filled out and the sale is either approved, denied or put on hold.
"You can buy a gun in an hour," said Maj. Karen Butt of the Indiana State Police.
Butt said the forms are destroyed after 30 days because of state privacy laws, and no record exists of Pickett's responses.
In a lawsuit Pickett filed over his firing, he said he suffered from mental illness and had tried to kill himself by overdosing on psychiatric medication.
He said he suffered a "severe depression episode" in 1993 and was treated by a psychiatrist in Baltimore.
But there is no evidence so far that Pickett's treatment was anything but voluntary.
Unless a gun buyer has been arrested or convicted in connection to some type of mental illness, there is essentially no way to know if the person is telling the truth about being mentally ill or having been involuntarily committed, said Robert Meeks, a retired state trooper and now a state senator.
Meeks said authorities could do more to build a database of those who have a history of mental problems and should not be allowed to buy a gun. But he said Indiana's gun laws are adequate.
"If you start reporting every time someone has a mental illness, my goodness, what kind of country would we live in?" Meeks asked.
Brian Morton, spokesman for the lobbying group Handgun Control, said the ability to lie about mental illness is a "gigantic loophole" in instant checks.
"As a matter of policy, I think it's not like we're publishing their names on the front page of the paper," Morton said. "It's to make sure people who shouldn't have guns don't get them."
"Wise men learn more from fools than fools learn from the wise."
Keith J
Forum Host
posts: 241
(2/9/01 12:06:39 pm)
Reply Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
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Ummmmm What about the AFT 4473? Those are NOT destroyed AND are kept on file at the shop. It too has all of the questions regarding mental stability etc......
tacitus c
Forum Host
posts: 863
(2/9/01 1:17:33 pm)
Reply Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know about the forms, but this quote reeks of Big Brother all over again.
I can hear the wheels grinding the vast space of liberal minds, "hummm a national database on everyone to stop crazies from buy a gun."
Get the paid protestors lined up, get the signs made, time to march on DC!!! This time they can call it a Million Loonie March.
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meeks said authorities could do more to build a database of those who have a history of mental problems and should not be allowed to buy a gun. But he said Indiana's gun laws are adequate.
"If you start reporting every time someone has a mental illness, my goodness, what kind of country would we live in?" Meeks asked.
Brian Morton, spokesman for the lobbying group Handgun Control, said the ability to lie about mental illness is a "gigantic loophole" in instant checks.
"As a matter of policy, I think it's not like we're publishing their names on the front page of the paper," Morton said. "It's to make sure people who shouldn't have guns don't get them."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No man can establish himself by wickedness,but good men have roots that cannot be dislodged" Proverbs 11:3
AtomicLibSmasher
ezOP/TaskMaster
posts: 763
(2/9/01 7:35:16 pm)
Reply
Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
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Seems logical that he did when you consider Slick, Al, Janet and a plethora of other criminal minded hooligans made it through...
``I tried to walk a line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish this goal.'- Slick Clinton
RKfalken
Gold Star Member
posts: 87
(2/10/01 11:24:17 pm)
Reply Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It appears that you would have actually had to commit a crime to fail a background test.
Now, if you were in a mental hospital, you can get a gun.
I bet Conservatives don't want to take away the gun rights of the Insane.
AtomicLibSmasher
ezOP/TaskMaster
posts: 840
(2/11/01 8:32:09 am)
Reply
Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gorons are insane... we're all for banning gorons the use of the same self defense you clowns would happily deny us.
``I tried to walk a line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish this goal" - Slick Clinton
BEST45CAL
Forum Host
posts: 144
(2/9/01 12:55:49 am)
Reply
Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feb 8, 2001 - 07:45 PM
White House Gunman Passed Background Check to Buy Gun at Pawn Shop
By Kimberly Hefling
Associated Press Writer
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Despite a history of mental illness and at least one suicide attempt, Robert W. Pickett was able to walk into a pawn shop and buy the gun he later allegedly fired outside the White House, the shop's manager said Thursday.
Pickett, 47, bought the handgun a year ago after passing instant state and federal criminal background checks, said David Sisson, operations manager at Casey's Pawn Shop.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent linked the gun to the pawn shop through a serial number, Sisson said. The ATF referred questions about the sale to U.S. Park Police, which did not return calls.
Pickett, a fired Internal Revenue Service auditor and accountant in Evansville, was shot and wounded Wednesday outside the White House after firing a gun. No one but Pickett was wounded.
His motive was unclear, though park police said he put the barrel of the gun in his mouth.
Evansville police said Pickett did not have a criminal record.
In Indiana, gun buyers must fill out state and federal forms for a background check if they don't already have a permit. Both forms ask whether the applicant has ever been adjudicated mentally defective or been sent to a mental institution by a court.
State Police are called after the forms are filled out and the sale is either approved, denied or put on hold.
"You can buy a gun in an hour," said Maj. Karen Butt of the Indiana State Police.
Butt said the forms are destroyed after 30 days because of state privacy laws, and no record exists of Pickett's responses.
In a lawsuit Pickett filed over his firing, he said he suffered from mental illness and had tried to kill himself by overdosing on psychiatric medication.
He said he suffered a "severe depression episode" in 1993 and was treated by a psychiatrist in Baltimore.
But there is no evidence so far that Pickett's treatment was anything but voluntary.
Unless a gun buyer has been arrested or convicted in connection to some type of mental illness, there is essentially no way to know if the person is telling the truth about being mentally ill or having been involuntarily committed, said Robert Meeks, a retired state trooper and now a state senator.
Meeks said authorities could do more to build a database of those who have a history of mental problems and should not be allowed to buy a gun. But he said Indiana's gun laws are adequate.
"If you start reporting every time someone has a mental illness, my goodness, what kind of country would we live in?" Meeks asked.
Brian Morton, spokesman for the lobbying group Handgun Control, said the ability to lie about mental illness is a "gigantic loophole" in instant checks.
"As a matter of policy, I think it's not like we're publishing their names on the front page of the paper," Morton said. "It's to make sure people who shouldn't have guns don't get them."
"Wise men learn more from fools than fools learn from the wise."
Keith J
Forum Host
posts: 241
(2/9/01 12:06:39 pm)
Reply Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ummmmm What about the AFT 4473? Those are NOT destroyed AND are kept on file at the shop. It too has all of the questions regarding mental stability etc......
tacitus c
Forum Host
posts: 863
(2/9/01 1:17:33 pm)
Reply Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know about the forms, but this quote reeks of Big Brother all over again.
I can hear the wheels grinding the vast space of liberal minds, "hummm a national database on everyone to stop crazies from buy a gun."
Get the paid protestors lined up, get the signs made, time to march on DC!!! This time they can call it a Million Loonie March.
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meeks said authorities could do more to build a database of those who have a history of mental problems and should not be allowed to buy a gun. But he said Indiana's gun laws are adequate.
"If you start reporting every time someone has a mental illness, my goodness, what kind of country would we live in?" Meeks asked.
Brian Morton, spokesman for the lobbying group Handgun Control, said the ability to lie about mental illness is a "gigantic loophole" in instant checks.
"As a matter of policy, I think it's not like we're publishing their names on the front page of the paper," Morton said. "It's to make sure people who shouldn't have guns don't get them."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No man can establish himself by wickedness,but good men have roots that cannot be dislodged" Proverbs 11:3
AtomicLibSmasher
ezOP/TaskMaster
posts: 763
(2/9/01 7:35:16 pm)
Reply
Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seems logical that he did when you consider Slick, Al, Janet and a plethora of other criminal minded hooligans made it through...
``I tried to walk a line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish this goal.'- Slick Clinton
RKfalken
Gold Star Member
posts: 87
(2/10/01 11:24:17 pm)
Reply Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It appears that you would have actually had to commit a crime to fail a background test.
Now, if you were in a mental hospital, you can get a gun.
I bet Conservatives don't want to take away the gun rights of the Insane.
AtomicLibSmasher
ezOP/TaskMaster
posts: 840
(2/11/01 8:32:09 am)
Reply
Re: Whitehouse Gunman PASSED background check!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gorons are insane... we're all for banning gorons the use of the same self defense you clowns would happily deny us.
``I tried to walk a line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish this goal" - Slick Clinton