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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. states have put more names of mentally ill people into a database for gun-purchase background checks since April's Virginia Tech shootings, but some remain reluctant for privacy reasons, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The federal government pushed to get more names into a national list of people ineligible to buy guns for mental-health reasons after Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people at the university before committing suicide.

A record of Cho's history of mental problems had not been submitted to the federal registry and he was able to buy two handguns.

"We're making progress, and I hope even more states will submit this information so that the National Instant Background Check system can be maximally effective," Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in a press release.

The Justice Department said the number of state submissions to the federal system's "mental defective" file had more than doubled from July to November and now stood at 393,497. It said 28 states had submitted names, up from 22 since the Virginia Tech shootings.

Officials said they did not know whether the increase in names had stopped any gun purchases.

Another six states are moving in some way to submit names, officials said. But other states remain reluctant, a department official said, often because mental-health status has "traditionally been considered pretty private information, and stigmatizing information."

"We continue to work with the states," he said.

Mukasey told state attorneys general at a speech in Utah that as the database grows, "we can ensure that required background checks are thorough and complete, while still protecting privacy."

'IMMINENT DANGER'

The Virginia Tech shootings cast a new spotlight on U.S. mental-health and gun-ownership policies.

Gun regulation has long been a contentious issue in U.S. politics. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up its first major case on the right to keep firearms in nearly 70 years and the issue caused a heated response during a Republican presidential debate on Wednesday.

On the ineligible list are the names of people who have been found by a court or other legal authority to be mentally defective -- such as a danger to oneself or others or unable to manage one's affairs -- or who were involuntarily committed to a mental institution.

A Virginia special justice had ordered Cho in 2005 to seek outpatient treatment and found that he was an "imminent danger" to himself or others.

People found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial also are included on the ineligible list.

Justice Department officials said states do not get names outside of the legal system, through, for example, insurance records or provider information. The records submitted by the states do not identify the type of illness or treatment, they said.

Furthermore, the department said, four states also have submitted names to a broad "denied persons" file that does not disclose mental health history, up from one earlier.


http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...BrandChannel=0

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