Texas lawmakers may be on a path to passing bipartisan legislation which aims to cut off a loophole in a 2009 law that’s meant to prevent people with a history of mental health issues from obtaining firearms.
A bill by state Sen. Joan Huffman
, which would require courts to report information about involuntary mental health hospitalizations of juveniles aged 16 and older, passed unanimously out of committee last week with bipartisan backing.
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The bill is “meant to make the background check more thorough and hence make our communities and schools safer,” Huffman, a Republican, said at the committee hearing. The bill awaits a full vote in the state Senate.
Huffman sponsored the legislation after an investigation by
ProPublica and the
Texas Tribune showed juveniles were being excluded from the national firearms background check system. The author of the 2009 law, former state lawmaker Elliott Naishtat, said the measure was intended to apply to all Texans regardless of age. But after the May 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde
, the outlets found that local courts were not sharing that information for juveniles.
The investigations prompted the Texas Judicial Council to ask lawmakers for clarity about reporting requirements for juveniles.
“Texas does not have a centralized source for statewide mental health adjudication information in juvenile cases,” TJC wrote in its 2022 report, noting the National Instant Criminal Background Check System would need to contact “each of the more than 450 district clerks and county clerks in the state” to form a comprehensive list.
Last June, Congress passed gun reform legislation that requires federal investigators to look into state databases for juvenile mental health records. But those records would fail to reveal court-ordered juvenile commitments in Texas due to the lack of reporting.
A law enforcement personnel stands next to a large teddy bear at a memorial honoring the victims in this week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas Saturday, May 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Jae C. Hong/AP
If the bill passes, Texas courts will be required to share involuntary mental health hospitalization records for juveniles 16 and older with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
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Around the same time Congress passed reforms in response to the Uvalde shooting, San Antonio authorities arrested a 19-year-old male suspect on a terrorist threat charge. His father told police he was put into mental health facilities twice three years prior.
The suspect had recently purchased an AR-style rifle and considered the gunman who killed 22 people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde to be an “idol” and threatened to commit a mass shooting at an Amazon delivery station where he worked, according to a criminal affidavit.
