Speak Out: Should Mentally Disturbed be in Criminal Database?

A Lowcountry legislator has co-sponsored a bill that would prevent mentally disturbed persons from purchasing weapons, Live 5 News reported.

Rep. Leon Stavrinakis and other legislators have worked to create the bill, which is in response to the Feb. 4 attempted shooting by an allegedly mentally ill woman at Ashley Hall private school downtown Charleston. The bill would place the mentally disturbed on the national criminal database that gun dealers use for background checks. 

Live 5 reported:

(Alice Boland) was able to legally buy the gun because her name and history of mental illness were not in the database.

"We cannot afford to wait around for this to happen again and for us not to be so lucky next time," Stavrinakis said.

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Attorney General Alan Wilson also joined lawmakers and members of the business community in support of the bill during a press conference Tuesday. 

Wilson said: "This is not a gun restriction law. It is a reporting law."

What do you think? Should the mentally ill be placed in a criminal database? Tell us in the comments!