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*NYTimes Editorial --- Violent, Drunk and Holding a
Gun<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/violent-drunk-and-holding-a-gun.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130224>
*

Multiple mass shootings by deranged young men have made keeping firearms
out of the hands of mentally ill people a big part of the gun debate.

Given the enormity of those crimes, that is understandable. Federal law
does, in fact, prohibit gun ownership by mentally ill people if a judge has
found them to be dangerous or they have been involuntarily committed to a
mental hospital. President Obama has also issued executive
orders<http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf>to
ensure that federal background checks include complete information on
people barred from owning guns for mental health reasons and to clarify
that federal law allows health care providers to report patients’ credible
threats of violence to the authorities.

But a focus on mass murder, while critical, does not get at the broader
issue of gun violence, including the hundreds of single-victim murders,
suicides, nonfatal shootings and other gun crimes that occur daily in the
United States. And focusing on the mentally ill, most of whom are not
violent, overlooks people who are at demonstrably increased risk of
committing violent crimes but are not barred by federal law from buying and
having guns.

These would include people who have been convicted of violent
misdemeanors<http://tinyurl.com/aol34tw>including assaults, and those
who are alcohol
abusers <http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/15/6/425.extract>. Unless
guns are also kept from these high-risk people, preventable gun violence
will continue.

*VIOLENT MISDEMEANORS* Federal law prohibits felons from buying and
possessing firearms; it also bars people convicted of a misdemeanor crime
of domestic violence. But it permits gun purchase and ownership by people
convicted of other violent misdemeanors, defined variously under state
laws, including assault and battery, brandishing a weapon or making open,
credible threats of violence. Many people convicted of violent misdemeanors
were originally charged with felonies but then convicted of lesser charges
because of plea bargains. And research shows that people who have been
convicted of any misdemeanors and who then legally buy a handgun are more
likely to commit crimes after that gun purchase than buyers with no prior
convictions.

California provides a case study. It changed its law in 1991 to prohibit
individuals convicted of violent misdemeanors from buying guns for 10 years
after the conviction. Before that, a
study<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9875875>showed that gun
buyers with even a single prior misdemeanor conviction were
nearly five times as likely as those with no criminal history to be
arrested for gun-related or other violent crimes. After the law was
enacted, a significant decrease in arrests was
attributed<http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/vprp/pdf/IneligibilityJTrauma.pdf>to
the denial of gun sales to people with misdemeanor records.

*ALCOHOL ABUSE* Federal law prohibits the purchase and possession of guns
by anyone who is “an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled
substance.” But the statute ignores alcohol abuse. That is also a mistake.
The evidence<http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/publications/WhitePaper102512_CGPR.pdf>linking
alcohol abuse and gun-related violence is
compelling <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5904a1.htm>. One
study <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9268278> found that subjects who
had ever been in trouble at work for drinking or were ever hospitalized for
alcohol abuse were at increased risk of committing homicide and suicide.

Other studies also suggest that alcohol abuse is a factor in the
association between gun ownership and the criminal justice system. The
difficulty in policing alcohol abuse for purposes of gun control is that
there is no precise definition of abuse. Pennsylvania, however, provides a
useful example. It bars gun purchases by those who have been convicted of
three or more drunken driving offenses within a five-year period. That
criterion identifies drinkers with demonstrated tendencies toward
recklessness and lawbreaking.

President Obama has instructed the Justice Department to review the federal
prohibitions on gun ownership and to make legislative and executive
recommendations “to ensure dangerous people aren’t slipping through the
cracks.” The answers are already out there