nytimes
A newly created database of× Yorkers
deemed too mentally unstable to carry firearms has grown to roughly
34,500 names, a previously undisclosed figure that has raised concerns
among some mental health advocates that too many people have been
categorized as dangerous.
The
database, established in the aftermath of the mass shooting in 2012 at
the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and maintained by
the state× Division of Criminal Justice Services, is the result of the× Act. It is an expansive package of gun control measures pushed through by the administration of× Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The law, better known for its ban on assault weapons, compels licensed mental health professionals in× York to report to the authorities any patient “likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others.”
But the number of entries in the database highlights the difficulty of× America’s
complicated balancing act between public safety and the right to bear
arms when it comes to people with mental health issues. “That seems
extraordinarily high to me,” said Sam Tsemberis, a former director of× City’s involuntary hospitalization program for homeless and dangerous people, now the chief executive of× Pathways to Housing, which provides housing to the mentally ill. “Assumed dangerousness is a far cry from actual dangerousness.”
Similar
laws in other states have raised the ire of gun rights proponents, who
worry that people who posed no threat at all would have their rights
infringed. Mental health advocates have also argued that the laws
unnecessarily stigmatized people with mental illnesses.
Because the names in× York’s
database and the circumstances of their cases are private, it is
impossible to independently determine whether the people in it are truly
dangerous.
The database figures were obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of× Law request.
Gun control supporters argue a wide net is appropriate, given the potentially dire consequences.
Even if just one dangerous person had a gun taken away, “that’s a good thing,” said× Malte, senior national policy director of the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence. The National Rifle Association of× America
favors a separate “process of adjudication” to make sure that “these
decisions are not being made capriciously and maliciously,” Andrew
Arulanandam, a spokesman, said.
John Tauriello, deputy commissioner and counsel for the state× Office of Mental Health, said the figure must be evaluated in the context of the magnitude of× York’s
mental health system, to which 144,000 people were admitted in 2012 for
treatment in community hospitals, private psychiatric hospitals or
state-operated psychiatric centers.
“It sounds really reasonable if you know the size of the system,” Mr. Tauriello said.
Mental
health professionals and advocates point out, however, the vast
majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent. Accurately
predicting whether someone will be violent, they said, is also a highly
fraught process.
Under
the 2013 law, the reports prepared by doctors, psychologists, nurses
and social workers are first sent to county officials. If they agree
with the assessments, the officials then input the names into the state
database. The information is retained for five years. If the authorities
find a person in the database has a gun permit — necessary to purchase a
handgun in New York — they are required to revoke the license and seize
any guns. The people in the database are barred from obtaining a permit
until their names are purged.
Among
the people named in the database, fewer than 300 were found to have a
permit. State officials said they did not know how many guns were
subsequently seized from them.
Under the 2013 law,× York is one of the most restrictive states in the country in terms of mental health and firearms.
Under
federal and most state laws, people with serious mental illnesses lose
their gun rights only if they have been involuntarily committed to a
mental health center, or have been legally designated as mentally ill or
incompetent; both relatively rare occurrences. A small number of
states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and× York, have stricter criteria for people with serious mental health issues to purchase and possess firearms.
New
York’s law gives county officials the responsibility of reviewing the
reports from mental health workers, ostensibly providing an added layer
of oversight. But several said in interviews that they had little
capacity to independently confirm whether the finding that a patient was
dangerous was justified.
The
way the law has played out, local officials said, frontline mental
health workers feel compelled to routinely report mentally ill patients
brought to an emergency room by the police or ambulances. County health
officials are then supposed to vet each case before it is sent to× Albany.
But so many names are funneled to county health authorities through the
system — about 500 per week statewide — that they have become, in
effect, clerical workers, rubber-stamping the decisions, they said. From
when the reporting requirement took effect on March 16, 2013 until× Oct.
3, 41,427 reports have been made on people who have been flagged as
potentially dangerous. Among these, 40,678 — all but a few hundred cases
— were passed to× Albany by county officials, according to the data obtained by The Times.
As
of Saturday, the state updated the database to 42,900 reports, and said
that roughly 34,500 of those were unique individuals. The rest of the
names were duplicates because people had been reported more than once.
Kenneth
M. Glatt, commissioner of mental hygiene for Dutchess County, said that
at first, he had carefully scrutinized every name sent to him through
the Safe Act. But then he realized that he was just “a middleman,” and
that it was unlikely he would ever meet or examine any of the patients.
So he began simply checking off the online boxes, sometimes without even
reviewing the narrative about a patient.
“Every
so often I read one just to be sure,” Dr. Glatt, a psychologist, said.
“I am not going to second guess. I don’t see the patient. I don’t know
the patient.” He said it would be more efficient — and more honest — for
therapists to report names directly to the Division of Criminal Justice
Services, which checks them against gun permit applications.
On
a recent Wednesday, Dr. Glatt logged into the system and up popped the
names of people being reported — 16 since he last looked three days
before.
Among
the newest cases was a patient who had threatened to kill his partner.
“Becomes aggressive and unpredictable, has history of noncompliance with
medications,” the narrative said.
Two
patients had attempted suicide with guns. Another “is exhibiting manic
behavior,” the note said. It added that the patient was “not sleeping in
the past few days, throwing lit cigarettes and matches around the
house,” and had “a history of fire setting.”
Still
one more involved a man who had threatened a housing office worker if
he was not helped immediately and was so agitated that it took six
police officers to bring him into the emergency room.
After
the names are entered into the database, they are compared against gun
permit records. Since the law went into effect, state officials have
found 278 matches, with the largest number, 36, in Monroe County,
followed by 17 in Westchester, 16 in Suffolk and 14 in Dutchess.
Several
mental health experts said the data obtained by The Times renewed their
fears that the reporting requirement would discourage patients from
seeking help.
“The
threshold for reporting is so low that it essentially advertises that
psychiatrists are mandatory reporters for anybody who expresses any kind
of dangerousness,” said Dr. Mark J. Russ, director of acute care
psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, Queens, which has
filed many reports to the state.
Another
concern is the possibility that the database might be used for other
purposes or could contain a mistaken identity. State officials, however,
emphasized that only a small number of programmers and administrators
have access to the entire database, while others, like law enforcement
or licensing officers, see only what they need to make sure the
identifications match individual gun permit applications.
The
Cuomo administration initially refused The Times’s request for data on
the program and rebuffed a public records request, turning over limited
information only after an appeal process.
The
overwhelming majority of reports from mental health professionals are
coming from hospitals — often community hospitals — with an emergency
room and inpatient psychiatric services, according to several county
officials. Relatively few came from either outpatient mental health
clinics or private therapists, they said. The typical diagnoses are
schizophrenia, psychosis or major depression.
In
interviews last week, state officials said they believed the law had
focused on the right group of people. The approach prescribed in the law
“is common sense and saves lives,” Melissa DeRosa, a spokeswoman for the governor, said.
While
the county-level review of the names might not be a perfect system,
state officials said, it at least provided a check against flagrantly
undocumented referrals to the database. Not only that, they said, but
county officials in smaller upstate communities might know the people
being reported and be able to make informed judgments about them.
Despite
the breadth of the law, significant loopholes remain. Outside of New
York City, permits are not required to buy long guns, so nothing would
stop someone in the database from buying a shotgun, for example, after
being released from a hospital. Also, it is unclear exactly how the
process for confiscating someone’s guns is enforced. And law enforcement
officials may not even be aware of all of the guns someone owns.
Patients
can challenge the revocations of their gun permits in court, and at
least one has: a man in Otsego County, in central New York, who lost his
gun license after being admitted to a hospital because he had
threatened to harm himself, according to court papers. He also said he
had accidentally exposed himself to a young girl and was racked with
guilt. The county judge ruled the license could be revoked.
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