Crazy people with guns

I think I'd probably mentioned in the past that I didn't think that the recent Virginia Tech shooting would result in any new gun laws in the US. Seems I was wrong. The US house of reps has just passed a bill which would restrict mentally ill people from buying guns. Sort of.

It seems that there is a federal database upon which potential gun buyers can be checked, to see if they have a criminal record. Or at least if the guns aren't bought from a gun show in some states. The Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-hui, was checked against this database when he purchased some (possibly all) of his guns, and whilst he didn't have a criminal record, he did have a history of mental health problems. His mental health history wasn't available to the database, however, due to privacy concerns.

Existing legislation requires that guns not be sold to people who have a serious criminal record, are known to be addicted to drugs, or have been ruled by a court to be mentally ill. All this new legislation does is allows for the mental illness bit to be recorded on the database, as previously it wasn't. It's actually so innocuous that even the NRA supported it.

I'm sort of in two minds about this. I support restricting gun access, and whilst most mentally ill people are only dangerous to themselves, and rarely kill others, I'd really rather people at risk of psychosis not have easy access to guns. I'd even support extending it to people with personality disorders – actually it'd probably be more useful to restrict people with personality disorders getting access to guns. But I'm worried about a police database having details about people's past mental health. At least in Australia, police are far more likely to shoot someone with mental health problems, and priming them for the expectation that someone is dangerous and may require deadly force may not be a good thing. I'm also curious as to who would have access to the information in the database, and what would be done to protect people's privacy. Here in Australia a non-police organisation can't access my criminal history without my express permission. I don't know what the situation is in the US.

This actually reminds me of another story I've seen lately about a device which simulates a psychotic episode. Apparently it's like virtual reality (remember that), and simulates two different scenarios, with auditory and visual hallucinations. It's designed to give police and health workers some insight into what someone experiencing a psychotic episode might feel, and thus provide some empathy for their behaviour. It reminds me of a scene in the movie Brainstorm. I'm sure I've also read something about someone doing something similar in Second Life. Sounds like it'd be an interesting (if terrifying) experience.