NC panel recommends gun permit changes for mentally ill

RALEIGH (AP) — State Attorney General Roy Cooper has announced a plan to prevent people from buying handguns if they’ve been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

Cooper discussed a report Thursday from a task force he created two days after the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech to look at campus safety at universities in North Carolina.

The task force recommends a new law that would require that counties provide information about involuntary commitment orders to the national background check database. The proposed law could prevent people with mental illness from buying guns.

Mental health information is provided to the system now but is typically is not revealed unless the person applying for a gun permit signs a waiver.

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