Source:
http://cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=13&ID=351030&r=17&subCategoryID=
Mentally ill have gun permits
Saturday, April 28, 2007
By JOHN McCARTHY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
COLUMBUS At least four people with mental illnesses that warranted involuntary hospitalization improperly held permits to carry hidden guns because state officials were uninformed about their psychological problems, the state's top legal official said Friday.
Attorney General Marc Dann said probate courts that committed the permit holders never informed the attorney general's office.
Permit holders who are hospitalized for mental-health reasons are required to give up their permits, but two of the four still have active permits, which Dann has pointed out to local authorities who handle revoking permits.
Dann, who supported bills that made it legal to carry hidden guns, said
none of the four had committed gun crimes or were considered a danger to others.
The local probate
judges who approve commitments are not required to inform state officials when they order the hospitalization of a permit holder.
They also are not required to identify the specific mental illness the person has and did not do so in the cases Dann pointed out, Dann spokesman Leo Jennings said.
Two people in Lucas County, which includes Toledo, were issued permits and later found to be mentally incompetent, Dann said. One of them was granted a 90-day emergency permit but never applied for a regular permit. The other was issued a regular permit, but the Lucas County sheriff's office discovered that person was committed to a mental institution after it was issued and revoked the permit.
One person each in Summit and Lorain counties in Northeast Ohio were found to be mentally incompetent after they received their permits. They currently have active permits. Messages seeking comment were left at the offices of sheriffs in both counties.
Dann said an investigation was ongoing.
"We have been working around the clock, literally, since we discovered this problem existed," Dann said.
Dann said another problem is that the staff of the previous attorney general was unable to complete the initial reviews required by law.
He said the office is responsible for checking lists of applicants and permit holders against previous court rulings that would show whether a person has required involuntary treatment for a mental illness.
Those checks did not happen under former Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican who held the office when the law allowing people to conceal handguns started in 2004, said Dann, a Democrat.
