WASHINGTON — Mental health should be part of the solution to gun violence, Sen. Roy Blunt said Wednesday.
"This is a real opportunity for us to look at the mental health component of these tragedies, whether it's Sandy Hook or the campus event with a knife yesterday. The weapons may change, but the one thing that's consistent is that there is somebody there that has a significant mental problem or they wouldn't be participating in this kind of tragic behavior," Blunt said during a teleconference. Blunt addressed whether greater access to mental health care might have kept Adam Lanza from shooting school children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn.
"It wouldn't have helped this young man, but ... people who've had court-ordered mental health requirements, follow up on those requirements ... that would have helped."
Training might have helped people recognize warning signs in Lanza, he said.
"Helping teachers, youth leaders in various places figure out how to watch for the telltale signs might have helped them go to his mother," Blunt said.
Expanded background checks would not make a difference in reducing day-to-day violence seen in St. Louis and other places, he said.
"There are plenty of guns out there and anybody who's going to use a gun violently ... doesn't buy it through a 'checked' atmosphere anyway. ... I'd bet you more money than I can afford to lose that if you go through the records of guns that were used in violent activities in the city of St. Louis, almost none of them were bought in any kind of public environment, including the gun shows."
Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and John Manchin, D-W.V., reached a compromise to propose background check legislation for gun purchases Wednesday.
"Currently, the background check system covers sales only by licensed gun dealers. The compromise would apply the system to all commercial sales, such as transactions at gun shows and online. The sales would have to be channeled through licensed firearms dealers, who would have to keep records of the transactions," The Associated Press reported. "Private transactions that are not for profit, such as those between relatives, would be exempt from background checks."
Blunt took no position on the bill.
"I want to look at it more closely," he said, based on how records are checked, whether those records are available publicly and the impact on private sellers.
Blunt said gun control discussions so far would do little to solve gun violence, but reserved judgment on the Toomey-Manchin bill.
"I would be much more inclined to be part of a solution that included ... addressing mental health issues. I said the Saturday after (Sandy Hook) that this was a time to look at that component and my concern was the only thing people would want to talk about in Washington or in the media was how you could restrict the Second Amendment as opposed to how you deal with the mental health problems that underlie every one of these situations. There is nothing here that would have impacted the tragedy that has come upon the community and the families in Sandy Hook, or in Aurora, Colo., or at Virginia Tech, and I think it's a terrible missed opportunity."
President Obama issued a statement on the bipartisan agreement: "This is not my bill, and there are aspects of the agreement that I might prefer to be stronger. But the agreement does represent welcome and significant bipartisan progress. It recognizes that there are good people on both sides of this issue, and we don't have to agree on everything to know that we've got to do something to stem the tide of gun violence. Of course, a lot of work remains. Congress needs to finish the job. The Senate must overcome obstruction by defeating a threatened filibuster, and allow a vote on this and other commonsense reforms to protect our kids and our communities.
"Any bill still has to clear the House. So I'm going to keep asking the American people to stand up and raise their voices, because these measures deserve a vote -- and so do the families and communities they're designed to protect."
