This story hits really close to home for me. I'm not sure if anyone here remembers the story of Sylvia Seagrist...it was more than 20 years ago now. She had some trouble filling a prescription for medication, so she went to a local K-Mart, bought a gun, and went back to the mall where the pharmacy was and proceeded to open fire. Six people were shot and two died. I had worked at that pharmacy when I was in school, and knew the people she shot at there (fortunately, none of them was hit). One of the people who died was the obstetrician who delivered me.

Now, that case was before there were any background checks at all, but she would not have shown up with a criminal record. She had been hospitalized several times. Her mother had been desperately trying to have her involuntarily committed, because she knew that her daughter was going to become violent, but she had no luck. Two people had to die before Sylvia could be hospitalized the way she should have been.

The laws are different now, due in some part to that case, and perhaps there's a better chance that Sylvia would have been hospitalized before it escalated to the point of violence. And this story isn't quite the same case...it sounds like in this case the parents may be clutching at straws to relieve themselves of the guilt of their daughter's death.

I certainly don't want all mental health records to become publicly available. But I do wonder what can be done to protect people who are clearly a danger to themselves or others from purchasing a weapon.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, with no real answer given. I really don't know what the answer is, but whenever I see a story like this, it brings back some very sad memories.