The Texas Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would close a loophole in state law that had allowed gun sales to people who were involuntarily hospitalized for mental illness between the ages of 16 and 18. It was the first bill passed by the Senate this year.
Courts are supposed to report all involuntary mental health hospitalizations to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which then sends those records to the FBI’s national firearms background check system. But last year, a ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation found that information about mental health hospitalizations of juveniles age 16 and older were not being reported by county and district courts due to problems with the way the state law was written and vague guidance from the state.
As a result, when those juveniles who’d been involuntarily hospitalized turned 18, they could pass the background check and buy a rifle — if they did not have a criminal record.
