Federal law bars gun ownership by felons, fugitives, drug abusers, people adjudicated to be mentally ill, those dishonorably discharged from the military or living in the country illegally, and by convicted domestic abusers or others subject to domestic violence restraining orders. But experts say the number of people who are barred from owning guns but have them anyway may reach into the millions.
Only eight states have laws that provide an explicit mechanism so people suspected of having guns in violation of those prohibitions are actually required to give them up. And some of those states merely allow — but do not require — police to seek a court order to confiscate such guns.
That was the case in Illinois, where authorities knew for more than four years that Gary Martin was a violent felon but apparently did nothing to ensure he surrendered the laser-sighted Smith & Wesson handgun that he used to kill five co-workers Friday.
Only a single state — California — has a database dedicated to tracking firearm owners who have lost their right to possess a gun.
Aside from California, only Connecticut and Nevada expressly require felons to provide proof to courts or to law enforcement they have turned over guns after conviction, according to the Giffords Law Center. Illinois and four other states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania — also provide statutory mechanisms for felons to turn over illegally possessed weapons, though the procedures are not as stringent.
But when Illinois lawmakers sought to tighten state law so police would be mandated to confiscate guns owned by people barred from possessing them, or at least verify the guns had been transferred to legal owners, concerns about manpower helped doom the proposal.
Martin was issued a state firearm owner’s card in January 2014 — and five weeks later he passed a background check to buy his handgun — even though he had been convicted of aggravated assault for stabbing a former girlfriend with a knife and hitting her with a baseball bat in Mississippi in 1995.
Illinois State Police said Martin lied on his firearm owner’s card application about whether he had any felony convictions.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.