or anyone that he wanted to try to get even with or had a grudge against. it remains a big question. and you talked we top about mental health registry, obviously the defense department saying they want to look at all of the red flags that were missed about aaron alexis and his getting and keeping a security clearance, brushes with the law. his seeking treatment. but i thought an interesting thing was said today by the chairman of the joint chiefs who said, he wants to make certain that people in the military and civilian employees are free to seek mental health treatment without facing adverse consequences. so that s going to be a delicate thing as they go back here and look at these red flags and one other thing that has to be pointed out. we talked a lot about this report by the newport police who say they went to hem in early august and he was complaining about hearing voices. they passed that along to the navy. today our pentagon correspondent reports that the navy now says that w
newport police report was never passed beyond the base there. never got to officials in washington about these complaints that he was hearing voices and people were following him and he feared they were using what he called microwave machine to prevent his sleep. and that he feared for his safety. all right, pete williams, thanks for that reporting. it is such an important trade-off wanting to monitor this incident while not disincentivizing people from getting treatment. how do we balance public safety and mental health privacy? 38 keep some type of mental health registry and some are caller for stricter checks before buying guns or month robust ways to catch problem case. while employers can access credit score and ask potential candidates about criminal convictions, under the american with disabilities act they are barred from acting about mental health histories.
of all of the trades at these gun shows, nobody cares. nobody asks who he is. whether he s a criminally minded person, has a criminal record. may be mentally ill. what is the difference between that scenario and somebody being suspicious buying fireworks? how many well, i will say this. how many people have bought ar-15s illegally, and used them to commit a heinous crime or a mass shooting in this country? you re implying that everyone going to a gun show is purposely trying to get around a background check from a dealer who has to give you a background check. no. i m not. you look at newtown. hold on, look at newtown. would a background check in newtown have fixed the problem? no, it wouldn t have. we know that factually now. in aurora, colorado, wouldn t have fixed that. you have mental health issues. you want to have a mental health registry?
are not complying because it could deter many vets from seeking help. is this fair? hear for a balanced debate, we have a democratic strategist and a veteran from the marine corps. this law, you can see the point that maybe people coming back from battle will be unfairly targeted. don t you? i think anybody who is seeking mental health treatment and poses a clear and present danger to themselves or to other people is a cause for concern. the national rifle association has been on the vanguard of calling for sort of a mental health registry of people who are posing a danger. this is their only remedy that they seem to be able to identify to, really horrific examples of gun violence of people who are mentally unstable in the wake of newtown, in the wake of aurora, in the wake of virginia tech. i think it seems like a commonsense law that new york passed. brian: in the case of aurora, we know his therapist seemed to have been on red alert for his
we supported instant check systems, getting the records into the instant check system. even the instant check system has huge holes just like the mental health registry. the biggest single hole right now if you re a felon and you walk into a gun store and you try to buy a gun and they go, oh, you re a felon and we re going to turn you down, they let you walk out and they don t prosecute you. it s like bonnie and clyde. it like clyde goes in and tries to buy a gun. he goes back to bonnie and said i got bad news, they didn t sell me a gun. the good news is they let me go, they didn t do anything to me. they go about and commit their crime. is senator feinstein s bill to revive the assault weapon ban going to pass? i think that is phoney legislation. i do not believe it will pass for this reason. it s all built on lies. my gosh, people in the media, i revere their communication skills but they have an obligation to be factually