MTP Transcript for April 22, 2007

COL. MASSENGILL: Yes, I think a lot of people are, Tim. You never know how something like this is going to influence the people that are on the edge already, and, and certainly that is a concern.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me show you the front page of The Economist magazine, a British publication. “America’s Tragedy,” a handgun with the American flag on that, and, and refer you an article in USA Today which begins this way:

“Virginia State Police said Cho could buy firearms legally even though he had once been ordered taken to a psychiatric hospital when he was reported to be suicidal. Federal law bars gun purchases by anyone who has been deemed a ‘mental defective’ by a court or ordered ‘committed to any mental institution.’

“Under the law, Cho didn’t fall into either category, Virginia State Police said. He was taken to a mental hospital for evaluation” “December 13, 2005. A friend had told police that Cho was suicidal after Cho had stalked female students at Virginia Tech. ...

“The next day, a judge said Cho ‘presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness’ but declined to commit him to a hospital, according to court documents. Instead, Cho was ordered to undergo outpatient psychiatric treatment.”

There seems to be a loophole in the application of federal law to the state of Virginia law, that because he was not formally committed, he was not, therefore—did not register on the computer background check, and was given a gun. Should someone like him be given a gun?

COL. MASSENGILL: No, certainly not. Certainly not. And this is one of the things that this panel’s going to be looking in depth at. This panel that we have, Tim, is a well thought out panel as far as membership. And we’ll be bringing aboard shortly—it’s going to be an eight-person panel—we’ll have a juvenile judge who specializes in mental health issues in Virginia.

But let me—let me say, Virginia, for years, has been on the forefront when it comes to background checks for firearms and, and those issues that we’re dealing with right now. Virginia was one of the first states to have the instant background check. Virginians are passionate about the Second Amendment. But at the same time, this debate is to point of sale issues and and who has to go through or whom has to go through those background checks has been in our legislature for the last several sessions, and I expect we’ll see them next session. But in this particular situation, as you pointed out, the, the nexus between the outpatient rather than the involuntary commitment seems to be—seems to be where the ball may have been dropped. And certainly our panel will be taking an extensive look at that.

MR. RUSSERT: Will your panel report before school returns in the fall?

COL. MASSENGILL: Well, Governor Kaine and I have talked about that, and, and we have not etched any timelines in stone. But we certainly are going to try to have something finished by the fall.

FMR. GOV. RIDGE: Yeah. You know, Tim, it’s interesting. We’ve had many discussions before about the gap between law enforcement and intelligence prior to 9/11. There does appear to be a, a wall between mental health professionals. Look, it—this was designed—the laws go back as far as the, the ‘70s to protect an individual’s right to privacy, and mental health. And unfortunately, this tragedy points out that, that we got to re-examine that nexus between that—the right of that private individual who will seek treatment and need treatment. And, by the way, over the past 10 years, with the development of, of neuroscience and the way we can treat young people with mental health illnesses, there’re probably more on the campuses than ever before, so we have to figure out a way that we can still protect the privacy and administer to the health needs of the student and, at the same, time make sure that when you have that aberrant behavior that we saw on the Virginia Tech campus reflected in many, many actions even before this tragedy, that somebody can intervene and help.

MR. RUSSERT: At both the level of campus and on—in terms of law enforcement officials in terms of, of giving gun licenses.

FMR. GOV. RIDGE: Exactly. Exactly.

MR. RUSSERT: Secretary Spellings, has any study been done about video games? There’ve been reports that Mr. Cho spent an inordinate amount of time looking at violent video games.

SEC’Y. SPELLINGS: Well, I think we do have some evidence that when children, mostly the research is around young children, are exposed to violence—violence on television or video games and the like—that that certainly does net out in, in more violent behavior. And I think, again, those are the sorts of things that we’ll engage in as we talk with educators and law enforcement professionals, parents and policy makers about these issues.

MR. RUSSERT: Will there be a written report for the president and for the American people?

SEC’Y. SPELLINGS: Yes. We will be presenting, fairly shortly after this, after we get around the country, some, some recommendations or thoughts about what we might do.

MR. RUSSERT: Are you going to schools? Are you having town halls? How do you plan to...

SEC’Y. SPELLINGS: Any and all of that. We’re formulating our plans now. Secretary Leavitt is going to talk with the president on Monday. I’m going to visit with him on Tuesday. And yes, we intend to do a lot of listening, obviously, and we understand that we don’t have all the answers here in Washington and that experiences are going to vary widely. State laws vary widely. And, and we’ll, we’ll just take a look at all of that as we prepare our work for the president.

MR. RUSSERT: Secretary Leavitt, any thought of looking into video games and the impact they may have on young children?

SEC’Y. LEAVITT: I, I think we’ll have to look at a wide range because, while what we’re focusing on right now is what’s happened at, at Blacksburg, we do need to think about this pattern of unexplainable violence that occurs, and ask ourselves what can we learn from each of these. It will undoubtedly cause us to reweigh many of the judgments we’ve made in the past, and recalibrate on some, and others recognize that we just need to do what we’ve already decided better. I, I expect we’ll—there’ll be conversations about guns. There’ll be talk—we’ll have conversations about mental health policy and how we balance that. All of these things are—these are festering conflicts that, that have been inflamed by this. Every sensitivity of, of us as human beings is offended by this, and it will be an opportunity for us to rethink the decisions we’ve already made and perhaps make, make adjustments.

MR. RUSSERT: In terms of mental health, do you share Governor Ridge’s view that this fine line between the rights of the patient and the rights of society may have to be revisited, that if someone has a history of mental illness, perhaps a dormitory’s not the best place to reside or certainly the—be given a gun license is not the best policy for a government to be involved in.

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