The litany of public mass murders, from Aurora, Newtown, Charleston, Las Vegas, and Parkland to less well‐known incidents that occur yearly, has focused national attention on federally mandated mental health background checks of prospective gun purchasers. The call has been to put more gun‐disqualifying mental health records into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database to prevent “deranged” murderers from buying guns and running amok. Our study examines whether increasing the robustness of the mental health background database will likely prevent potential public mass murderers from buying guns. Building on research that shows that serious mental illness contributes little to the risk of interpersonal violence and, further, that few persons with serious mental illness acquire gun‐disqualifying mental health records, we examine whether public mass murderers are among the small percentage of those with serious mental illness who do have gun‐disqualifying mental health records. Using a large sample of 106 US offenders who used a firearm to commit a public mass murder from 1990 to 2014, we find that half of the offenders had a history of mental illness or mental health treatment but that less than 5 percent had gun‐disqualifying mental health records. Implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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公共大规模谋杀者和联邦心理健康背景调查购买枪支

从奥罗拉 (Aurora)、纽敦 (Newtown)、查尔斯顿 (Charleston)、拉斯维加斯 (Las Vegas) 和帕克兰 (Parkland) 到每年发生的鲜为人知的事件，一连串的公共大规模谋杀案已将全国的注意力集中在联邦强制要求对潜在枪支购买者进行心理健康背景调查上。呼吁将更多不符合枪支资格的心理健康记录放入国家即时犯罪背景调查系统数据库，以防止“精神错乱”的凶手购买枪支和横行霸道。我们的研究考察了提高心理健康背景数据库的稳健性是否可能会阻止潜在的公共大规模杀人犯购买枪支。研究表明，严重精神疾病对人际暴力风险的贡献很小，此外，很少有严重精神疾病患者获得枪支取消资格的心理健康记录，我们研究了公共大屠杀者是否属于拥有枪支取消资格的精神健康记录的严重精神疾病患者的一小部分。通过对 106 名在 1990 年至 2014 年期间使用枪支实施公开大屠杀的美国罪犯进行大样本，我们发现一半的罪犯有精神疾病或心理健康治疗史，但只有不到 5% 的人有持枪资格心理健康记录。讨论了这些发现的意义和对进一步研究的建议。我们发现一半的罪犯有精神疾病或精神健康治疗史，但只有不到 5% 的人有枪支取消资格的精神健康记录。讨论了这些发现的影响和对进一步研究的建议。我们发现一半的罪犯有精神疾病或精神健康治疗史，但只有不到 5% 的人有枪支取消资格的精神健康记录。讨论了这些发现的意义和对进一步研究的建议。