Background Checks Faulty

Thanks to Barney Brantingham for his recent column giving the Santa Barbara community far more information about this tragic event and the fact the killer was motivated by paranoid racism, as a major part of her mental health problems. Thanks also for letting the public know how a person may be placed for three days in a psychiatric facility, which would have prevented her from purchasing a firearm in California, but then go to New Mexico and be easily able to purchase a gun.

The fault lies within the National Instant Background Check system, which relies on states inputting information about persons prohibited from purchasing a gun. One provision is: Has been adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution. That’s why we need universal background checks.

Note: The smiling photo of the killer was totally inappropriate and distressed family members. The night of the killer’s rampage she shaved her head, wore fatigues, and came in shooting like Rambo. That is how the killer needs to be remembered. – Sherie Higgins, mother of Maleka M. Brinley-Higgins Pineda, Santa Barbara; and Toni Wellen, chair of the Coalition Against Gun Violence, Carpinteria