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Havasu_Dreamin
12-21-2004, 03:08 PM
As reported at ABCNews.com
Mom Sues Wal-Mart Over Daughter's Suicide
Mother of Suicide Victim in Texas Sues Wal-Mart Over Gun Sale, Says Daughter Was Mentally Ill
The Associated Press
Dec. 21, 2004 - Near the end of her short life, Shayla Stewart, a diagnosed manic-depressive and schizophrenic, assaulted police officers and was arrested for attacking a fellow customer at a Denton Wal-Mart where she had a prescription for anti-psychotic medication.
Given all those signs, her parents say, another Wal-Mart just seven miles away should have never sold her the shotgun she used to kill herself at age 24 in 2003.
Her mother, Lavern Bracy, is suing the world's biggest store chain for $25 million, saying clerks should have known about her daughter's illness or done more to find out.
The case, filed earlier this month, has reignited a debate over the confidentiality of mental health records and the effectiveness of background checks on would-be buyers of guns.
"We know that if they had so much as said, `Why do you want this?' we would not be having this conversation because Shayla would have had a meltdown," said her stepfather, Garrett Bracy.
The Bracys said Wal-Mart's gun department could have checked Wal-Mart's own security files or the pharmacy department's prescription records before selling her the weapon.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher declined to comment on the lawsuit.
But pharmacy prescription records are confidential under a 1996 federal law, so stores cannot use them when deciding whether to sell a gun.
Also, Wal-Mart did a background check on Stewart, as required under federal law, but through no fault of its own, her name did not show up in the FBI database. The reason: The database contains no mental health records from Texas and 37 other states.
Texas does not submit mental health records because state law deems them confidential, said Paul Mascot, an attorney with the Texas Department of State Health Services. Other states have not computerized their record-keeping systems or do not store them in a central location for use by the FBI.
Federal law prohibits stores from selling guns to people who, like Stewart, have a history of serious mental illness.
Would-be buyers must fill out a form that asks about mental health. On Stewart's form, a box that asked whether she had been involuntarily committed to an institution or declared dangerously mentally ill by a judge was incorrectly marked no. (Her mother's attorneys question whether Stewart filled out the form herself or a clerk did it for her.) Wal-Mart ran a background check anyway, as required by federal law.
Michael Faenza, president and chief executive of the National Mental Health Association, applauds Texas' refusal to share information with the FBI database. He said it would not be fair to violate patients' privacy when there is no data to support claims that mentally ill people are more violent than others.
"The tragedies that families face when people are killed is terrible. And frankly I wish handguns were not so available in this country," he said. "But it's not right, in our minds, to make social policy based on just a few cases."
Garrett Bracy couldn't disagree more.
He and his wife watched his stepdaughter's six-year decline from straight-A high school student to violent and unpredictable stranger. She was hospitalized five times, twice under court orders. Her longest hospitalization, lasting a month, came in 2002 after she refused to leave her room or take her medication.
The suggestion that Wal-Mart should have checked prescription records infuriates Erich Pratt, a spokesman for the Virginia-based group Gun Owners of America.
"Does that mean mental illness prevents everyone on Prozac from owning a gun? Or women with PMS?" he said.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who ran for Congress after her husband was killed and son wounded in 1993 by a gunman on a Long Island Rail Road train, wants to strengthen the federal background check system by encouraging states to share mental health records. She has introduced legislation that would give states grants to automate and turn over the information.
She drafted the bill after a priest and a parishioner were shot to death by a schizophrenic man in a New York church in 2002. He, too, should not have been allowed to buy a gun.
"When you see these deaths that could have been prevented it's a shame," McCarthy said.
As the Bracys prepare for another Christmas without their daughter, they are urging lawmakers to support McCarthy's bill and dealers to conduct their own background checks.
"Lavern went to the store the other day to buy over-the-counter headache sinus medication and they limited the amount of sinus medication she could buy at one time," her husband said, his voice trembling with emotion. "But Shayla can walk into a store and buy a gun and they could care less. That's got to change."
Reprinted without the consent of ABC News or the Associated Press
Commentary: This is a ridiculous lawsuit. As someone from a family with a relative having been diagnosed with bi-polar disease I am sympathetic to their loss. However, Walmart did not do anything wrong in this case. Unfortunately, this family just needs to accept that their daughter killed herself and most liklely would have regardless of the method.

HCS
12-21-2004, 03:38 PM
I'm tired of these dumb law suits. We should start a class action law suit against these people that are suing. Maybe they would quit suing.

BADBLOWN572
12-21-2004, 04:01 PM
This just further prooves that we live in a sue happy society where no one is responsible for their own actions. :cry:

slowinhavasu
12-21-2004, 04:20 PM
OUCH, who you calling bi-polar....wait tell I tell dad.... :supp:
I'm as far heterosexual as you can get..... ;)

Liberator TJ1984
12-21-2004, 04:44 PM
Here's a Kicker :mix:
Quote;"Does that mean mental illness prevents everyone on Prozac from owning a gun? Or women with PMS?" he said. :D
Ok Ladies turn in all them weapons :idea:
Watch out for rollers and fryin' pans again Guys !!!

topless
12-21-2004, 05:19 PM
hopefully she hired Doris Jones.

bunny 166
12-21-2004, 05:40 PM
If she truly was schitzophrenic (sp?) and manic and prone to that behavior before, she would have eventually killed herself somehow. I feel for the family and their loss, it's just not Wal-Marts fault. My cousin suffered from manic depression and we think schitzophrenia--she was in and out of the hospital for a while--on several visits to the hospital she told her doctor she heard voices alot. She wound up jumping out of the 5th floor window at the hospital and dying. It was so sad...it's an awful disease, and sometimes medication can't help.

Badger301
12-21-2004, 06:39 PM
This looks like a job for Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones........... and Jones :rollside:

Dr. Eagle
12-21-2004, 06:41 PM
Losers... I suppose Wal Mart pulled the trigger too? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Seadog
12-21-2004, 06:53 PM
If they want to change the state law, or to help get all states in the system, fine, but there is only one reason they are suing Wal-Mart and that is lawyer fees.

Dr. Eagle
12-21-2004, 07:22 PM
OK so this guy that works for me has a ranch outside of Yuba City. His wife is travelling from San Francisco to the ranch and there is a big rig truck that loses control, hits two cars going it's direction and pushes them over the line into his wife's hummer.
The people that came across the center line striking her car were unfortunately killed in the accident. The Highway Patrol said they were probably killed by being struck by the truck.
Now their families attorneys are telling my employee and his wife that they either sue the trucking firm with them or they will sue my employee and the trucking company. She never left her lane, she wasn't speeding, she braked to avoid the collision, she was a victim that just happened to walk away because she was driving a substantial vehicle like a Hummer, which was totalled by the way.
These attorneys just piss me off... :lightsabe

hoolign
12-22-2004, 09:43 AM
I'm suing Wal mart too. I bought a tooth brush from there a few months ago ...and I still got a cavity! :burningm: I also bought toilet paper..and get this...no instructions came with it!! What's the retail world comming to?? :burningm: