AUSTIN (KXAN) – Across Texas, district and county clerks failed more than 800 times in recent years to report people found incompetent to stand trial to state law enforcement so they could be flagged in federal firearm background checks before purchasing a gun, according to a recent state audit.
Texas district and county clerks are required to report court orders of people charged with crimes and found incompetent to stand trial to the Texas Department of Public Safety. DPS then sends the information to the FBI for use in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.
“There is a breakdown in this process, you know. It’s not three or four times; it’s 830 times,” said Erin Earp, senior policy counsel at Giffords Law Center , a federal and state-level gun safety organization. “It’s a situation where you do not want people to have access to firearms.”
People found incompetent to stand trial are so mentally ill they can’t participate in their own defense. When that happens, they are ordered to get mental health treatment until their competency is restored. Often, they are put on a waitlist and sit in jail until they can be sent to a state hospital for restoration.