This is crazy: Mom Sues Wal-Mart Over Daughter's Suicide

[qwerty]

Mom Sues Wal-Mart Over Daughter's Suicide
Tue Dec 21, 4:43 PM ET
By LIZ AUSTIN, Associated Press Writer

DALLAS - 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 (news - web sites) 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 (news, bio, voting record), 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."

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is a stupid lawsuit, but I hope she wins just so Wal-Mart loses money.

[A18]

This is a stupid lawsuit, but I hope she wins just so Wal-Mart loses money.

Do you never shop at WallMart, or are you okay with higher prices?

[Alcon]

This is a stupid lawsuit, but I hope she wins just so Wal-Mart loses money.

Do you never shop at WallMart, or are you okay with higher prices?

Haha, I have no idea why, but that is the best post you've ever made.

[J-Mann]

How dumb.  I hope she loses.  "Wal-Mart should have done more to find out"...yeah right.  Maybe her parents should have kept better watch on her and prevented her from buying a shotgun in the first place.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is a stupid lawsuit, but I hope she wins just so Wal-Mart loses money.

Do you never shop at WallMart, or are you okay with higher prices?

I never shop at WalMart

[John Dibble]

This is a stupid lawsuit, but I hope she wins just so Wal-Mart loses money.

Do you never shop at WallMart, or are you okay with higher prices?

I never shop at WalMart

So you're fine with forcing the poor to deal with higher prices then?

[minionofmidas]

My uncle killed himself last month by attaching a hose to the tailpipe of his Ford F-150, and sticking it into the window of the cab. Maybe I should sue Ford, they never should have sold him the truck!

Do that. You have my moral support.
Cars are dangerous weapons, and humans should not be equipped with them.


Okay...
obviously, they won't win that lawsuit. Unless they can prove she didn't fill out that check, WalMart didn't do anything wrong. There is a federal law that can't be enforced because some states simply aren't up to it and others just refuse to do their part...great. Maybe they should sue the Great State of Texas, they'd probably have a better chance there.
Lots of the people quoted in the text are just grinding their own axes and not really commenting on the situation at hand at all.

[senatortombstone]

I prefer Target to Wal-mart any day; Target is cleaner and better organized.

[7,052,770]

um, why does Wal-Mart sell shotguns in the first place?  Obviously this lawsuit is stupid, but seriously...Wal-Mart should NOT sell shotguns.

[John Dibble]

um, why does Wal-Mart sell shotguns in the first place?  Obviously this lawsuit is stupid, but seriously...Wal-Mart should NOT sell shotguns.

Huh?

[7,052,770]

um, why does Wal-Mart sell shotguns in the first place?  Obviously this lawsuit is stupid, but seriously...Wal-Mart should NOT sell shotguns.

Huh?

Why the hell is Wal-Mart selling deadly weapons?

[John Dibble]

um, why does Wal-Mart sell shotguns in the first place?  Obviously this lawsuit is stupid, but seriously...Wal-Mart should NOT sell shotguns.

Huh?

Why the hell is Wal-Mart selling deadly weapons?

Because people will buy them. Duh. You don't think hunting enthusiats shop at Wal-Mart?

[??????????]

um, why does Wal-Mart sell shotguns in the first place?  Obviously this lawsuit is stupid, but seriously...Wal-Mart should NOT sell shotguns.

Huh?

Why the hell is Wal-Mart selling deadly weapons?

Why do you hate the 2nd Amendment?

[Alcon]

I do not hate the 2nd Amendment and am strongly for the right for Wal-Mart to sell shotguns, but I suppose it's just a bit odd thinking of picking up a twelve-gauge along with the groceries and school supplies.

I just hate Wal-Mart because it is destroying the town where I go during the summer. Wal-Mart, Fred Myers, and Home Depot are coming to it when it already also has a Safeway, QFC, Rite-Aid, and Staples. The town has a population of about 4,500. It isn't even a very convenient location.

Sigh.

[7,052,770]

I mean, I guess it's ok for them to sell shotguns...it just seems like it'd be really weird to go pick one up along with clothes and appliances and food.  Also I'm pretty sure the Madison Wal-Mart, in all it's bricked and green-signed glory, doesn't sell shotguns.

[John Dibble]

I mean, I guess it's ok for them to sell shotguns...it just seems like it'd be really weird to go pick one up along with clothes and appliances and food.  Also I'm pretty sure the Madison Wal-Mart, in all it's bricked and green-signed glory, doesn't sell shotguns.

Well, you have to remember that not everyone goes to Wal-Mart to get a variety every time they go. They might just go to stock up for a hunting/camping trip - buy a new gun, some other hunting gear, a tent, whatever, and no clothes or food.

The one you mentioned might not sell it because there may be insufficient demand. Areas with higher degrees of hunters would be more likely to have Wal-Marts that sell guns.

[King]

The 2nd Amendment: 75% off!

[Gabu]

I do not hate the 2nd Amendment and am strongly for the right for Wal-Mart to sell shotguns, but I suppose it's just a bit odd thinking of picking up a twelve-gauge along with the groceries and school supplies.

I would agree with this.  I shop at a store much like Wal-Mart; if it had a firearms section, it would look kind of out of place.

I suppose if it sells, why not, though.