Jared Loughner could have been stopped: Schumer

If military candidates admit illegal drug use, that information should be shared with the FBI so they can't buy a gun, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Sunday.

This step could have blocked Jared Lee Loughner, the sole suspect in the Jan. 8 Arizona massacre, from buying a gun and ammo, Schumer said.

The Army rejected Loughner in 2008 because he flunked a drug test, a Washington military official said.

"Had this reporting requirement been in place, Loughner would likely have been prevented from purchasing a firearm," the New York Democrat said. "We should fix this reporting loophole so that future tragedies can be prevented."

In letters to Attorney General Eric Holder and Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Schumer said the feds could act on their own without legislation to require the military to enter the drug abuse of potential recruits into the FBI's data base on gun purchases.

Loughner, 22, is accused of killing six people in Tucson, and shooting 13 others, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whose condition was upgraded yesterday to "serious."

Schumer's proposal is one of several offered in the wake of the shooting.

U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) has proposed limiting ammunition clips to 10 rounds as Congress returns after pausing for a week in respect for the Arizona victims.

State Sen. Eric Adams announced yesterday he'll introduce a bill in the Assembly that would require a mental health evaluation each time a gun permit is renewed.

"This group is slipping through the cracks. We have nothing in the country to detect the erosion of the mental health of a gun owner," Adams (D-Brooklyn) said at a candle light vigil at Grand Army Plaza.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said yesterday that reforming mental health treatment was more important than new firearms controls, which will draw fierce resistance from the gun lobby.

"It would seem to me that you'd address this with the most relevant problem first," Giuliani said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"The most relevant problem was the lack of an ability to deal with what was apparently paranoid schizophrenia or schizophrenia that should have been treated."

Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, said that tinkering with gun control won't amount to much.
"People who are going to commit a crime or going to do something crazy aren't going to pay attention to the laws in the first place," Coburn said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

In a show of unity, Schumer and Coburn announced they'll skip the partisan seating arrangements and instead sit together during President Obama's State of the Union address Jan. 25.

This comes amid calls for greater civility in political discourse following the shootings at Giffords' political event.

"We hope that many others will follow us," Schumer said.