Wait...you said he had been deemed a danger to himself and others but Belasarius in #16 said the opposite.
And if he was not allowed to buy a gun how did he get one?
You see, their point is the system did not work.
Remember..I am playing devils advocate here.
And if he was not allowed to buy a gun how did he get one?
By law, I believe, he was prohibited from buying a gun because of the court order to get psychiatric help and because the box "danger to himself" was checked. He got a gun because this information was never put into the FBI database so the NICS (National Instant Check System) did not have his name in it when the gun dealer ran his name. My understanding is that was due to HIPAA preventing the psychiatrist/psychologist that examined him and prescribed an antidepressant to him from giving his name to the FBI.
My understanding at this point could be wrong but he definitely broke the law. He broke another by not disclosing it himself on the form that the gun dealer would have required him to fill out.
Your debating partners are right; the system didn't work. That was due to liberal instituted privacy laws not lack of law regulating the sale of firearms.
Take them off of the gun laws aspect of this. Ask them where the compassion was for this guy who obviously needed big time help for many years. Before he made others suffer with him he suffered in a very dark world of his own for a long time. His high school was aware of it and VA Tech administrators were even more aware of it.
Lots of NEA liberal types just passed him off to the next teacher/administrator in line. VA Tech admin just dumps him in a dorm with three other guys who don't get word one about him. All they know is he's a senior so he's been there for three years.