Right Thinking From The Left Coast
"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Deep Pockets of Blame
by Lee

Okay, ladies and gentlemen!  It’s time to play “Who can I blame for my own misfortune?”

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.

So, despite selling a legal product, and living up to all federal laws regarding the sale of firearms, Wal-Mart is somehow responsible for this woman’s death because they decided not to break federal law by peeking at her medical records.

Posted by Lee on 12/21/04 at 06:18 PM in Decline of Western Civilization  • (3) Trackbacks • Permalink • Discuss this in the forums
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