May 23, 2013
The Alabama Criminal Justice Information System Commission voted to try to make Alabama one of the states that reports commitments and mental defect data to the database used by gun dealers to check whether customers are qualified to purchase guns.
Mark Hartley, criminal history project leader for the Criminal Justice Information System, said the agency will look for a way to obtain electronic information on commitments and transfer them to the database in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
Farron Barksdale, who has a history of mental commitments, is accused of gunning down two Athens police officers on Jan. 2 with a rifle he purchased Dec. 24 at a Huntsville gun shop. The gun dealer ran a background check on Barksdale, but he
Passed because Alabama had not reported any of his commitments.
