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Syracuse, N.Y. -- New York state has identified 278 licensed gun owners who could lose their weapons because they are considered mentally unstable.

At least eight of them are Central New Yorkers, half of whom have had their guns and permits taken away by authorities.

Psychiatrists and other health professionals reported these individuals to the state because they appeared to be at risk of harming themselves or others. Under a provision of the New York SAFE Act gun control law, mental health providers have reported 38,718 at-risk patients, 737 of them from Central New York. Those reports are cross checked against a list of pistol permit holders. Less than 1 percent of the mental health reports statewide involved people with pistol permits.



How many people in your county are too mentally unstable to have guns?

The SAFE Act took effect March 16, 2013. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislators quickly pushed through the law with no public input after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The state Division of Criminal Justice Services provided county-by-county statistics from the database in response to a Freedom of Information Law request from syracuse.com.

Here's how many mentally unstable residents of local counties had pistol permits as of Oct. 3, according to the database: Onondaga, 3; Cayuga, 2; Cortland 1, Madison, 2; and Oswego, 0. Some county officials say the numbers are higher than that.

The state does not know how many permits were suspended and guns confiscated after the database identified mentally unstable patients with pistol permits. That's because it is up to local courts and licensing officials to act on those decisions, said Janine Kava of the Division of Criminal Justice. Local officials are not required to tell the state what actions they took.

Permit holders may not even know their names are in the state database because mental health providers are not required by the law to get an individual's authorization or consent before making a report.

Cayuga County sheriff's deputies confiscated guns and took back pistol permits from three residents, one more than the database shows, according to Sgt. John Leja of the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office.

Police in Cortland County confiscated guns from at least one permit holder, according to Cortland County Clerk Elizabeth Larkin, whose office processes gun permits. "We had another man who came in and voluntarily handed us his permit and gave his weapons to the police and said, 'I don't want them anymore,' " Larkin said.

She said her office has had four cases where permits holders were flagged by the new database, three more than state records show. In all four cases, a judge revoked the permits.

Police do not always take away weapons when a permit is revoked or suspended, according to Larkin. That's because permit holders are allowed to co-register their guns with another family member who has a permit. "If the person's son or wife has the weapons co-registered on their permit, the sheriff's office or state police would not confiscate them," she said.

When local authorities learn that a permit holder has been deemed too mentally unstable to have firearms they notify local courts.

"Once we get that notification we immediately suspend the permit in order to protect the public," said Onondaga County Court Judge Joseph Fahey. Judges issue those orders without seeing the mental health reports, he said.



Fahey said permit holders are given an opportunity to submit information in writing to the court if they wish to challenge the suspension.

Detective Jon Seeber, spokesman for the sheriff's office, could not say whether any guns were confiscated in Onondaga County.

After a court order is issued, a deputy delivers it to the permit holder and seizes their permit and guns, according to Leja of the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office.

He said his office stores the weapons in a secured vault. Leja said a judge may eventually decide to allow the person whose permit was suspended to make arrangements to sell the confiscated weapon to a gun dealer. But Leja said he has not seen that happen yet.

The names of people whose permits have been suspended must be kept confidential under provisions of the SAFE Act, state mental health law and other state statutes, said Robert Freeman, executive director of the State Committee on Open Government. Their names could only be disclosed by a court order, he said.

Some mental health providers and patient advocates are apprehensive about the database and the law's mental health reporting requirement. They believe the law unfairly links gun violence to mental illness and could discourage some people with mental health problems from seeking help.

Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services in Albany, is troubled by the number of reports. "It's bigger than I had thought," he said. "It sends a message to those who might need care that there are a lot of people who are going to be in a database."

But gun control advocates like the new database.

"It only takes one individual to wreak mayhem and tragedy if they have access to a firearm," said Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

She considers the number of reports filed small compared to the state's population of nearly 20 million.

"These are individuals who, under no circumstances, should have guns," she said.

Providers file the mental health reports with their county's mental health commissioner or director of community services. That individual reviews the reports and determines if they should be sent on to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. In Onondaga County that task is handled by Robert Long, the county's mental health commissioner, who refused to discuss the process.

Jed Wolkenbreit, an attorney for the New York State Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors, said hospitals are filing most of the mental health reports. "These are mostly people who show up in emergency rooms with mental health issues," he said.

The county officials who review the reports are supposed to make sure providers filing the reports give adequate explanations of why they believe the patient meets the SAFE Act's reporting criteria. The law requires providers to report patients "... likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others."

"There has to be a specific reason," Wolkenbreit said. "It can't just be because the person is mentally ill. There are many people who are mentally ill who do not pose any danger."

Roger Ambrose, director of community services for Jefferson County, said most reports he reviews indicate the patient may be suicidal, while a smaller number indicate the patient may be homicidal.

Ambrose said he checks to make sure the person who filed the report has the proper credentials and the report meets the SAFE Act's requirements. "If they claim in the report the person who came in was suicidal and had a plan, I'm not going to second guess the treating physician and say, 'I don't think that person ought to have their weapons taken,'" Ambrose said. "That's not my call."

Related stories: NY SAFE Act gun control law encouraging mentally ill to seek help, study shows

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