COLUMBIA, S.C. -
Michel Faliero trusts her
children are safe at Charleston's Ashley Hall.
But earlier this month an incident put them on lockdown that thankfully
did not have a tragic outcome---but it's one she thinks could have been avoided
altogether if laws on gun sales were stricter.
Alice Boland allegedly
threatened a school official with a gun she purchased only days before.
What's shocking to many-
she bought it with a history of gun threats against people and was even
declared insane and sent to a mental institution by a federal judge in 2005.
"The more I read the
more upset I became," Faliero said. "That
she was able to buy a gun, three days before coming to Ashley Hall. It just seemed crazy to me that it could
happen so I wanted to do something about it.
I got a bunch of parents together and wrote a letter to Lindsey Graham,
Leon Stavrinakis and have gotten a great response."
The story became the center
of a press conference for Senator Lindsey Graham last week and Tuesday for SC
Attorney General Alan Wilson, who wants the state to join 38 more across the
nation that help filter the mentally ill from buying guns.
"This is not a gun
restriction law," Wilson said Tuesday. "This
is nothing more than a reporting law. It
has been against the law since the 1960's for someone who has been adjudicated
as mentally ill to buy a firearm."
But under new legislation these
people would be entered into a federal database and flagged when the gun seller
types in their name.
The legislation was
expected to be filed Tuesday. One of the
sponsors is Beaufort County Representative Andy Patrick.
