On Friday, she was in a hospital receiving treatment for depression. On Saturday, she walked into a gun store and bought a pistol. On Sunday, she fatally shot herself.
No laws were broken nor protocols ignored in the events leading up to the July suicide of Vermont Law School professor Cheryl Hanna.
But experts say the circumstances of her handgun purchase, described in greater detail in a newly released Burlington police report, illustrate that nothing stops people like Hanna — who suffer from a mental-health problem but never have been forced into treatment by a judge — from buying a gun.
“It begs a question that we should be having a debate about,” Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling said.
Jay O’Brien, owner of B.J.’s Guns and Sporting Goods in Williston, said that when Hanna walked into his shop on the morning of July 26, she came across as poised and calm. “She fooled us,” O’Brien said in an interview, noting that he occasionally turns away customers who appear distraught, even if he or she is not in the federal database he’s required to check before making a sale.
A popular professor and well-known media personality, Hanna slipped into a severe depression in May, according to her husband, Paul Henninge, in a previous interview. She eventually was treated in the psychiatric ward at Fletcher Allen Health Care, where she felt uncomfortable, Henninge said. On Friday, July 25, she was released for the weekend.
The next day, she left home, ostensibly for a yoga class. Instead, she drove a red sports car to the Williston gun shop.
Hanna said that “she wanted a firearm because her husband works a lot and she wanted a means of personal protection,” the police report says. A store employee asked Hanna, a mother of two, if she had any experience with guns. “She replied ‘no’… that her husband could show her how to use the firearm,” according to the report.
Henninge previously told Seven Days that he did not keep guns in the house. “It’s kind of freaky how easy it was for her to get that gun,” he said then.
Although he declined to discuss the sale in detail, O’Brien said Hanna’s death illustrates a need: Gun shop owners should be able to access information about mentally ill people in order to stop them from buying firearms.
“The privacy laws need to be changed,” O’Brien said. “The only thing we could do is ask questions. It’s a conundrum no one has been able to figure out. And that’s why we keep going through these incidents that no one has the courage to take responsibility for.”
Vermont has some of the least restrictive gun-purchasing laws in the county. There are no waiting periods or licenses required for gun ownership, and no state-mandated background checks.
The only thing separating an adult from a firearm in Vermont is the federally mandated background check. Customers fill out a three-page form, providing identifying information about their personal and criminal history.
Among the questions asked is whether a person has been “adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution,” which includes people found insane or incompetent at trial, and those involuntarily committed to a hospital. If they answer yes to any of those questions, they are ineligible to buy a gun.
Licensed firearms dealers then call the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, located in West Virginia, to verify that the customer does not have a criminal record or is otherwise disqualified from owning a gun. The entire process usually takes fewer than five minutes.
There are at least two major weaknesses in the system.
The federal government cannot require states to send information about judicial rulings of mental illness to the database, and some states, including Vermont, don’t make much of an effort. According to several gun-control groups, Vermont has so far submitted just 25 mental health records to the database, about four records per 100,000 residents, according to the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
In contrast, the most vigilant states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Texas, have submitted more than 800 records per 100,000 residents.
“That is a giant safety gap,” Schirling observed.
But even if the state were submitting more information to the federal system, it wouldn’t have stopped Hanna from obtaining a gun. She had not been the subject of a legal hearing nor had she been involuntarily committed.
O’Brien said that information indicating whether people have recently received some form of mental-health treatment should be included in the federal database, which Vermont gun sellers consulted 36,000 times in 2012 alone. “That information has to get into that database,” O’Brien said. “There could be a flag in that system that says this person has been looked at in the past 48 hours.”
Schirling also supports the idea of a possible limited waiting period to purchase firearms for people who have recently undergone mental-health treatment.
“Why not give doctors the ability to create a flag in the system that says, ‘For the next 90 days, this person has to wait 72 hours?'” Schirling said. “Why not come up with some new ideas, test them, see if it saves some lives? It’s more nuanced than, ‘You’ve been diagnosed with mental illness, so no guns for life.'”
In 2010, 108 Vermonters committed suicide, and 60 percent of them used a gun to do it, according to the Department of Health.
The Center for Health & Learning, a Brattleboro-based nonprofit that contracts with the Vermont Department of Mental Health, is planning a suicide-prevention campaign that enlists the help of gun shops. It’ll ask them to display posters that warn about the risks of suicide, including hotlines to call for immediate help. The Gun Shop Project will also provide information to help gun-store employees recognize suicidal customers.
Many suicides are impulsive, not planned days in advance. Studies have shown that the majority of people who try to kill themselves deliberated less than one day, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.
“If we can put any space at all between the time someone decided to go forward and their attempt, if we can slow them at all, we know that helps,” said Alex Potter, a development specialist at the Center for Health & Learning.
The Gun Shop Project initiative is modeled after one recently launched in New Hampshire that has been adopted by dozens of gun shops, including an establishment that sold weapons to three customers who killed themselves in rapid succession, Potter said.
Potter said his group has intentionally focused on steps it can take outside the legislature, where gun debates turn hostile and proposals to address gun violence usually languish. The idea is to tap into the culture of safety-minded gun owners, he said.
There appears to be no appetite for considering laws, such as waiting periods, even among people determined to reverse Vermont’s long history of rejecting gun-control measures. Neither waiting periods nor restrictions for the mentally ill are likely to be on the agenda of the upcoming legislative session.
Gun Sense Vermont, Vermont’s largest gun-control group, is planning to spend its political capital lobbying lawmakers to require universal background checks in Vermont for all handgun sales, to close the so-called “gun show loophole,” whereby unlicensed dealers aren’t required to consult the federal database. Gun Sense will also demand that the state feed more information on judicial findings of mental illness into the database.
Gun Sense president Ann Braden said that while her group is concerned about the ease with which the mentally ill can buy a gun, it lacks the bandwidth to take on the issues raised by Hanna’s death. They expect a difficult fight to get universal background checks into law, even though some polls say 80 percent of Vermonters support the idea.
“It’s so tragic, and our hearts go out to her family. It feels wrong,” Braden said. “But our organization is focused on felons and domestic abusers that can get weapons. It is outside our organization’s focus.”
That may leave it to licensed gun sellers to guess the intentions of their customers.
O’Brien said he’s gotten calls from concerned friends and family members trying to head off a tragedy. “We have had people calling and saying, ‘My loved one is driving around trying to buy a gun. Here is what they look like; here is their name. Don’t sell them a gun.'”
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.
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My youngest brother committed suicide 6 years ago. He did not use a gun. If people are determined, they will find a way to do it. I myself have contemplated suicide for years; I will do it some day and when I do, I will not use a gun.
I know this will sound crazy, but I believe if people want to take their own life, they should have the right to do so. We have “Death with Dignity” but that requires a terminal illness, yet we are all going to die anyway – I just don’t want to wait for it, and I see nothing wrong with making the decision for myself.
I am only waiting until my mother passes away, so she doesn’t have to deal with the grief twice. I have no kids, and I am not going to stay alive for the sake of staying alive. I am 45 years old and sick and tired of dealing with life. I’ve done all I want to do, and I don’t want to grow old.
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK … Regardless of what you think you know you will do, please talk through your feelings with another human being. Sometimes we need the perspective of another person to bring us out of dark times, or to help us change what’s making us unhappy.
BusDriver802, be careful considering it such a simple decision. If that’s your decision, ultimately no one can stop you, but at least consider seeking out someone to talk about it before jumping to the conclusion that there is nothing left to live for. Believe it or not, there are people around you who would be shocked and hurt at the fact that you took yourself from them, and they’ll wish they could at least had the chance to speak to you as I am now.
12rmp, Thank you for your comment. Believe me, everyone who knows me knows this is what I plan to do, including my mother. I’ve talked myself silly, tried antidepressants, I just don’t want to keep going and get old. I’m sick of working just to pay bills, and tired of dealing with people. What do you do when you don’t want to deal with anyone anymore? I can’t stand dealing with people, and there is very little to do in this world that does not involve dealing with people. I am happiest when I do nothing and see no one, but that is not living, that is just staying alive. I see no point to it. I’ve seen and done everything I want to do, and I just don’t want to get old. It’s too much work, and I’m tired. Thank you for hopefully trying to understand my point of view.
I’m sorry if any of this comes off as preachy or bitter…I really don’t mean it that way. I’m saying this all very calmly, and out of nothing but genuine concern for a fellow human being who is going through something very difficult.
Suicide is a very selfish act. You must realize this, because although the act would show disregard for everyone else, you’re at least trying to spare one person the pain and powerlessness you know they’ll feel.
This is not to try to shame you or pull on your heartstrings, we both know that trying to elicit emotion would only work for a day anyway…if at all. I’m saying this knowing that it’s our thoughts that generate our emotions, and maybe if you see the logic in what is being said, you might try to consider another alternative.
Think about how you felt when your brother took his life…how it made you feel, as a helpless bystander. Do you think he considered how you’d feel? Could he have understood the terrible toll it would take on you all these years? Would he have maybe, out of consideration for you, have thought twice about it if he knew that his suicide might later become a deciding factor for your own?
Then read your posts again. Look how many times you use the word ‘I’. Suicide only makes sense if you’re concentrating on yourself, and completely disregarding others, just as sure as if you were marooned somewhere with your loved ones, for days, and hid away all the food for yourself. The minute you decide to earnestly think of others, it’s not nearly as easy or palatable of an option.
Not everyone goes through what you are dealing with, but there is also nothing particularly unique about your suffering. Cognitive therapy works very well, and for me, attending and giving to the church slowly pulled me up (probably because it steered my attention away from ‘I’ for a bit). Maybe I figured if my life was so worthless I’m toying with ending it, I might as well give it away, and since I’m giving it away it seemed to me that it’d be wisest to make God the recipient. I’m not saying that the paths I’ve taken will work the same for you, I’m just trying to get you to see past the lie that there are no alternative paths.
Your only true fault is that you are being willfully ignorant of the value you have in the eyes of those around you. You’re not here just for yourself.
On the flip side, it is physically impossible to be bitter and gracious at the same time. Look after others less fortunate than yourself, and be thankful for what you do have. It may sound corny and pointless, but don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
dear busdriver802, i know their are other people-you would be surprised-who would suffer the same grief over your death as your mother. i remember once i read in some book something that has always stayed with me:if you are contemplating doing something so extreme as killing yourself, why not first do something equally extreme , like buy a one way ticket to tahiti or alaska or wherever, or sell everything and join a monestary or…well, whatever. you can always kill yourself after that. and you’re not spending your last days paying bills and dealing with people…you know? sometimes a radical change can jar us into a new relationship with life, and death. i think about that idea a lot. have you ever thought about something like that? even though i do not know you, i have had a glimpse of similar feelings to yours myself. and i wish for you to find peace, and happiness, and love. i really really do. even from strangers on the internet.
This guy explains it far better than I ever could:
http://martinmanley.bizant.ro/
For anyone who thinks it is a selfish act, how selfish is it of someone else to expect me to live in pain just to spare the pain of another person? Why should I live every day in agony just to prevent another person from feeling agony?
That to me is a more selfish position.
I wish more people could just accept death as part of life instead of extending life at any and all cost.
BusDriver802 I agree with a lot of what you have to say. There was a point in my life where I came close to acting on it, but didn’t. I believe that some times mental pain can be worse then many terminal illnesses that most of society would agree that it would be okay to end the suffering with physician assisted suicide, yet those with such mental pain are left to suffer in silence with no hope of getting better.
I lost my dad to a heart attack at a very young age, for years I was angry at him for not taking better care of himself and for not letting us call the ambulance sooner. I was so so angry at him, how could he, that was so self etc… As I got older I went through sever depression and episodes of intense OCD (these were both things my dad struggled with). To make a long story short in my mid twenties I had to deal with these issues and for the first time I realized what his life had been like, except I was in therapy and getting help, so take what I was going through add 20 years and holy crap the pain must have been excruciating for him! That’s when I realized that he wanted to die that night, the mental pain was too much and the heart attack he was having was his way out. His death still saddens me, but I no longer think of it as selfish, it would have been selfish for me to expect him to keep living with all of that pain.
Now I’m rambling on because I want you to understand where I’m coming from and that what I’m about to suggest isn’t because I think life is all rainbows, flowers and Unikittys (lego movie reference – a great movie if you haven’t seen it yet) I understand that there is a lot of sucky things that can go on in life. Please before you act on any of your intentions:
– Visit http://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/ there are a lot of great people there
– Try an introductory workshop at the Vermont Zen center http://www.vzc.org/workshops.html and learn how to meditate
– This one might sound odd, but maybe sign up for a monthly subscription box that interests you, http://www.lootcrate.com/ is one that is pretty good. It’s nice to have surprise to look forward to every month, he is another list here http://boxes.mysubscriptionaddiction.com/
I don’t come here often and it’s really random that I even saw this post – I’m sure I will never know how things end up going for you but I sincerely wish you all of the best BusDriver802
What stops a suicidal Vermonter from…
… swallowing a bottle of pills,
… jumping off a bridge,
… slitting their wrists,
… crashing their car at a high rate of speed?
Not much.
If someone cannot buy a gun, do you really think they won’t kill themselves? About half (just over) of suicides in the US are carried out with a firearm. That means that nearly half aren’t.
Japan’s suicide rate is higher than the US suicide AND murder rate combined… and they don’t have guns. What does that tell us?
“But even if the state were submitting more information to the federal system, it wouldn’t have stopped Hanna from obtaining a gun. She had not been the subject of a legal hearing nor had she been involuntarily committed.”
And that cannot change. The 5th and 14th Amendments demand due process of law, and there is no cutout or work-around to that protection.
And there shouldn’t be, either.
Hmm. Should we prevent people with a history of self-harm from buying cars as well? After all, there was probably an instance last week of someone, somewhere in the country crashing one into a guard rail on the highway in an attempt to end their life. Does that justify declaring all people that are or have been thinking about hurting themselves completely incompetent to drive due to the potential danger cars pose? Frankly, unless you place them on constant observation in FAHC indefinitely someone who is truly suicidal will find a means to accomplish the task. Developing sweeping policies like this that necessarily mark people as ‘defective’ for life simply because they have been self-injurious or hospitalized is fallacious. And further the fact that this is most often justified with what appears to be very shaky, anecdotal evidence seems absolutely absurd to me. People change and get better, and despite what you might think about practitioners being receptive the reality is that once you check that box you often can’t uncheck it (ask any ER practitioner at FAHC how hesitant they are to declare someone as drug seeking…..they almost never do because of how real the possibility of them not being able to get pain meds is when they need them)
Putting suicidal people in a bubble as a quick fix is not the answer. We need to TREAT them…this means destigmatizing treatment such that we won’t need to worry about ‘catching’ them as the BJ’s employee describes, they will feel like they can come to us to get better and not be ostracized for it for years afterwards.
Hi Mark cool I found this article. Suicide or genocide I’m not sure which one is worse. I would like to consider purchasing a handgun to feel safe and to be able to be more confident with myself that might be a bunch of bullcrap but one time I was assaulted and now I’m on Facebook so for my own security I would like to learn to carry one for my own safety. I lost your phone number too.