11:04 AM PDT on Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. - The state Department of Social and Health Services is starting to give names of mentally ill people who can't own handguns to the FBI.

Police and gun shop owners use the list of names in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to screen people buying guns.

The department says the computer will not identify people as mentally ill but will say they are "state disqualified." If a court restores a person's right to own a firearm the name will be removed from the computer system.

The department says Washington is the first state to submit the names of mentally ill people to the national computer database.