A Senate judiciary committee approved legislation today that could prevent those involuntarily committed with serious mental illness from purchasing or possessing guns.

"People with severe mental illnesses should not be able to purchase a gun — it's as simple as that— and this is a process to accomplish that," said N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The legislation, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand of Fayetteville, comes after a student at Virginia Tech opened fire on April 16, 2007, and killed 32 students and faculty before killing himself, Dan Kane reports.

That student, Seung-Hui Cho, had been involuntarily committed to outpatient treatment by a court order, but he escaped being listed on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, thereby allowing him to purchase handguns.

The shootings exposed what Cooper said is a big loophole in North Carolina law. State courts are not required to notify the national registry of involuntary commitment orders.

More after the jump.

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Mental health advocacy groups have launched a Web site.

The N.C. Mental Health Vote site will feature a blog on mental health issues and candidates' statements in the 2008 statewide elections. It is run by the N.C. Psychiatric Association, the state Mental Health Association and other groups.

Dr. John Gilmore, a UNC-Chapel Hill psychiatrist, said the site is intended to spark discussion about the ongoing problems of the state's mental health system.

"When psychiatrists stand up and speak out, you know things are really bad," he wrote on the blog's first post Wednesday. "As a group, we'd rather sit back, listen, observe, and quietly do our job. But things are really bad, and we are speaking out." (AP)

Interest groups that want to make the state mental health system an issue in the governor's race have started a website, ncmentalhealthvote.org.

Sponsors — the N.C. Psychiatric Association, the Mental Health Association in North Carolina and the National Alliance on Mental Illness' North Carolina chapter — are passing out bumper stickers promoting the site, Lynn Bonner reports.

The site doesn't have much on it so far, but organizers envision sponsoring candidate forums and buying ads if they get enough support.