The editors of the Chicago Tribune have absorbed the appropriate and correct lesson from the workplace homicide incident in Aurora last week:
There’s the starting point for Illinois after Aurora: an intensive examination of gun laws and enforcement practices to try to prevent another shooting of this type. Regulations and enforcement rules need to be tightened to give police the authority and resources to track down people who may possess weapons they no longer are allowed to have.
There may be other mismatches between statutes and enforcement. Last year, Illinois undertook a re-evaluation after a mass shooting in Tennessee allegedly carried out by Travis Reinking, a troubled native of Morton, Ill. Illinois lawmakers passed a “red flag†law that allows police or family members to seek a court order to confiscate guns from those who are deemed “an immediate and present danger†to themselves or others.
The emphasis of Illinois’s governor and other officials has been precisely wrong—that we need more laws. What enabled the incident in Aurora to take place was not too few laws but inadequate enforcement. There is no number of unenforced laws that will have any material effect on gun homicides.
I’m pretty sure there has long been court authority to confiscate guns from those deemed an immediate and present danger. I’m sure there is some difference, but it sounds like the emphasis is on the gun instead of treatment. If a mental health professional believes that a person is an immediate and present danger to themselves or others, traditionally they are going to be detained for observation and treatment.
Media reports indicate the man had run ins with the law, a restraining order, ect. In short, a bad temper. I don’t know at what point you can violate his civil liberties and put him in the nut house. Although anger management counseling is often a condition of probation which he would elect to do voluntarily to avoid jail time.
I also do not know at what point you can get a search warrant for his home to remove any weapons, (which he was not allowed to have).
There are so many men who behave very much like him but never quite cross the line to mass murder. If this were easy to prevent, it would have been done long ago.
The gun control “debate” has long been divorced from reality. Whatever the circumstances, each side trots out their dogmatic policies and cynically tries to sell them to the public. No reason it should be any different in this case.
My sense is that police are hesitant about going into homes and taking guns. They dont want to perpetuate the belief that big government is out to get their guns. Could be wrong.
Steve
@steve, in Illinois, there was a police standoff for over a month surrounding an attempt by police to take a 51 year old woman into custody for psychological evaluation at the request of her children. It was near the town of Roby, and got nicknamed “Roby Ridge” and generated a lot of interest among militia groups.
She brandished a shotgun when they came for her. The state police deployed smoke bombs and 24 hours of Barry Manilow to smoke her out. I think they eventually tricked her by leaving food for her. After six weeks in a mental health facility they professionals opined she was not a risk to herself and others.
I don’t think police want to be involved in this kind of effort.
“The state police deployed…………24 hours of Barry Manilow to smoke her out.â€
I thought there were laws against cruel and unusual punishment. What next, Muscrat Love played at 11 to extinguish the last ounce of debilitating toxic masculinity during Navy Seal training?
For once I totally agree with Drew. For those who remember the TV show Night Court there is a famous scene about destroying Barry Manilow records.
Steve
A law that isn’t enforced, or worse, selectively enforced, is worse than no law at all. It harms the lawful and is ignored by the lawless.