Quote:
Originally Posted by Viperfreak2
We should always keep working to better the society we live in, not just say 'this is it, nothing we can do'
The point I didn't make clear enough was a school hearing about threats. Any reported threats should have been documented and the police contacted. Then, the way it should work, is that he is in a database to not legally sell him guns. He shows up at a sporting goods store to buy a gun, they look in the computer and they tell him no. Would that stop him from getting a gun? No way, but it makes it more difficult, and the choice of gun (and magazine) less. Some 'street' dealers will sell to anyone. Some would see the crazy in his eyes and consider that he might shoot them in the back after the deal.
Anyway, once the police were involved maybe there could have been more push to get him some medical help. His parents should have been first in line asking for it. Did they?
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Agree! The documentation on this guy was pretty extensive. IF there was a way to involuntarily commit him then that should have happened. The idea that the school's documentation would somehow get into a federal database to prohibit him from buying a gun would be the ideal but that is where there is a disconnect. The federal check would not reveal his history if it was confined to school records.
I was a gun store last week and they told me about a guy who had a gun there in the waiting period when it came back that he was a prohibited person because he had a prior mental health detention (72 hour hold). I don't know how that got into the records or if it was a self-report on the form he had to fill out at the time of purchase. The system can work but there are times when someone's mental health history is unreported in so far as it was documented in ways or places that do not link with databases that are kept and queried when a gun is purchased.
It's easy to see the why or how this guy could do what he did when it's Monday morning quarterback time. The signs were there but what can we learn from it about the process and how people who pose a risk to themselves and others can be dealt with before something terrible happens.