Seems everyone knew this kid in Florida was a nut. The FBI even investigated him over threats. People saw something and said something. The authorities, however, did nothing about it. In many states, a trip to the loony bin makes you a prohibited person. In Florida, it’s called the Baker Act. In Pennsylvania, it’s the Mental Health Procedures Act. All it takes is the police giving you a ride, and you can’t legally buy a gun and won’t pass a background check.
Yet they did nothing. Yeah, sorry, in Florida we did what everyone says is the answer: made it very easy to make crazy people into prohibited persons, and the authorities still dropped the ball.
All the mental health prohibitions in the world aren’t going to amount to shit if no one lifts a finger to get people with mental health issues into the system. This happens repeatedly: we agree to give them the tools they ask for, the authorities drop the ball, and shit still happens. Then, they demand we give up the next thing, and the next thing.
YGBSM. Though I guess I’m not surprised.
Though, reading the articles, there’s a certain amount of hindsight is 20/20 involved in saying “the authorities should have known.”
I am mildly surprised the animal cruelty thing was never followed up on.
Just like Dylan Roof, gov’t screws up and somehow it’s the fault of “we the people”
There’s also a Catch 22 to that as in you can’t just haul someone in and throw them in a cage because of something they said. The person being questioned has to admit they want to harm themselves or others, or voluntarily go to the hospital. The authorities can do all the convincing they want, but if the person become questioned declines, and there isn’t any probable cause, they can’t touch him or her.
Actually, the way I understand it, and I could be wrong, but here in PA anyways you have to be Involuntarily committed to the hospital to lose your gun rights.
If you go on your own it doesn’t bar you.
Someone please correct if I’m wrong here…..
Nope. A 302 (observational) commitment will do. No due process. Just a ride from the po-po to the loony bin and if you don’t go voluntarily, you’re prohibited.
Here in CA you get a 5 year ban on gun purchases just for being evaluated- even if the mental health professionals give you a clean bill. When they tell us they want mental health screening, it turns out they really just want to ban as many guns from as many people as they can. Big surprise.
The Deep State needs more gun violence to advance their gun ban agenda. Why would they lift a finger to stop someone who is on track to deliver to them what they want?
Who was head of the FBI when this killer kid was investigated? Comey or Mueller?
Considering the MULTIPLE threats that the shooter yapped off for the past year, including multiple death threats to students, teachers, and even bomb threats on the school, this scumbucket should’ve at least been thrown into a Mental Institution…..no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There are laws pertaining to death and terrorist threats, ESPECIALLY repeat incidents.
Unfortunately, we know have Trump Administration Officials like Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin calling for Gun-Bans. I really fear Trump buckling now, because the Democrats continue to up the ante on their viciousness for abolishing the 2nd Amendment and Civilian Firearms Ownership.
If the Democrats take back the House of Representatives and/or Senate, my fear is that the GOP and Donald Trump will pull off a “George Deukmejian” (When he caved to the Democrat controlled California State Legislature, betrayed and demoralized California Gun Owners, and then signed the 1989 Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act) and sign an Assault Weapons Ban, or, Omnibus Gun Control Bill, which the Democrats will pass with a Federal Legislature Majority in 2019.
Remember, California Law Enforcement Agencies knew about Patrick Purdy and his filthy, criminal records. They were watching him, and had the ability to arrest him, preventing the 1989 Stockton Schoolyard Massacre……but never did……..and look at California now.
If it turns out this guy was known or should have been known to the authorities, I cynically expect selective memory-holing.
I expect a new campaign mantra: “If You See Something, Say Something and Please Keep Saying It.”
It should be more like “If you see something ignore it, we will.”
Yours is more to the point and truthful.
You are always your own first responder. Depending on the government to protect you is foolish. Priority needs to be the elimination of GFZs.
I think copycat killings due to media sensationalism are a huge issue here. There are guidelines the media follows about celebrity suicides to try and prevent copycat suicides (a very real phenomenon). They should do the same regarding murders.
The Atlantic has a good article about this, and what can be done:
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/the-media-needs-to-stop-inspiring-copycat-murders-heres-how/266439/
Is social media playing a role in this? Kids don’t consume as much mass media as adults do. Something has changed to be driving this frequency. What is it?
Nobody knows so they just blame their favorite thing to hate. It is actually reasonably easy to knock down just about any theory.
Ok. Is there any evidence against the copycat theory?
Remember the sandy hook murderer was obsessed with school shootings, to the extent of even editing wikipedia pages about them. Is the copycat theory a good one? Yes.
Evil losers want to be infamous, and have their grievances pored over by millions. The media has shown them there is an easy way to do, just murder a lot of innocent people.
The celebrity suicide copycat issue is one that is well studied and accepted. This is quite similar.
Has something in the media changed? Don’t know. But they sure aren’t reducing their hysteria in an attempt to reduce copycats, that is for sure.
Proof once again that you can’t put your trust in the authorities to deal with a problem. You have to deal with it yourself.
By this I do NOT mean mob “justice!”
I mean get this kid some help & support, remove sharp objects etc. from him, get out of his way, see to it that he’s supervised when he’s around, exert social pressure on his parents…the limits are defined only by the bounds of your imagination.
People might not be able to stop a person like that, but they don’t have to sit by and let him do it either.
This isn’t an easy problem to solve and there are no easy or perfect answers. “Call the cops” is the easiest, laziest answer, almost totally ineffective, and usually inappropriate–at least until things have assumed the bottom-heavy globular shape of a pear. Police are good at using force to take drugs away and make people go to jail–they are not generally trained as counselors or psychiatrists who might help someone talk out their problems or prescribe drugs to treat them.
So let’s say the cops had paid him a visit. How long do you think it would have taken for the howling mob of Democrats to start screaming about “profiling a Hispanic”? “Stop and frisk” worked on the same principle: let’s be proactive and take an extra look at people and areas of higher risk. Remember how that worked?
People really are why we can’t have nice things. They lose track of the forest for the trees.