HIGHLAND PARK, Ill., July 5 (Reuters) - The man charged with killing seven people at a Chicago-area July Fourth parade slipped past the safeguards of an Illinois "red flag" law designed to prevent people deemed to have violent tendencies from getting guns, officials revealed on Tuesday....
Sergeant Chris Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said earlier in the day that Crimo had legally purchased a total of five guns, including the suspected murder weapon, despite having come to law enforcement's attention twice for behavior suggesting he might harm himself or others.
The first instance was an April 2019 emergency-911 call reporting Crimo had attempted suicide, followed in September of that year by a police visit regarding alleged threats "to kill everyone" that he had directed at family members, Covelli said....
According to Covelli, police responding to the second incident seized a collection of 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from Crimo's home in Highland Park, Illinois, the Chicago suburb where the shooting occurred on Monday. But no arrest was made as authorities at the time lacked probable cause to take him into custody, the sheriff's sergeant said.
"There were no complaints that were signed by any of the victims," Covelli explained....
Later on Tuesday came a separate statement from the Illinois State Police recounting that the agency had received a report from Highland Park Police declaring Crimo a "clear and present danger" after the alleged threats against relatives in September 2019.
At the time, however, Crimo did not possess a state "firearm owners identification (FOID)" card that could be revoked or a pending FOID application to deny. So state police involvement in the matter was closed, the agency said....
Three months later, at age 19, Crimo applied for his first FOID card, under his father's sponsorship. But because no firearm restraining order or other court action against Crimo had ever been sought, "there was insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger and deny the FOID application," state police said.
Crimo passed four background checks in the purchase of his guns, all of them conducted in 2020 and 2021, well after the 2019 incidents that drew police attention, according to the state police.
Are you worried red flag laws might be used to disarm law-abiding people? I wouldn't.
Ann Coulter has a modest proposal: "One gun control law I think we could all get behind is no guns for anyone with a face or neck tattoo."
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1544099608967749634
On a more serious note, Scott Johnson of Powerline tried to follow up on a report that Crimo entered a Chabad synagogue earlier this year.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/07/the-massacre-this-time.php
I think this actually illustrates the issue with red flag laws. They are supposedly enacted with the goal of restricting access to firearms for mentally unstable individuals, but they are almost never used for that purpose. Instead, they form yet another tool in the hands of state actors to restrict the rights of those deemed dangerous for political reasons. I haven't seen that happen yet, but I do not trust the state and expect power to be abused. If they are not going to be used for their stated purpose, consistent with due process, why keep them on the books with the potential for abuse?
ReplyDeleteWe have adequate laws already; the Bipartisan bill just puts some teeth into due process for those laws.
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