If a rational person took an unjaundiced look at the four recent shootings which have captured the media’s unblinking eye, they’d find a common thread running through all of them. The four being Jared Loughner’s rampage in Tucson, James Eagan Holmes’ shoot-’em-up in Aurora, Colorado, Adam Lanza in the Newtown murders and yesterday’s shootings by Aaron Alexis at the Navy Yard. All four fellows were known to law enforcement at some point. Loughner, Holmes and Lanza were all being treated by mental healthcare professionals and Alexis should have been, given his erratic behavior. Only Lanza was denied the purchase of a firearm by current laws, but only the law that requires his to wait three days. He couldn’t wait that long, so he killed his mother and used her guns.<\/p>\n
But given their mental health treatment, all four should have been flagged in the NICS system, but no one was willing to take that step, for whatever reason. Even though law enforcement had the tools to prevent these four heinous crimes, they were reticent about using them.<\/p>\n
As I mentioned previously, it took Seattle cops a month to finally confront Alexis after he discharged his firearm (a scary Glock) three times into the tire of some construction workers. They knocked on his door, and he didn’t answer their knock so they went away. They tried to telephone him, and again, he didn’t answer, so they didn’t bother with him.<\/p>\n
TSO and I are experiencing the exact same thing. Last month, we were both threatened with bodily harm as well as harm to our families, so we reported it to police. When I reported the threats to the West Virginia State Police, the officer told me that he was going to try to call the suspect before swearing out a warrant against him because the officer didn’t want to negatively impact the suspect’s NICS report. Yes, the officer said that. Well, said suspect hasn’t returned the officer’s call, so we’re still waiting – a month later. Last week, the police finally moved on threats to TSO and went to the suspect’s house and knocked on his door. Clearly he was home what with all of the cars in his driveway, but he didn’t answer their knock, so they left.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the police don’t take threats seriously. The suspect in our case threatened to send explosives to TSO’s home in flower and pizza deliveries. He threatened to hire hit men to take us out. We’ve both taken to carrying guns even in our homes. Sunday, I answered a knock on my door with my Colt Defender in hand, only to find a grade-schooler selling raffle tickets. Of course, I kept the pistol out of sight, but I felt guilty about it. <\/p>\n
I can only imagine what the headlines will be if I do have to defend myself against this particular person. Since this person has threatened to kill me and beat me in front of my wife, I’d probably shoot him on sight given the graphic nature of his threats. Somehow, that would be blamed on my combat experience, I suppose.<\/p>\n
So, this guy is out there running around and continuing his threats and the police are being polite. The dude has an extensive violent record and probably can’t buy a gun as a result anyway, but the police are doing a long, slow dance with him instead of removing the threat from society. But I guess my point is this; why have laws, why more laws if law enforcement is unwilling to use the existing laws to prevent things like what happened yesterday?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"