After the Jacksonville Shooting, We Need to Talk About White Male Rage

[Lee-Lee]

12. Actually there is, and the government as well as his family failed to use it

As well as the mental health professionals and police, they all failed.

According to what’s been released so far he was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and was involuntarily hospitalized for treatment at least twice.

He should have been barred from purchasing firearms.

But you have several things at play. Some states refuse to report juveline commitments to NICS. His parents, as is very typical, failed to acknowledge the real seriousness of his condition and while they still had parental authority take appropriate actions that would have led to him being reported to NICS (divorce records show his dad was obviously in deep denial about his sons issues, refusing to believe the diagnosis given by mental health professionals)

On top of that the people who treated him could have, and should have, reported their findings and diagnosis to the courts to have him flagged in NICS to bar him from passing a background check. But in so many cases like this they don’t. Some because they are lazy. Some because they object to adding a stigma to mental illness.

On top of that the police had been called to his home over 25 times for probelms and even domestic disturbances caused by him. But no charges were ever filed, probably because as typical Parents in denial about how serious their child’s problems are the parents wanted to “keep him out of the system”. They called and got the police to defuse the situation just enough and they acted like everything would be ok after that. Well, he should have been in the system. Because then he would have at this point at least been on probation and probation means no firearms possessed and you can’t pass a NICS check. Or at a minimum the reports would have come up when they did the deeper check required in MD to get a permit to own a handgun.

The tools were there on multiple levels, and at each opportunity they were not used.

On top of the NICS system Maryland has one of the most restrictive processes to purchase a handgun in the nation, requiring you to submit to a more in-depth background check and even submit fingerprints to get a license to own a handgun. He did that and passed with flying colors. Because nobody in the past did the right thing.