It is definitely a tragedy and we all want to think about what could and should have been done to prevent this situation from happening. Like the other responder said though, "Police knew..." is not sufficient grounds to interject into someone's civil liberties. We have, as liberals, fought vehemently against police being able to go into someone's home based on their hunch in 4th Amendment cases. Certainly people will argue, "but this is about guns and people dying". Well, police think that when they go into a suspected drug dealer's house, it is about drugs and people dying. There has to be consistency and there has to be due process, as the other person said.
I certainly want to give mental health professionals, families, public health personnel and law enforcement, the tools they need to make communities safe. I don't however, want to leave it up to someone, "knowing" about potential danger, especially knowing about all of the current research where people of color, especially young Black men, being seen as inherent threats by law enforcement. Giving police more power to take away civil liberties would be a bad move given the propensity for racial bias.
There has to be a major effort to educate and reinforce the role of the family and community in mental health issues. Something has to be done about the stigma assigned to emotional and mental health treatment.
Currently, mental health legislation is geared primarily toward the least restrictive interventions, and while that is good for civil liberties, it makes it difficult to make sure that people who need help, get the help they need. You can be floridly psychotic and need intervention, but if you are not presenting as a danger to yourself, others, or having a grave disability preventing you from basic care.
You are right about one thing. He did not "slip" past anything. Our language is sometimes inadequate to explain situations. The laws and policies written to try to prevent potentially dangerous people from acquiring firearms, often requires the voluntary cooperation of people who have other obligations that may pull them away from doing what is best for the community. I am not sure how we address those issues.
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