Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Texas church shooter was an escaped mental patient so he was ineligible to buy a gun. Really? One reporter writes the story, every news outlet repeats it using exactly the same words: “Involuntary commitment to a mental institution would have been grounds to deny him . . . .” Yes, it would have been, if that’s what had happened. Was it?
Here’s the federal form to buy a gun. Question 11f is the relevant question. The instructions on the following page make clear that visiting a mental health institution, or working in one, or having a relative in one, or even being held in one pending trial, is NOT a disqualifying event. There must be an adjudication by a court that a person suffers from mental illness and is a danger to himself or others. “Adjudication” means a hearing before a judge with an opportunity to present witnesses in your own defense – a competency hearing. At this point, I see no evidence that happened to this guy.
Reporters breathlessly scooping each other; commentators expounding upon the implications of false premises; politicians waving the bloody shirt as provocation; and not one of them actually knows what they’re talking about. No wonder our national conversation on such a serious topic is indistinguishable from white noise.
Joe Doakes
And half the electorate thinks that the media is putting out intelligent, balanced “journalism”.
It’s pathetic.
Yes, the reporters are showing themselves to be pathetic, but it’s worth noting that if the Air Force and other armed services start to aggressively reporting crimes and clear mental illness (adjudicated and all that) to the FBI database, then they’re going to have to end a lot of military careers. After all, you can’t say a man is ineligible to carry a Marlin .22, but let him handle Ma Deuce or an Abrams at work.
I think the DOD does need to start reporting these things, but we simultaneously need to understand why they won’t be keen on it.