Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Gun Control

I've been looking a little into that.  One may be curious about the question in light of current events.  Could the shooter have been stopped if more gun control laws were in effect?

Perhaps, but let's look at what is already there.  One provision of the current Federal law prohibits "mental defectives" from purchasing firearms.  These persons have to be adjudicated as being mental defectives or have been committed to a mental institution.  Evidently, the Arizona shooter managed to evade this provision and legally purchase his weapon since he was not legally nuts.

There are plenty of reports of this individual's strange behavior.  But nobody seemed to feel the necessity of doing anything about it within the context of this law.  Is it because of indifference or ignorance or what have you?  What about the authorities who expelled him from school?  Could they have done more?  Could the law be tighten up a bit so as to require an evaluation based upon probable cause?  If his behavior was strange enough to cause people to be afraid, wasn't that enough probable cause to evaluate him?  In short, what could have been done, but wasn't?

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