Regarding the mass shooting in Maine, I received this in an email.
Another person commented:
Well that fits the narrative well. More “ammo” to justify red flag laws.
Not really. In fact, some folks will probably hope this goes away, because they won’t want to draw attention to the massive series of failures on the part of law enforcement.
Maine has a “yellow flag law,” instead of the left’s preferred no-due process “red flag” laws.
The law differs from red flag laws in that it requires police first to get a medical practitioner to evaluate the person and find them to be a threat before police can petition a judge to order the person’s firearms to be seized.
A formal evaluation by a medical professional and a hearing. How ’bout that? What the left doesn’t like about this is that only the police can request this, and that hearing.
In the case of the Lewiston killer, the police had every reason and opportunity to invoke the yellow flag law.
In May, in a written statement, the perp’s ex-wife informed the police that he was mentally unstable, a danger to others, and that he possessed several firearms.
Other family members contacted the police to inform them that he was unstable and dangerous. Law enforcement attempted several “wellness checks,” sometimes reaching, somethimes not. At one point, the sheriff reportedly told a responding deputy to blow it off; because the sheriff knew of the killer-to-be, and figured he’d just get over it as he had other times.
In July, he was involuntarily committed, making him a prohibited person. Reportedly, New York law enforcement was involved.
In September, the National Guard informed Maine law enforcement that he was nuts and dangerous. For once, they did something: they issued a statewide alert on him.
And cancelled it a few days later. About a week later, he started his killing spree.
At no point did Maine law enforcement decide that this guy, whom they knew to be 1) crazy, 2) dangerous, and 3) armed, should be “yellow flag” and taken into custody for evaluation and seizing his firearms. Now add in that, with the National Guard’s alert, they should alos have known that he was a prohibited person. And took no action.
All the Baker Acts, red flag laws, and yellow flag laws in the world won’t help if the authorities refuse to use them. In Card’s case, I suspect that he was part of the good ol’ boy network; as a firearms trainer, he may have even trained the sheriff’s deputies. So the sheriff didn’t want to cause the guy legal problems; after all, it was as if he’d killed anyone. Yet. He’ll get over it. Again. Right?.
So they didn’t, and he didn’t. And poeple died because of it.
