As the media circus comes to a close and the blood-stained sidewalk is washed away by the community to hide the horror, the families and friends of the dead and injured are pondering why. Why was my child, sibling, uncle, aunt, best friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, parent(s) shot? Why are they dead? Long after everyone chalks this up to another violent day, questions need to be answered: So now do you believe that there is a war against women and shouldn’t there be common sense gun regulation?
Getting away from the distraction of semantics — It had a large clip, no it’s a magazine and ending the debate in anger — the forgone conclusion is that seven people, including shooter Elliot Rodger of Santa Barbara, are dead and 13 are injured according to Time.com. Unless, of course, you’re from the conspiracy theory crowd that believes that HAARP or MK-Ultra, used by the government, was responsible for the shooting so that the Obama Administration can take away your firearms.
Regardless, people are dead.
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Still, could it have been prevented? I believe so. According to sources close to the Rodger family, “Elliot was mentally disturbed. How he got the firearm legally is a surprise to me. He should not have had the right to buy the firearm as our laws state that anyone who is mentally disabled are not allowed to purchase firearms.” Which is correct, but there is a catch; they have to be deemed mentally incapable by a court. Federal law states:
Federal Law
Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(d), it is unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person “has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution.”
While in California, though a lot more stringent under the 10th Amendment, states:
01) Has been admitted to a facility and is receiving in-patient treatment for a mental illness and the attending mental health professional opines that the patient is a danger to self or others. This prohibition applies even if the person has consented to the treatment, although the prohibition ends as soon as the patient is discharged from the facility;
02) Has been adjudicated to be a danger to others as a result of a mental disorder or mental illness or has been adjudicated to be a mentally disordered sex offender. This prohibition does not apply, however, if the court of adjudication issues, upon the individual’s release from treatment or at a later date, a certificate stating that the person may possess a firearm without endangering others;
03) Has been found not guilty by reason of insanity of enumerated violent felonies. A person who is found not guilty by reason of insanity of other crimes is barred from possessing firearms unless a court finds that the person has recovered his or her sanity;
04) Has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, unless there is a subsequent finding that the person has become competent;
05) Is currently under a court-ordered conservatorship because he or she is gravely disabled as a result of a mental disorder or impaired by chronic alcoholism
A person can still purchase a firearm legally, because they were not deemed mentally incapable in a court. Even if someone decides to go to therapy, they can still purchase a firearm legally…so long as they do not give the appearance that they pose a threat to themselves or other. How? Roe Vs. Wade. All medical records between a doctor and their patient is confidential.
According to the Associated Press
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown says deputies checked on Rodger after being called by a concerned family member. The officers left after determining he didn’t need to be locked up for mental-health reasons.
Rodger expressed relief that his apartment wasn’t searched because deputies would have found his weapons and his writings and would have foiled his plan.
Brown says he won’t second-guess his deputies’ decision-making in the encounter.
In other words, because the deputies could not prove that Rodger posed a threat to himself or others, they had to leave. After leaving, Rodger sent his manifesto to a couple of dozen people and to his parents just before his rampage. A video was also posted of Rodger in his car spewing his anger of being a virgin at 22 and not being able to find a woman who would love him…so he made his last disturbing video just before he started his killing.
Looking at the conservative sites on Facebook, not one conservative wrote about the shooting. Not even the RNC seemed interested. Their sites seemed eerily silent like the shooting never occurred, therefore the need for gun control isn’t a necessity. The Blaze had a couple of stories and the comments were minimal:
Advection
– May. 25, 2014 at 9:47pmThe kid was mentally ill. Gun laws wouldn’t have stopped him. Had he continued, he would have hacked that woman to death, and her son, with a knife. What they needed was a mental hospital bed.
Cactus_Jack_Two
– May. 25, 2014 at 9:51pmThe BLAZE is running this story in to the ground.
Deipnosophist
– May. 25, 2014 at 9:49pm1,000+ missed opportunities. So very sad. This video was supposedly posted by him in 2012 and apparently completely ignored. He even used his real name.
electroencephalographic
– May. 25, 2014 at 9:51pmVanity and envy will kill all of you Hollyturds…
searching for the Truth
– May. 25, 2014 at 9:58pmThey need to stretch an electric fence across Cali towards new york and hook it up to the power grid.
SaturdaysWarrior76
– May. 25, 2014 at 9:59pmTribute to Vietnam Veterans… Warning: Have a tissue ready, you will cry.
https://www.youtube….
Apparently, their rights to firearms were again turned upside down. I have to admit though Advection was correct, Rodger needed mental health care, but because of lobbying from from the NRA and weak gun laws, Advection was partially correct when Advection wrote that no amount of laws would have stopped Rodger…but had the deputy had the authority to take Rodger in for at least 72 hours, there probably would not have been a massacre.
So until the laws change for mentally ill folks and if someone is deemed mentally incapable of taking care of themselves outside of a court decision, then more people will die and the Republicans who follow the whims of the NRA, WalMart and the Koch brothers will have the blood of the victims upon their hands…but then again, do they really care?
Tim’s first experience into journalism was at East Los Angeles College. Then Tim was a stringer for a local Japanese American Newspaper in Los Angeles. He then completed his Bachelors in Business and RECEIVED his MBA, but his desire to seek the truth has not been assuaged by fear of the 1% or their followers. When Tim isn’t doing his liberal thing, he enjoys sitting back, relaxing and listening to Rush…the band folks!
