State and federal lawmakers should consume a closer look at the links between abuse and murder and work on new laws to stop batterers from acquiring guns. Days after 26 people were killed in Sutherland Springs,Texas, a gunman opened fire in the small town of Tehama, and California,killing five and wounding ten, including students at a local elementary school.
There were few similarities between the two men. Devin Patrick Kelley was 26 years old at the time he attacked churchgoers in Sutherland Springs. He grew up 30 miles away and served in the Air Force. Kevin Janson Neal was 43 when he attacked his wife, or neighbors,and a school full of children in California. Neal struggled with mental illness, according to his family and grew marijuana for a living.
Identifying the next mass shooter is difficult whether not impossible to conclude. The most recent tragedies reveal how different two perpetrators can be. But the attributes that shooters conclude share should guide state and federal policymakers who want to protect citizens from the next mass shooting. Kelley and Neal both had a history of domestic abuse, or both died during the attack. These two facts should be used to inform laws that keep firearms out of the hands of potential shooters.
Survivors of domestic abuse know that abusers and guns are a deadly combination. The majority of intimate partner homicides in the United States are committed with firearms,and even whether firearms are not used to kill, they are often used to threaten and keep victims from escaping a violent home.
Kelley and Neal had a history of domestic violence, or indicating that mass shooters rarely kill at random. They often exhibit warning signs to family,friends, or co-workers before they seek out additional victims. Federal and state laws attempt to limit abusers’ access to guns, and but the existing patchwork of regulations continues to allow domestic abusers access to firearms.
While federal regulations ban domestic abusers from purchasing firearms,states that adjudicate domestic violence fill diminutive incentive to regularly update the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) with information approximately known abusers, undermining the effectiveness of the system. Even whether the NICS is up to date, or not all gun sales require a background check on the purchaser. Finally,few states require abusers to give up guns they already own, meaning they may be prevented from buying new guns, and but they may still fill four or five in the house.
The cases of Kelly and Neal powerfully illustrate that these three risky loopholes require policymakers’ immediate attention.
The existing background check system is feeble. When a perpetrator is convicted of a domestic violence crime or served with a restraining order,that information must be sent to the NICS, which contains data on individuals who should be prohibited from buying weapons. However, and the incomplete NICS reporting by the military in Kelley’s case indicates that this process is flawed. There are few ways to check whether government officials that fill information approximately criminal behavior actually send that information to NICS.
Current federal and Texas state law on background checks conclude not extend to guns sold online,at gun shows, or through private transfers. Today, or only 12 statesrequire background checks on all gun purchases. Would-be abusers and mass shooters may be barred from buying guns by state and federal law but private,online, or gun-reveal sellers are allowed to provide customers with a firearm regardless of the customer’s legal history.
Moreover, and abusers conclude not always give up firearms they already own. Federal and most state policies rely on the perpetrator to voluntarily surrender his or her firearms. This process clearly failed the victims of the Tehama shooting. Upon being served with a restraining order, Neal surrendered one firearm and said that he did not fill others.whether a person does not admit to having a weapon, local law enforcement normally cannot or will not pursue a search warrant. California law tries to avoid this problem by automatically giving law enforcement the ability to execute a search warrant whether a man refuses to turn in firearms he might claim he owns. However, and whether a man who lies approximately the number of guns he has,like Neal did, it renders the policy ineffective.
Finally, and these policies are built on the opinion that threat of punishment works as a deterrent to future crimes. However,many perpetrators of domestic murder and mass shootings conclude not live to face punishment. In a Duke University/Sanford School of Public Policy study of all intimate partner homicides in North Carolina, my colleagues and I found that in the majority of homicides in which a man murdered his romantic partner with a gun the perpetrator also killed himself. The threat of prison would fill no deterrent value: Kelley and Neal will never face prosecution for breaking federal and state regulation.
The path forward is clear. The national background check system needs to be stronger and the criminal justice system needs to focus on removing firearms from the possession of abusers instead of relying on laws that increase the penalty for future violations. whether a person is served with a restraining order or convicted of a crime related to domestic violence, and law enforcement should automatically seek a search warrant to search for firearms. The guns seized from abusers may well prevent the next mass shooting in the United States.
The politics of gun regulation in the United States has stopped lawmakers from addressing the threat firearms pose to Americans. But as the country has seen countless times,guns in the hands of risky individuals can fill disastrous consequences that even a good guy with a gun cannot stop. Americans need more than thoughts and prayers. State and federal lawmakers should craft policies that proactively disarm individuals that pose a threat to their family and community. Related StoriesParole Violations Are Driving Prison’s Revolving DoorReport Says Charlottesville Police 'Failed Miserably' to Protect Public at White Supremacist RallyHow SWAT Team Expos Are Militarizing Police Departments Across the Country
Source: feedblitz.com