Enforcing existing laws against bad guys ought to be a condition precedent to enacting new laws that restrict the rights of law abiding citizens.
This Waffle House shooting underscores the fact that systems are in place - systems intended to prevent such violence - systems that have repeatedly broken down. Before we start thinking up new laws to further restrict the rights of law abiding citizens, we should enforce existing laws against those who mis-use these weapons to commit harm.
Here are 4 examples...
In Parkland, Fla., police and the FBI did not act upon EXPLICIT warnings that a teenager intended to shoot up a high school in the weeks and months before 17 people were killed there in February.
In Sutherland Springs, Tex., the gunman who killed more than two dozen churchgoers last year was able to buy firearms because his domestic violence conviction Had Not Been Entered Into A National Database that would have flagged it during his background check.
The FBI said a Breakdown in the Background Check system also let the Charleston, S.C., shooter obtain the gun he used to kill nine people in a church there.
And, in this case, beginning in May 2016, Reinking had a number of increasingly fraught encounters with authorities. That month, Reinking told police that pop star Taylor Swift was stalking and harassing him, and that Swift had hacked into his Netflix account. He told police a bizarre story about a Dairy Queen meetup with Swift that ended with him searching for the singer on the restaurant's roof.
June 2017: Police said, Reinking went to a local pool wearing a women's pink housecoat; he swam in his underwear, exposed his genitals and tried to pick fights with lifeguards.
July 2017: Read about the Waffle House Shooting in The Washington Post - Reinking told authorities outside the White House that he needed to speak with the president. He said that "he was a sovereign citizen and has a right to inspect the grounds," according to a D.C. police report. Sovereign citizens are viewed by the FBI as anti-government extremists who believe they are not subject to governmental law.
August 2017: After an investigation by the FBI, the Illinois State Police to took away Reinking's firearm owners identification (FOID) card, which he needed to legally possess guns or ammunition in Illinois.
When a person's FOID card is revoked, they have to hand it over to authorities and fill out paperwork confirming that their guns have been transferred to someone with a valid card, according to the sheriff's office.
Reinking signed his four guns over to his father on Aug. 24, 2017, according to state records.
This apparently ensures that he did not have the ability to purchase or own weapons and that those weapons were taken," according to the FBI. "He was not able to possess or own those weapons." And yet he did.
