Santa Barbara
May. 29th, 2014 01:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curmugeonI was once a target of a mentally ill person with a gun. Back in 1990 one of my coworkers was having some problems. I got dragged into the issue when I was called into a meeting on a work site and asked how I would address a street repair problem. The coworker was reprimanded for his actions based on my assessment of the solution he had proposed. It created a sticky situation for me as I felt that management had over reacted to the issues they had with the coworker. He was placed on administrative leave after that. He was soon terminated.
A short while later I was called into another meeting where I was told that a threat had been made against my life. The coworkers psychiatrist had called law enforcement after a therapy session where he had said he was going to kill those people who had ruined his life. For the next 24 hours I was being watched by law enforcement in case he made any attempt to act on this threat. Police visited his home and after talking to him confiscated an AK47 and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He was placed in a secure mental facility and was given treatment.
I was lucky. I knew there was a threat and the authorities acted on it. If not it was quite possible many of you would have never gotten to know me. The quick action of his therapist and law enforcement saved 10 people's lives and he has since recovered and is not a threat today.
We need sensible gun laws. We need a mechanism that will keep firearms away from mentally ill people. Law enforcement needs the right to confiscate weapons when a threat has been made or a clear danger of violence is possible.
In the Santa Barbara case law enforcement visited but saw no threat and had no knowledge that Elliot Rogers had guns. If only they had stopped this madman we would not be mourning the senseless killings.
We need background checks. We need it be a requirement that if you are undergoing treatment for a mental illness that a through search and confiscation of firearms is part of the process. As one father's plea... let's see some action on this not more rhetoric and posturing.
A short while later I was called into another meeting where I was told that a threat had been made against my life. The coworkers psychiatrist had called law enforcement after a therapy session where he had said he was going to kill those people who had ruined his life. For the next 24 hours I was being watched by law enforcement in case he made any attempt to act on this threat. Police visited his home and after talking to him confiscated an AK47 and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He was placed in a secure mental facility and was given treatment.
I was lucky. I knew there was a threat and the authorities acted on it. If not it was quite possible many of you would have never gotten to know me. The quick action of his therapist and law enforcement saved 10 people's lives and he has since recovered and is not a threat today.
We need sensible gun laws. We need a mechanism that will keep firearms away from mentally ill people. Law enforcement needs the right to confiscate weapons when a threat has been made or a clear danger of violence is possible.
In the Santa Barbara case law enforcement visited but saw no threat and had no knowledge that Elliot Rogers had guns. If only they had stopped this madman we would not be mourning the senseless killings.
We need background checks. We need it be a requirement that if you are undergoing treatment for a mental illness that a through search and confiscation of firearms is part of the process. As one father's plea... let's see some action on this not more rhetoric and posturing.
