Wednesday, June 22, 2016
It now appears that Omar Mateen, the Orlando mass murderer, was mostly a deranged person, and not so much a terrorist in the political sense. The reason this makes a difference is that it goes to what sorts of legislative measures might operate to prevent or make more uncommon this sort of crime. The legislation that the Senate voted down the other day was focused on screening, and frankly that does not get it done. As I have mentioned here before, last year I had a student in my law school class who went home one day, shot his parents, and was then shot and killed himself in a firefight with the police. Of course nobody saw this coming, and as it happens that includes a faculty member who is one of the leading forensic psychologists in the country. Screening laws aren't going to keep anyone from obtaining a firearm, because they presume an insight into the consciousness of the individual that is impossible.
// posted by Bill @ 10:07 AM 
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