Across the nation, much of the debate around gun rights and restrictions centers on mental health. Many advocates on both sides agree that getting people with serious mental illness into treatment, and then preventing those who are dangerous from accessing guns, is key to preventing mass shootings.
Lawmakers want answers as to why laws in two states — Maine and New York — didn’t prevent the tragedy. “We’re never going to stop everything,” she said. “This one, it seems that there were too many touchpoints for neither law to come into play.” Under Maine’s law, a warning to police can trigger a process where an officer visits an individual and makes a judgment call on whether the person should be placed in temporary protective custody, in turn triggering assessments that with a judge’s approval can lead to a 14-day weapons restriction. A full court hearing could lead to an extension of restrictions for up to a year.During military training in New York, he said people were accusing him of being a pedophile.
Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro said she couldn’t tell The Associated Press whether the shooter was committed to a psychiatric facility on his own free will or involuntarily because of a federal health privacy law. She said the same law prevented her from saying what his diagnosis was after he was evaluated.