David Katz should never have been able to legally purchase two handguns before embarking on his deadly shooting spree in Jacksonville, Fla., where he killed two and wounded 10 others before taking his own life on Sunday. The killer in Florida’s latest mass shooting had a documented history of severe psychiatric problems yet was able to purchase his weapons from a licensed dealer in Maryland.
While mentally ill people are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it, existing laws and procedures don’t do enough to keep guns out of chronic patients’ reach — for their own good as well as everyone else’s. Katz, 24, reportedly had been in treatment since at least age 12 and had been prescribed anti-psychotic medicine. A therapist once stated Katz had experienced a “psychiatric crisis” and had been hospitalized twice for psychiatric illness. Police had been called out to the family home 26 times.
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Katz’s level of chronic and serious mental illness combined with a troubled history with domestic disputes still fell below Maryland’s legal threshold. The state blocks gun sales to anyone who has voluntarily entered a psychiatric treatment facility for at least 30 straight days.
This year, Maryland’s General Assembly passed a “red-flag” law allowing individuals to petition the court for an “extreme-risk protective order” if a loved one appears to be an imminent threat to themselves or others. Beginning Oct. 1, if a judge finds an individual poses such harm, a temporary order would allow police to confiscate that person’s guns.
Such an order wouldn’t become permanent until a hearing in which the gun owner has a right to legal representation. Katz could have been a candidate for such an intervention. Reports indicate his parents had been desperate to find some treatment for their son’s problems.
Beyond relatively rare mass shootings, this sort of process can potentially reduce the far more common incidence of domestic violence shootings and suicides.
Federal law already bans firearm possession to any person who has been adjudicated as a “mental defective” or has been committed to any mental institution. But the law is loosely interpreted and inconsistently enforced. Most states, including Missouri, only apply it to involuntarily committed patients. Gun buyers must self-report and inform sellers if they’ve been involuntarily committed.
Other states go beyond that standard and report those with serious mental health backgrounds to the FBI background-check system. Illinois requires psychologists, school administrators and others to report when a person is a “clear and present danger” or displays threatening behavior.
More lawmakers need to advance such approaches. Even staunch gun-rights advocates would have to agree that some people shouldn’t have access to firearms. There are practical and logical solutions to reduce those chances and prevent more tragedies like the one in Jacksonville.
