Everytown Pushes Red Flag Law After That Law Failed to Stop Thousands Oaks Attack

Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety pushed red flag laws for every state the day after California’s red flag law failed to prevent the Thousand Oaks shooting.

Breitbart News reported that former U.S. Marine Ian David Long entered the Borderline Bar & Grill Wednesday night and opened fired around 11:20 pm. He killed 12 people, including Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus.

Long used a legally-purchased .45 caliber handgun to carry out his attack.

Breitbart News also reported that the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office was called to Long’s home in April and found him “irate and acting irrationally.” A mental health task force was called in and they chose not take Long into custody or have him involuntarily committed for treatment.

TCPalm noted that California’s red flag law was adopted in 2014, yet Long’s mother never availed herself of it and, as noted above, the mental health task force did not sense danger with Long either. In sum, California’s red flag law–Gun Violence Restraining Orders–proved impotent to prevent Long from carrying out his evil intentions.

Yet Everytown’s William Rosen said he is hopeful red flag laws will be adopted in more states this year. He added:

So often we hear that somebody knew the person was a danger to himself or others; the person was making threats online, or posting intimidating content or they were telling people they wanted to be the next school shooter. But in the absence of a red flag law, if the person hadn’t committed a crime or come close to it or they were not committable involuntarily due to mental health, there wasn’t really any good tool for law enforcement.

And Florida adopted a red flag law after the Parkland high school shooting, but that did not prevent the August 26, 2018, Jacksonville Landing shooting.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.