After every tragedy, well-meaning people try to solve problems by doing exactly what the radical left wants – taking American citizens’ gun rights away – when there are far better solutions already on the books.
Dan Crenshaw, a prominent Republican Texas Congressman tweeted yesterday:
But Crenshaw, a Texas lawmaker, should know that there are far better laws on the books in Texas that would do a much better job of stopping mentally ill people than to remove the weapons from their house.
Texas law ALREADY allows for a person who poses a danger to themselves or others to be apprehended, to have a timely medical exam, and if they are found to pose a danger, for them to be placed in a mental health facility.
John Lott points out: “If someone’s mental illness really does pose a danger to others, why only stop them from legally purchasing a gun? They’ll have plenty of time to obtain a weapon illegally. Our best bet is to confine them to a mental health facility.” (John Lott, “CPRC in Investor’s Business Daily: Some gun laws dealing with mental illness do more harm than good” Investor’s Business Daily, 9/26/15.)
Once a person has undergone this mental evaluation and been found “mentally deficient” or been found to require involuntary commission to a mental health facility, then Texas law provides for their guns to be taken away until they are found to be mentally sound.
This is far better than a Red Flag law which destroys the citizen’s due process, has no trial, no final standard of what is “dangerous to the public” other than whether or not your ex-girlfriend still doesn’t like you.
But let’s take this real ERPO scenario one step further.
These laws are already on the books in Texas.
According to Texas law, people who can file for these Non Warrant Emergency Mental Health Detention (Texas Health & Safety Code § 573.001) include police officers and the person’s guardian.
But this lunatic kid was over eighteen!
Doesn’t matter.
“A guardian of a person who is 18 years of age or older may transport the ward to an inpatient health facility for a preliminary examination if the guardian has reason to believe and does believe that 1) the ward is a person with mental illness, and 2) because of that mental illness there is a substantial risk of serious harm to the ward or to others unless the ward is immediately restrained.”
The El Paso shooter’s father, a Bryan Crusius, is a professional Psychiatrist who deals with the mentally ill all day every day.