The Real Lesson From the Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting
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Not much is known about what trouble Estaban Santiago got into during his remaining military service after returning from Iraq. We only know that he went AWOL several times, that he was under some sort of investigation, that he was dismissed for “unsatisfactory performance” from the Alaska National Guard.
Not enough to keep him from possessing a firearm.
He had seen friends die in Iraq. A bomb had killed two as he watched. His family says the experience changed him. He was angry and bitter, sometimes hallucinating, seeing things others could not see.
He tried to get counselling, at one point at one point succeeding in getting into a psychiatric program.
Should that have been enough to keep him from possessing a firearm?
Perhaps.
But current gun law does not cover someone, no matter how dangerous, who voluntarily goes into treatment. Laws have been proposed, but conservatives, gun manufacturers, and the National Rifle Association are opposed.
He was convicted of domestic violence in early 2016. He broke through a locked door to get at his girlfriend in her home. He beat her and fled when police arrived. He was later arrested and tried. It was not the only time he had assaulted the woman. He had become well known to local police. Emergency calls had become routine. A restraining order was obtained, but he ignored it.
Should that have been enough to keep him from possessing a firearm?
You would think so.
But current law in most places does not keep someone from owning a firearm, just for beating a spouse. There have been proposals, but … you know … conservatives and the NRA.
Close relatives and immediate family agree. He seemed to be losing his mind. But no law would present any obstacle to him getting a gun.
In November 2016, he showed up at an FBI office. Agent Marlin Ritzman tells us what happened.
Mr. Santiago walked into the FBI office to report that his mind was being controlled by US intelligence agencies. During the interview, Mr. Santiago appeared agitated, incoherent, and made disjointed statements.
Marlin Ritzman, FBI, January 7, 2017
He told agents his mind was being invaded by US intelligence agencies. That he was being forced by voices to watch whatever ISIS terrorist videos he could find on the internet.
It would be hard to find a more determined, motivated warning. Telling the FBI a personal story, face-to-face, that included auditory hallucinations, ISIS videos, delusions of mind control, and a propensity for violence.
It would be hard to imagine a more definitive cry for help, but it got worse when agents located his car on the parking lot outside the FBI office. The gun that he later turned into a deadly weapon was in the car.
Should all of that have been enough to keep him from possessing a firearm? Is there any possible argument? FBI Agent Ritzman explains that he and his colleagues did all the law allowed.
Although he stated he did not wish to harm anyone, as a result of his erratic behavior, our agents contacted local authorities who took custody of Mr. Santiago and transported him to the local medical facility for evaluation.
They did take his gun. But only for a while. After he was released from medical evaluation, he asked them to give it back. They had no choice. They could keep it from him for a few days after release, to prevent immediate suicide, but that was about it.
Karen Loeffler is the United States Attorney for the District of Alaska. She knows the law.
There is a federal law with regard to having a gun by somebody who is mentally ill, but the law requires that the person quote be adjudicated mentally ill, which is a difficult standard.
The have been efforts to keep seriously disturbed, violent people away from deadly weapons. The NRA has made its own proposals, with much fanfare. But legislation pushed by the NRA would eliminate even the few days a gun could be kept away from a seriously delusional person after treatment.
Mr. Santiago could not be put on a terrorist no-fly watch list. There was no actual detectable link to a real terrorist group, except for the imaginary group in his fevered mind. There was no record beyond his demented insistence that he had been pursuing terrorist contacts.
But even if there had been some actual link, even if he had been placed on a watch list, there was nothing authorities could have done to keep him and his gun apart.
Nothing.
Under current law, known terrorists cannot be prevented from buying whatever weapons they can afford. Conservatives and the NRA.
There are some safety measures in place. Air Marshals can carry firearms onto a commercial aircraft. Ordinary citizens cannot. All things considered, that makes sense.
But airlines have bowed to conservative pressure. Guns can be checked onto a commercial flight with other luggage and then picked up at any luggage carousel after arriving at a destination. That is how Estaban Santiago managed to carry a weapon through the terminal in Fort Lauderdale.
President Obama seemed to have had this future, extreme case in mind in June, 2016.
I just came from a meeting today in the Situation Room in which I’ve got people who we KNOW have been on ISIL websites, living here in the United States – US citizens. And we’re allowed to put them on the no fly list when it comes to airlines.
But because of the National Rifle Association, I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun.
This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathizer. And if he wants to walk into a gun store or a gun show right now, and buy as many weapons and ammo as he can, nothing is prohibiting him from doing that. Even though the FBI knows who that person is.
– President Barack Obama, June 1, 2016
Video has captured the incident. There was nothing to warn those in the line of fire as he quickly pulled out his weapon and fired several shots at those in his path. It was over in a little over a second.
The most conservative of conservatives are waking up to the problem. They agree the shooting in Fort Lauderdale should have been prevented. And they know why and how Estaban Santiago was able to kill.
It is was because of American Muslims.
It was brown skinned people.
It was news media.
It was President Obama.
There was a picture of the crazed gunman pointing a finger. A pointing finger is a terrorist sign and that means followers of Islam. Well, doesn’t it? So that means Muslims.
CNN broadcast a photo of the gunman, altering the picture to make him appear lighter than the guilty dark-skinned person he is. Sadly, that turned out to be an error. CNN never broadcast a photo, and the altered photo some conservatives had discovered was that of the wrong Estaban Santiago. It was someone else with the same name.
Still, media covered up the fact that he was an immigrant from Puerto Rico. Okay, so Puerto Rico is part of the United States, which … means … Estaban Santiago was not an immigrant. Well, so what?
Most of all, conservatives know President Obama is to blame for the shooting. This from The American Thinker:
And every element of our degraded press and the law enforcement system Obama has systematically enfeebled will do everything they can to keep us from finally learning the consequences of our tragically failed policy with young American men in this, as in so many other cases.
After all, the FBI works for the President. And this President has no real interest in stopping such tragedies.
The FBI takes no interest in his access to firearms or perhaps placing him on a watch or no-fly list until some follow-up check on him.
The danger is not the ease with which anyone, terrorist or domestic batterer, mentally deranged or stone cold killer, can purchase a deadly weapon. The issue is not extremist opposition to even minimal gun safety laws. The problem is not the National Rifle Association, or the firearms manufacturers who finance the organization.
It is dark skin. It is Islam.
It is a President who should have done … well, you know …
Something.
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We need to get rid of the NRA.
I hear Ringling Brothers is closing down soon. Here’s another circus that should follow it. The NRA Republicans feed on public anti-government paranoia. “If they can call so and so a terrorist or a madman, they can call me one and take my guns so it’s better to go easy on the crazy people.”
Why are we so paranoid about losing our guns? Because we’ve been told since I can remember – and I can remember a long time – that the entire purpose of the Democratic party was to grab our guns and like Commies and Atheists and Space aliens, gun grabbers are everywhere.
Will we ever shake that meme? I here it in conversations everywhere: “Obama’s main goal is to make guns illegal” yet he wisely refrained to mention it during his campaigns because any mention pro or con would be pushing the big, red CRAZY button. He knew well that there will be no rational discussion about firearms and the law in our country – ever.
Everyone knows something has to be done to keep schizophrenics away from weapons and destructive devices. Allowing them access to trucks it dangerous enough it seems. Nobody trusts anyone to do this and that’s the result of decades of delusional rhetoric and paranoid conspiracy theories disseminated on the Web and on the Air and on Cable and in barrooms and in face to face encounters. You can’t trust the government to do anything so lets choose anarchy where every man is his own law. Every land owning white man, that is.
Barnum and Bailey may fade away, but you know, the circus never dies.