Others say

Another day, another massacre

Dallas Morning News

It's time. Time to talk about the mentally ill and their Second Amendment rights.

It was time to talk about it back in 2007, after the Virginia Tech massacre. It was time to talk about it in December 2012, after Adam Lanza emerged from his mother's basement with an armful of weapons and made his bloody way through Sandy Hook Elementary. It was time to talk about it last year, when Omar Mateen, with his history of domestic violence and scrutiny by the FBI, opened fire at the Pulse night club in Orlando.

For years it's been time to talk about the Second Amendment and its limits.

Now it's time, once more, in the wake of the bizarre and deadly mass shooting at Terminal 2 in the Fort Lauderdale airport.

Once again the shooter turns out to have been very much on law enforcement's radar. Less than two months before the shooting, Esteban Santiago walked into an FBI office in Anchorage, where he was living, and asked for help. He told agents that the CIA was controlling his mind and he was being forced to watch Islamic State propaganda videos.

We do know that Santiago's mental state had been deteriorating since returning from Iraq. His family attests to that, and so does his military record, which includes a demotion for unsatisfactory conduct last year, and an eventual discharge. The local police record shows that his girlfriend at the time reported that he had flown into a rage and broke down the bathroom door during a fight.

He wasn't prosecuted for that outburst, and we can assume he did not lose his right to keep and bear arms. It's time to ask why that is.

Editorial on 01/14/2017

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