How did he get his guns?

There were plenty of warning signs about Travis J. Reinking. He once told police that music superstar Taylor Swift was stalking him and hacking into his phone. Another time, he barged into a community pool, jumping into the water wearing a woman’s pink housecoat and challenging lifeguards to a fight. Then there was his arrest by the Secret Service for breaching White House security because he wanted to meet with the president.

Yet there he allegedly was early Sunday morning — just nine months after his White House arrest — at a Waffle House outside Nashville, in possession of an assault-style rifle that authorities say was used to kill four people and wound several others. That the AR-15 semiautomatic, along with three other guns, had once been confiscated from him by Illinois authorities who recognized the danger only compounds the failure — indeed the absurdity — of policies that make it far too easy to get guns. And that allow weapons designed for war to become everyday commodities.

The same type of weapon was used at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed; it was used in the 2017 slaughter of 25 worshipers at a rural Texas church; it was part of the arsenal used by the Las Vegas gunman who killed 58, and the shooter who killed 49 at an Orlando nightclub. These are not weapons needed for self-defense or hunting. They are designed to kill as many people as quickly and efficiently as possible.

That they are easy to acquire is made obvious by the ease and speed with which Reinking managed to get his guns back. Illinois authorities transferred ownership of the rifle and other weapons to Reinking’s father. They said they did so because the father had a legal claim and promised to keep them away from his son. Clearly the father has some soul-searching to do. But it is ludicrous that law and process would not give law enforcement more authority to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a danger.

Better yet: Voters should elect a Congress that will undertake comprehensive gun law reform. Reinstating the federal ban on assault weapons is a must. So, too, is restricting magazine capacity. That the shooter at the Waffle House apparently stopped to reload gave a quick-thinking patron, James Shaw Jr., the chance to disarm him, thus saving countless lives.

In a few months, Americans will have a chance to vote for candidates for Congress who support constitutional limits on weapons of war, and against candidates who remain complicit in letting peaceable Waffle House patrons be terrorized by them.

Upcoming Events