In Indianapolis Shooting, a Red Flag That Never Flew
"The case of Brandon Hole appeared, at first, to be exactly the kind of situation these laws were designed to address. Indeed,
last March, when Hole’s mother raised alarms about his mental state, the police seized a shotgun from his home. It was never returned.
But a year later, the police say, Hole, 19, shot and killed eight people at a FedEx facility before killing himself, using rifles he had legally purchased not long after that incident in March 2020.
While many details are still unclear,
Hole’s case is a sobering example of how even states with widely supported safeguards can fail to prevent dangerous people from obtaining firearms. The laws, experts say, are often used only as short-term solutions. In the days after the shooting, local officials have struggled to explain how a man who was deemed by law enforcement as too unstable to possess a weapon could go on to legally buy one months later.
“Any law is only as good as the people that are enforcing it,” said Brad Banks, a former prosecutor in Marion County, which includes Indianapolis, who is now in private practice. “Does it make sense we took away the gun because he’s too dangerous to have one, but we didn’t take the step to prevent him from going out and buying one the next day?
Red flag laws are in place in more than a dozen states, including Florida and New York. Their conditions vary widely; in California, for example, family members can directly petition to have firearms temporarily seized from their loved ones. But in Indiana, only law enforcement can initiate that process in court."
BUT GO AHEAD AND ATTACK HONEST CITIZENS OVER THEIR GUNS.
