The father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting that left four people dead, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting that left four people dead, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
In this case, the sensible gun control would be “Your minor son got investigated by the FBI for wanting to shoot up a school, no you can’t buy a gun.”
But nobody got convicted so the investigation doesn’t count!
The Due Process Clause will do that.
I appreciate your intent with this, but one of our fundamental rights is due process. Penalizing an individual for simply being investigated would violate that right.
I’m not sure I’m willing to participate in experimenting with a US government where due process is wishy washy. I remember how horny we got for suspending habeas corpus via the patriot act.
It’s going to be easier to make a legislative change like that than it is to make a constitutional change on guns.
But as it is, we already suspend gun rights without a conviction, maybe you haven’t seen the current ATF form 4473:
“21© Are you under indictment or information in any court for a felony, or any other crime for which the judge could imprison you for more than one year, or are you a current member of the military who has been charged with violation(s) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and whose charge(s) have been referred to a general court-martial?”
Change that to something like “Have you been investigated in the past 12 to 24 months…”
But I’d argue, if we want to get REALLY serious about shootings, each line on this form should read:
“Are you or anyone in your household…”
Being actively under indictment is a lot different than just being investigated. Indictment requires that sufficient evidence has been gathered, reviewed, and (for a federal case) at least 12 of 23 jurors in a grand jury believe there is at least a 50% chance that you have actually committed a crime (12/16 jurors at the state level).
By the time you have been indicted you have received a lot of due process resulting in a concrete belief that if you go to court you will be convicted of having committed a crime.
Lol welcome to the laboratory.