A.G. Gancarski
Ron DeSantis says that the murder of 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, likely would have been avoided if the killer had been locked in a mental hospital, but that red flag laws like Florida’s wouldn’t have helped avert the tragedy.
During an interview on CNN Thursday evening, the Florida Governor argued for “involuntary commitment” and not “red flag” laws as the mechanism that would have stopped Robert Card, the U.S. Army Reservist who authorities say shot up a bowling alley before heading to a nearby bar to shoot at more people on Wednesday.
“I mean, I think he obviously was a well-trained individual. There were these flags when he was training, he did go to the hospital. I think the question is why wasn’t he committed? Beyond that. We’ll probably figure out going forward. But clearly this is a guy that’s very dangerous because he’s got the training and then he seems to have had a breakdown,” DeSantis told Kaitlan Collins.
DeSantis added that “an involuntary commitment though would have kept him off the street and I think that would have probably done the trick.” Then he expounded on his problems with red flag laws.
“What red flag is, is people would go in and say you may be a danger so you could have someone lodge a complaint, different states do it differently, oftentimes with not adequate due process,” DeSantis said, though it’s unclear how due process would have played into what would have been a long-term involuntary commitment for the gunman.
“I do think a commitment, an involuntary commitment would have done the trick,” he added.
Asked why he didn’t use his political capital to get red flag laws repealed in the supermajority Legislature, the Governor said he was deferring to the wishes of lawmakers who preceded him.
“The Republicans passed it in the Legislature before, before I was Governor,” DeSantis said. “I mean, they all voted, right. They all voted on it.”
“It passed overwhelmingly and there’s not an appetite amongst them to review their votes basically,” DeSantis said, eliding the fact that there’s been massive turnover since the law was passed five years ago.
The Governor returned to his belief that America “used to do higher levels of involuntary commitment.”
“The pendulum swung a lot to the other direction. I’m not saying it needs to go all the way back where it was. But I do think that we need to recognize that there are some people whose behavior is a danger to community and danger to society that right now are getting put back on the street and I’d want there to be a mechanism to, to do that. I think realistically, you know, you have to have the resources in place and the facilities in place to do that,” DeSantis said.
The argument for increased involuntary commitment has been workshopped before by DeSantis on the trail, including in August in Iowa.
“If you look at what happens at a police station when people are coming into the criminal justice system, there’s a huge percentage of these people that have mental health issues and it’s not even, like, a big shooting that gets all the headlines, just regular crimes. So many people, we used to have more of an institutional process where people would be institutionalized, who couldn’t function in society,” DeSantis said.
“We deinstitutionalized some 30 or 40 years ago. You know, I’m not sure that that was the right thing to do,” DeSantis added. “I see all these homeless in Los Angeles and San Francisco and some of these other liberal cities, they’re doing drugs or doing all this, but their mental health is ultimately the root of this. It’s behavior, it’s not that there’s not enough jobs or anything like that.”
Former President Ronald Reagan is most responsible, ironically enough, for said deinstitutionalization.
Reagan repealed legislation championed by Jimmy Carter that supported mental health institutions. The Mental Health Systems Act authorized grants to public and nonprofit private community mental health centers for operational costs, with an eye toward helping the “chronically mentally ill.” It arose from work during Carter’s single term, via a presidential commission on mental health.
Reagan instead provided block grants to the states at reduced levels, amounting to 75% to 80% of what they would have gotten under the Carter framework.
14 comments
My Take
October 26, 2023 at 10:00 pm
“Thoughts and prayers” — LeWayne “Frenchie” LaLaPierre (R-NRA).
MH/Duuuval
October 27, 2023 at 2:56 pm
Wayne is like Ron: So paranoid that he won’t fly commercial.
My Take
October 26, 2023 at 10:08 pm
ĢOPer pal Putin comes from a nation and agency that well know how to use imvoluntary commitments to mental hospitals to reduce soçiatal “troubles.”
Earl Pitts "America's BIG VOICE on The Right" American
October 27, 2023 at 12:53 am
Good mornting America,
STAND BY FOR NEWS !!!!!!
This Main shooter dude is one of the got-aways from 8IDEN’S open southern border who killed the real cray cray fire-arms instructor up there in The State of Maine and then went on his dasterdly shooting spree. Most likely a Iran sponsered terroist. Our 1st “Sleeper Cell” southern border act of terror [most likely].
AND THATS THE REST OF THE STORY !!!!!!
Earl Pitts American
University of North Florida
October 27, 2023 at 8:14 am
Loser
SteveHC
October 26, 2023 at 10:13 pm
Ah, we should be sure to add “Psychiatry” to DeSantis’s ever-growing list of areas of professional expertise!
Jill Allison Johnson Young
October 26, 2023 at 10:21 pm
When asked why Grady Judd, PCSO, supported Red Flag laws DeSantis stumbled. Then said others do not.
DeSantis is not a Floridian. If he were he would remember that Red Flag laws entered Polk County when a PCSO officer was gunned down by her PCSO husband, in front of her retired PCSO dad in Lakeland. She was left totally dependent and paralyzed. He was known to be a dangerous stalker, and she was powerless to stop him. AFTER that Polk got 9-1-1 cell phones for DV survivors (the old brick ones- remember those? One of my clients used her to get her husband off of her to run). We also got gun lockers to impound the guns of DV perps.
If DeSantis knew anything about the history of Florida in terms of DV and red flags, he would stop harping about not having them. But since he is not a Floridian in the sense of living and working as a Floridian as a regular citizen, and since he does not believe in divorce or single moms, he will not know about this case.
Someone needs to ask him.
MH/Duuuval
October 27, 2023 at 10:08 am
Red flag laws in Florida have been invoked at a relatively high rate — given the gun fanaticism in Florida and the cooptation of Florida politicians by the gun fanatics — and are working, as Sheriff Judd and others will attest.
There remain obvious problems associated with the continued sales of weapons of war, huge magazines, ghost guns, and unregulated online and private gun sales.
We also have an ATF that the Congress has deliberately relegated to 19th century technology, that is, Congress refuses to computerize the ATF’s database in WV, which still operates with paper files.
My Take
October 26, 2023 at 10:30 pm
This mass murderer MAY not be a rightwinger.
The victims are not all black, or gay, or Jewish, or Muslim, or Hispanic.
Maybe he had frequented these places and it was personal.
My Take
October 26, 2023 at 10:48 pm
But then again
CNN — “An account on the social media platform X with Card’s name and a photo that appears to be him, which has been taken offline, had a history of liking right-wing and Republican political content.”
My Take
October 26, 2023 at 11:12 pm
And ABC —
“Topics he engaged with included but were not limited to: concerns about a financial crisis/stock market, LGBTQ+ issues, gun rights and commentary about Democratic public officials, including President Joe Biden, the information shows.”
“His “likes” between January and March included posts about classified documents found at Biden’s home, calls for the IRS to be abolished, allegations of Democrats engaging in election fraud in 2020 and conspiracies about COVID-19, the information shows.”
Marvin M.
October 26, 2023 at 11:11 pm
Wow, just wow.
He has the nerve to tell the state of Maine what they should do,
When he can’t even keep the state of Florida safe from gun violence.
My Take
October 27, 2023 at 12:25 am
“It is the vaccines!!” — Surgeon General Dr. Laquackoⁿ
Andy
October 31, 2023 at 10:10 am
The commitment was there, shared to ALL law enforcement, the shooter was allowed to purchase weapons, even though his military superiors said he shouldn’t own one. Ron, when you’re backed by Erik Prince, aka Blackwater, you’ll find no excuses for private militia.
Comments are closed.