While the suspect had encounters with local law enforcement officers that led to the temporary confiscation of knives, he wasn’t charged with or convicted of a crime, meaning he most likely would have passed an FBI background check, two congressional aides said.
But experts say a key provision in the law for gun buyers under 21 requires a threefold check, including contacting local law enforcement agencies in the city where the person resides (and checking for any disqualifying juvenile criminal or mental health records). That would have been enough to tip off police in Illinois that the suspect was trying to buy a gun so they could use the state’s “red flag” law to keep firearms out of his hands.
“It’s not clear whether it would have prohibited the purchase,” said Nick Suplina, the senior vice president of law and policy for Everytown for Gun Safety. “But it may have led to other action from law enforcement — at least a flag that, hey, this young man that threatened to kill his family and himself is purchasing a gun.”…
“Under the new law, because he was under 21, local law enforcement would have been contacted as part of the enhanced background checks. That is relevant because he was known by local law enforcement, because on two separate occasions law enforcement came to his home. One was for an attempted suicide,” said Brian Lemek, the former executive director of Brady PAC.
“Those visits may have been enough to trigger” an extreme risk protection order or a red flag law order allowing authorities to confiscate his guns.
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