Sinister signs: Hindsight clarifies much about deadly shooting spree

With the benefit of another day to process the happenings in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, we can at least begin to focus on a few key facts.

For starters, a good guy with a gun -- as is often argued by pro-gun rights advocates -- finally got one of these mass shooters, albeit not before the carnage was over. But who knows, perhaps Devin Kelley was on his way to a second location to inflict more mayhem and murder. The point is, a good Samaritan stopped him from escaping.

Second, the spotlight is back on mental health and criminality with the information coming out that Kelley, once an airman in the U.S. Air Force, was confined for 12 months and then unceremoniously discharged from the service for assaulting his then-wife and stepson, nearly killing him. But that information somehow did not get relayed to the FBI as it should have, preventing Kelley from being entered into the national criminal database as having a criminal conviction on his record.

So there you have it -- both pro and anti-gun control advocates have a sticking point to grab hold of. We'd stay off of social media if those kind of ceaseless, back-and-forth threads perturb you as they do us.

The intelligent conversation will now revolve around what the Air Force failed to do in its processes that prevented Kelley's conviction from being entered into NCIC -- the National Crime Information Center. Not only would gun dealers probably liked to have known his history, but so might have a police officer had he or she been pulling Kelley over. That kind of thing can put an officer more on guard -- even more so than usual -- to wonder if the person he or she is approaching might be armed/and or dangerous.

So where were the warning signs that Kelley himself might have exhibited? Social media posts showing him wielding a so-called assault rifle -- check.

The purchase by a non-law enforcement individual of tactical gear as well as high volumes of ammunition and magazines -- check. (Hundreds of shell casings and at least 15 magazines were recovered, according to national media reports.)

And no, the point isn't that these things ought to be illegal. An avid gun enthusiast might accumulate such things over time. But these signs ought to have been indicators to those around Kelley, who knew of his violent criminal history, that something might be coming.

We've seen enough of these instances now in the U.S. to know that if a cousin, friend, neighbor or whoever, who has a violent past starts taking selfies with machine guns, ordering SWAT gear off of eBay and stocking up on ammo and magazines, that's worth a tip to the local sheriff, police station or FBI field office.

Published in Editorials on November 6, 2017 11:51 PM