The gunman (I refuse to use his name) was a troubled 19-year-old who should never have been able to legally purchase a gun. He was too young to purchase a handgun, but he could buy an AR-15 type semi-automatic rifle. That loophole is a failure of the Florida legislature. The fact that an assault rifle is legal anywhere is a failure of the US Congress.
The gunman was looked into by the Florida Department of Children and Families in 2016 but they determined he was not a risk to harm himself or others. That is a failure of the investigator and/or Florida DC&F policies.
The Broward County Public Schools had disciplinary reports on the gunman going back to middle school including many for fighting. I'm not sure who failed here. Did the school system try to get the gunman help? Did they inform law enforcement? Did they contact children services? Did they even notify the parents/guardians?
The FBI tip center failed to forward a tip to the Miami field office that the gunman talked about committing a school shooting and that he owned a gun. It also appears that a previous tip was not forwarded that the gunman posted "I want to become a professional school shooter" on social media. What's the slogan, if you see something, say something. Looks like at least two people saw and said. This is a huge FBI failure.
It also appears that the Broward County Sheriffs Office had received several calls about the shooter but had not properly followed up.
Now we find that the sheriff deputy assigned to Douglas High School failed to enter the building and confront the shooter. This was an armed and allegedly trained law enforcement officer with more than 32 years on the force. Was this a failure of his training by the Broward County Sheriff's Department? Was it a failure to recognize that this deputy was not capable of carrying out his duties in a crisis? Regardless of the reason, he failed the students and faculty he was assigned to protect and 17 of them died and others were injured.
Parkland, Florida does not have their own police department and is covered by the Broward County Sheriff's Department yet Coral Springs police were the first to respond. There were some glitches with the school's surveillance camera system. SWAT didn't arrive until 30 minutes after the shooting. By then the shooter had left the campus. Not a stellar day for law enforcement.
Although the gunman had no criminal record, it appears that sheriff deputies had been called to his home several times because of disturbances. Several neighbors had problems with him.
It appears almost everyone who came in contact with this young man knew he was disturbed and violent. Did he ever get professional help? Was it because people didn't wave the red flags or they were ignored by our institutions, or there aren't enough resources and money to address these issues? There were many failures along the way and now 17 people are dead. There is plenty of blame to go around.
Let's not let this latest tragedy pass without doing something. New mental health initiatives, new gun safety laws, changes at our schools, etc. Let's ensure that current laws, programs, and procedures are funded and enforced.
Systems will sometimes fail and people will make mistakes. Let's make sure we never again have the string of system and human failures that occurred before and during the Parkland shooting.
wjh
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