By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Emerging facts about the alleged killer of three Michigan State University students Monday night are raising questions about whether any new gun law proposals would have prevented the tragedy.
The Detroit News is reporting that Anthony McRae had been “charged with multiple gun-related crimes in 2019.” He was arrested by Lansing police in June 2019 for carrying a concealed handgun without a permit. The story said the “initial charge was a felony” but that was later dismissed when he pleaded guilty to a subsequent misdemeanor of possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle in October 2019.
Sentenced to a year’s probation in November 2019, he got another six months added to that in October 2020, and the probation ended in May 2021.
NBC News is reporting that McRae became reclusive after his mother died from a stroke in September 2020. The report said his father described him as “a mama’s boy” and he quit a warehouse job, staying in his room and playing video games. However, NBC said the father asserted McRae turned “evil and mean” after his mother’s sudden passing.
No motive has yet been established for the shooting, which left five others wounded and hospitalized.
Still, politicians are beating the drums of gun control in Lansing, the state capital, where Democrats now control the Legislature for the first time in four decades and they are making the most of it. According to the Detroit Free Press, majority Democrats are poised to pass three measures, including so-called “universal background checks,” safe storage and “red flag” legislation. That may not be all, the Free Press indicated.
An article in Vox said this is the 68th mass shooting so far this year. It described a “mass shooting” as “an incident during which four or more people are shot, as defined by the Gun Violence Archive.” This report includes a brief history of some high-profile incidents in recent history.
The shooting occurred on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the mass school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Perhaps coincidentally, the Associated Press reported Tuesday the Justice Department “is sending out more than $200 million to help states and the District of Columbia administer “red-flag laws” and other crisis-intervention programs as part of the landmark bipartisan gun legislation passed by Congress over the summer.”
That legislation may be the only gun control victory for the Biden administration, which has less than two years remaining in its term. President Joe Biden’s goal of banning so-called “assault weapons” and even 9mm pistols is likely to fail with Republicans now controlling the U.S. House. The legislation passed last June almost immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court released its 6-3 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which struck down New York’s century-old unconstitutional concealed carry scheme. The ruling is having a significant impact on how courts can decide Second Amendment cases challenging local gun control laws.
