Rob McKenna: Remarkable how little changes after tragic shootings

Another day, another shooting, and another conversation about guns in America, noted KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross in the wake of a live on-air murder of a TV reporter and her cameraman.

As with many shootings that claim lives and headlines, the matter of mental illness has become a key issue after the killing of Virginia reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Gunman Lester Flanagan, also known by his on-air name Bryce Williams, was a former colleague of the victims at WDBJ-TV. He was reportedly fired over issues stemming from his out-of-control temper.

Related: Do we fulfill the shooter’s mission by watching his gruesome video?

Anger issues and gun laws, however, aren’t always clear, according to former state Attorney General and KIRO political analyst Rob McKenna.

“There are rules that are aimed at preventing people who have been locked up for mental illness from obtaining guns,” McKenna told KIRO Radio’s Seattle’s Morning News. “One of the sad ironies of this case is that the shooting happened in Virginia, the home of Virginia Tech where a mentally ill student, who had actually visited with mental health workers on campus, was able to acquire a gun and, and slip through the background check for that. And he killed over 30 people on campus.”

Flanagan was well aware of that fact. After shooting his two victims, he sent a letter, some are calling a manifesto, to ABC News. In that letter, he cites a variety of mass shootings, including Virginia Tech’s, as inspiration.

“That’s sickening,” McKenna said. “And also an indication that this guy was off-balance.”

McKenna said that if Flanagan had been in the mental health system, it could have prevented him from getting a gun. But sometimes that system doesn’t work.

“That system is not fool-proof, sometimes there are errors that are made,” McKenna said.

He noted that most states have laws in which people with mental illnesses are placed on a list. When such a person attempts to purchase a gun the seller is alerted and the sale prevented.

With Flanagan, anger seemed to be the key issue. He was fired over his temper, after he was offered anger management services by his company.

Larell Reynolds, a co-worker at WDBJ, remembers the day Flanagan was let go.

“He was let go and he threw a huge tantrum that caused a lot of our co-workers to fear for their safety,” Reynolds told CNN. “We were in a lock down the day that he was fired. A few days later, we had a police detail that watched over the station because we didn’t know the extent of, I guess, his mental illness.”

“There was a newsroom desk, computer monitors, and things on the ground. People were shaken and in tears because of experiencing something so horrific,” he added.

Reynolds told CNN that Flanagan had approached him at work because he too was African American.

“He did kind of approach me one day and he was like, ‘We need to stick together,'” Reynolds explained. “He insinuated that the black people in the company needed to watch out for each other. He always had that racial awareness, even though it didn’t exist, to my experience, of how the company was.”

Politics

At least two presidential candidates have commented on the shooting in the day after the incident; Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Clinton promoted the idea of universal background checks for firearm purchases.

“We have got to do something about gun violence in America,” Clinton said. “And I will take it on. It’s a very political, difficult issue in America. But I believe we are smart enough, we are compassionate enough, to figure out how to balance the legitimate Second Amendment rights with preventive measures and control measures so that whatever motivated this murderer &#8212 who eventually took his own life &#8212 we will not see more deaths, needless, senseless deaths.”

McKenna found Clinton’s remarks “troublesome.”

“I don’t doubt they are genuine, that she really believes something ought to be done,” McKenna said. “But the fact she brought gun control into a message that was mostly focused on condolences, I think is revealing, in a political way.”

“She knows this is a hot button issue with her base,” he continued. “She needs to touch a lot of these hot button issues during a primary in order to prove to her base that she’s worthy of the mantle for Democratic nominee for president.”

Trump also took a moment to comment on the matter and his thoughts, too, focused on gun control.

“You’re not going to get rid of all guns,” Trump said. “I know one thing: if you tried to do it, the bad guys would have them and the good folks would abide by the law. And it would be hopeless for them.”

No matter what anyone says on the issue of gun control or on the tragedy that aired live, McKenna said that what can likely be expected … is nothing.

“What’s remarkable about the terrible string of shootings, dating back to at least the Columbine High School massacre, is how little really changes after these events occur,” he said. “Legislation is introduced and typically doesn’t go anywhere, and that has to do with politics, of course. But it also has to do with the very real practical and constitutional hurdles that proposed legislation typically runs into.”

“Practical in the sense that we already have an overwhelmed mental health system. One of the saddest things in our country today is how poorly we treat the mentally ill and how inadequate the system is,” McKenna said. “Where do you draw that line between someone who’s mentally ill and should have any civil rights taken away and someone who has not reached that state?”