What laws could have stopped the Highland Park shooting?

The Independence Day shooting in Highland Park, Ill., has put the spotlight on loopholes in federal and state gun laws as well as a lack of robust implementation that limits their effectiveness in preventing gun violence.

The 21-year-old man accused of shooting and killing seven people and wounding dozens more on Monday slipped past Illinois’s red flag laws and legally obtained a high-powered rifle similar to an AR-15, raising questions about both the law and those sworn to uphold it.

“Illinois has this law on the books and it’s on the books for exactly the scenario that we saw in Highland Park,” said Shannon Frattaroli, a professor in the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Red flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders, allow a judge to take away a firearm from someone based on the suspicion that the owner could use it to harm themselves or others. Family members, police or doctors, have to petition the court to take away the firearm, and that action can result in police removing it for up to a year.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3548121-what-laws-could-have-stopped-the-highland-park-shooting/