EDITORIAL: 'Mentally ill' and 'extreme risks' occasionally need the state to step in

Jan. 31--Few communities are currently more aware than ours of how much damage a person with a gun can do when they go over the edge.

Some in the Washington Legislature, at least, have had similar thoughts.

The House this week passed a bill, "Joel's Law" -- named for Joel Reuter, whose parents repeatedly tried to get him committed before he killed himself via police -- that would allow families to petition a superior court if state mental health professionals choose not to detain someone, despite what family members may have recognized as abnormal or potentially dangerous signs. The Senate is currently working on a version of the bill as well.

Reuter's parents said they made multiple appeals to the Department of Social and Health Services, which for the past few years has been facing a severe shortage of beds to house the state's mentally ill. They were repeatedly turned away.

"They unilaterally decide who gets help," Joel's father, Doug Reuter, said of the state mental health professionals, adding they're "out of control."

A second bill being considered, with versions in both the House and Senate, would allow judges to prevent a person from having a firearm after holding a hearing for an "extreme risk protective order." Patterns of violence or threats, drug abuse and brandishing weapons recklessly, among other behavior, would allow authorities to take away guns for up to a year and could be renewed if a judge believes the person still poses a threat in the future.

"Everybody recognizes that there are some people who we need to make sure don't have access to weapons in these situations," said the sponsor of the Senate version, Sen. David Frockt of Seattle.

Creating legislation that will impede on the rights of individuals certainly shouldn't be taken lightly, but with the number of shootings climbing ever-higher across our nation, Washington state lawmakers seem to understand the necessity.

Idaho legislators, meanwhile, are considering a new run of NRA license plates to raise money for the gun-promoting organization's nonprofit, community-oriented arm, Friends of the NRA.

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