Drummond Neil Smithson, 31, admits he has anger issues.
He’s even told police he’s been “in and out of” psychiatric hospitals.
In June 2019 a Tennessee judge issued a protection order against him. It barred him from having guns. He violated it.
In September 2019, when police accompanying Child Protective Services workers showed up in 2019 at an apartment in Florida he shared with a girlfriend and their children, they found two AR-10s (souped-up versions of AR-15s) and two handguns.
A few days later, when the cops learned of the Tennessee order, they arrested him. He made remarks to police suggesting he had the guns to prevent police from enforcing “corrupt” protection orders against him.
In December 2019, he told police by phone the protection order was “unconstitutional,” he planned to violate it, and had bought two more guns to replace those confiscated from him.
In February 2020, he “attended a Mom’s Demand Action gun control rally in Parkland, Florida, carrying a rifle case with the words ‘Come take it’ painted on the case,” and wearing a GoPro camera to film attendees’ reactions (read story here). The police apparently arrested him, because in July 2020 he wrote a letter to the V.A. saying he’d been in jail for 5 months and had a September 2022 trial date.
His letter said, “Some dumbass judge took my kids away so I started buying Assault Rifles after the hearing. Bascially a Judge took Hostages so I started buying guns.” He also threatened “retaliation” if the V.A. took his pension away, warned them to “take him seriously,” and threatened to kill people at another Moms Demand Action rally.
A federal grand jury indicted him in May 2022 for making threats via interstate communications. He pled guilty in November 2022, and will be sentenced in February 2023.
Smithson is a clear and present danger to society. He should not be on the streets, but he’ll serve some time, then return there. A better solution would be committing him to a secure psychiatric facility, where he can get treatment, until he’s no longer a danger to society. Prison will only harden him, and won’t deter him from future threats or violence.
Part of the problem of dangerous people like Smithson possessing guns lies with certain elements in law enforcement. Earlier today I wrote an article here about a Colorado sheriff who refuses to enforce red flag laws. The Club Q mass shooting was in his jurisdiction.
Red flag laws empower judges to order police to confiscate guns from people who haven’t committed crimes but are a danger to themselves or others. They can help defuse a situation, and may prevent gun violence, especially in domestic situations, but aren’t a panacea. Washington has such a law.
Washington, along with some other states, also has an enhanced sentencing law that adds time for using a gun in a crime. It’s optional, and is often bargained away by prosecutors in plea negotiations. In all states, it’s illegal for convicted felons to have guns, but enforcement is often lax. A violation may be only a misdemeanor, or the violator may get a slap on the wrist.
Mass shootings sometimes happen without warning, but not always. We can’t always identify serious threats to the community ahead of time, but sometimes we can. In some cases it’s obvious someone shouldn’t have guns, and if they have them illegally, we can do something about it, but often we don’t.
That needs to change. America is adrift in a sea of gun violence, and we should do everything possible to reduce it. A place to start is citizens demanding enforcement of the gun laws we already have. If an ex-felon violates the law by having a gun, and the law imposes a penalty of 5 years for that, he should go back to prison and serve 5 more years. People who violate protection orders by having guns should go to prison in every case. People who commit gun crimes should have the enhanced penalty tacked on in every case. Red flag laws should be proactively enforced, not timidly or not at all. And if flagged individuals go out and get another gun, they should be locked up.
Our society is immersed in a bloodbath of gun violence that’s now spilling over into the political arena, which threatens an escalation ib violence. We don’t necessarily need more laws restricting gun ownership and possession; we need to more strictly enforce the laws we already have. If a law or judicial order prohibits someone from having a gun, and they have one anyway, they should go to prison in every case.
This isn’t about taking anyone’s rights away. It’s about keeping guns away from people who shouldn’t have them.
Related story: Stephon Henderson, 59, of Lexington, Kentucky, was arrested for shooting his wife the day before Thanksgiving. He’s charged with murder, violating a protection order, and being a felon in possession of a gun. (Read story here.) Would this have happened if he’d been locked up for having the gun?