Unlike the man being held in Pittsburgh, the person who committed suicide after murdering thirteen people in Binghamton, New York, was clearly mentally ill, probably paranoid schizophrenic. From the April 7, 2009 New York Post:
The full letter is visible here. It reminds me of some of the graffiti that used to be done by a schizophrenic that I knew slightly in West Los Angeles in the 1970s, although she was obsessed with religion."I am Jiverly Wong shooting the people."
Those chilling words begin a disturbing, unhinged letter mailed to a Syracuse TV station -- along with Wong's driver's license, gun permit and photos of him posing with pistols -- last Friday, the day Wong massacred 13 people at a Binghamton immigrant-assistance center before killing himself.
...
The letter unleashes a slew of bizarre, paranoid accusations against police officers whom Wong, 41, believed were persecuting him, repeatedly breaking into his room, stealing from him, causing him to lose his job and trying to stage a car accident with him 32 times.
"Cop bring about this shooting. Cop must responsible. And you have a nice day," the letter ends.
The missive -- whose outlandish claims are unsupported by any publicly known facts -- suggests Wong was deranged.
His only known interaction with authorities came when he pleaded guilty to forgery in Los Angeles in 1992 and served 100 days. Police in Binghamton have also acknowledged they had received a tip that Wong had been smoking crack cocaine and was plotting to rob a bank before the shooting, although he was never arrested.
The forgery conviction is curious, since Wong had somehow obtained handgun licenses in New York State. While not as hard as New York City, police in the rest of the state have nearly unlimited discretion as to whether to issue such a license. A friend's uncle who lived upstate attempted to get a license for a third handgun, and was told that he had enough; they weren't going to issue another such license. Now, a forgery conviction alone would not preclude Wong from obtaining a license--since forgery isn't a felony in California--but considering how tough the Sullivan Law makes getting a handgun license, it is a bit strange that Wong managed to get one.
I am a little surprised that Wong's mental problems did not come to the attention of the authorities in New York some time back. I am even a bit more surprised to see that they received reports that he was "smoking crack cocaine and was plotting to rob a bank before the shooting" and did not go out and revoke his handgun license.
I'm not a supporter of New York style gun control laws--but what is so utterly amazing is that even when police enjoy nearly unlimited authority to control guns--they so seldom use that authority against people who give reasonable people reason to be concerned. I'm thinking of Thomas Hamilton, who murdered 17 people (mostly kids) in 1996. In spite of having a long list of complaints about Hamilton's creepy interest in little boys, and that Hamilton was not a member of a gun club (a legal requirement for handgun ownership in Britain)--the local police made no effort to disarm him.
Even when their authority is limited, I am astonished at the reluctance to follow the law, such as the recent case of Jeremy Hobbs, whose Idaho concealed handgun license was not revoked after he was charged with battery (a disqualifying violent misdemeanor)--and went on to shoot someone to death in a bar fight while awaiting trial on the battery charge.
If police won't use the authority to disarm those who give indications that they are dangerous--while putting major obstacles in the way of people who aren't a problem--why bother with the whole process?
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