"Before we hung up, the manager told me I'd have to trust the system. But it was Thanksgiving weekend. I stressed about the hundreds of thousands of gun purchases being background checked while the checkers would be understaffed, until the store manager called back - God love him. Again, he wouldn't give me any information, but he said, "That thing you were worried about - I can only tell you, you don't have to worry anymore. Now go enjoy your weekend.""
"That's when my oldest son, then back in Chicago, started posting about a gun belonging to a friend. When he couldn't reach his girlfriend one night, he texted that he intended to shoot himself with this gun. Using screenshots of this threat, my husband convinced Chicago police to visit his apartment and conduct a wellness check. CPD broke down his door, but my son wasn't there. His online threats to harm himself and others continued."
"My husband and I retained a lawyer in Illinois. We flew to Chicago the first week of December to appear before a judge and request a court order to have our son hospitalized - the only way to get someone with a mental illness hospitalized in Illinois. The process wasn't guaranteed because Illinois won't compel someone addicted to drugs into treatment, even if they exhibit symptoms of serious mental illness."
A Thanksgiving-weekend delay in firearm background checks created immediate worry about system understaffing. Shortly after, the oldest son began posting about a friend's gun and threatened to shoot himself, prompting screenshots and a wellness check by Chicago police that found the apartment empty. Online threats escalated and included doxxing a drug supplier. Repeated calls to local law enforcement produced limited options. The parents hired an Illinois lawyer, traveled to Chicago, and obtained a judge's order to hospitalize the son despite Illinois law limiting compulsory treatment for people addicted to drugs.
Read at BuzzFeed
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]