The suspect in the shooting, Robert E. Crimo III, 21, had drawn police attention more than once, and despite warnings about his troubling behavior, had gotten a firearm license and bought several guns.
How a young man who had sent troubling signals managed to end up with a semiautomatic rifle in Illinois is a question that is haunting not only the survivors of Monday’s deadly massacre in Highland Park, a Chicago suburb. It is also a question of federal importance, coming just days after President Biden signed into law the most significant gun legislation passed in decades.
As details of Mr. Crimo’s past continued to emerge, and as a judge ordered him held without bail on murder charges on Wednesday, it remained unclear whether the horrific episode revealed weaknesses in state restrictions on guns, or in the limits of even potent safeguards in a system that ultimately relies on the judgments of people — the authorities, families, observers.
"This was a textbook case of a red flag law not being used."
The Highland Park shooter dropped hints that he might be dangerous. Police took his knives away. He was able to buy guns anyway.
@MitchKSmith @campbellnyt @FrancesRobles @sergenyt https://t.co/fBeZ3j1jFu
— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) July 7, 2022