https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/24/opin...fle-house-shooters-fault-filipovic/index.html
The other man responsible in Waffle House shooting
Travis Reinking, the man alleged to have shot up a Waffle House and snuffed out the lives of four innocent souls, thankfully is in custody. But he's not the only one who should pay for this terrible crime if convicted: His father, Jeffrey Reinking, should in that case be held legally accountable, and arguably should face prosecution.
That is because
police believe the elder Reinking returned his son's guns — which had been taken from him -- multiple times over, despite Travis Reinking's erratic behavior and even FBI interference. Authorities revoked Travis' firearms identification card and even confiscated his guns, but, investigators believe, his father returned them.
This shooting was not an unforeseeable event, nor was it a random tragedy. It was an act by a man who showed clear signs of aggression and mental illness and who had been deemed by authorities unfit for gun ownership.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out why. He was
arrested by the Secret Service last July for trying to enter a restricted area near the White House, apparently seeking a meeting with the President. That's when the FBI reached out to the state of Illinois and requested that Travis' firearm ID card be revoked; they saw him as a clear threat.
Authorities also seized from Travis Reinking a Kimber 9 mm handgun, a Bushmaster AR-15 style rifle, a CZ-USA .22-caliber rifle, a Remington 710 and random ammunition, according to a Tazewell County, Illinois, sheriff's report. (The Bushmaster was recovered from the Waffle House shooting.)
But that wasn't the first time Travis had run afoul of the law and showed signs of psychological distress. A month earlier, he was disruptive, yelling and exposing himself at a swimming pool; a sheriff advised Jeffrey Reinking to keep his son's guns locked away. And a year before that, Travis' parents had called the police because Travis became convinced the pop star Taylor Swift was stalking him. More recently, Travis took a car and led police in a chase, but was not arrested.
Jeffrey Reinking returned Travis' guns to him at least three different times, despite these persistent and disturbing patterns, authorities say.