“For too long we have only held the individual that’s pulled the trigger accountable for their actions that have led to the violence,” said Christian Heyne, vice president of policy at the Brady campaign. “But the more we understand about gun violence on the whole, the more we understand that other people made it possible.”
In 2019, Robert E. Crimo III was too young to apply independently for a gun license in Illinois, AP reports.
His father sponsored the application just months after an unidentified family member called police to report that the son had a collection of knives and had threatened to “kill everyone.”
Illinois State Police reviewed the license application and found no reason to deny it because Crimo had no arrests, no criminal record, no serious mental health problems, no orders of protection and no other behavior that would disqualify him.
By 2021, the 21-year-old man had purchased at least five weapons. Now he’s accused of using a semi-automatic rifle to open fire on a crowd of unsuspecting July 4 paradegoers in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, killing seven people and wounding at least 30 more.
The accused gunman’s parents are also under scrutiny as the reeling community questions why they apparently supported their son’s interest in guns only months after he reportedly threatened suicide and violence.
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