Sheriff: New Hope gunman bought ammo on day of shooting, had gun illegally the headline at startribune.com proclaims. Because guns. In fact, Raymond K. Kmetz [above], the 68-year-old man who shot and wounded two policemen in New Hope, Minnesota City Chambers, had a long history of mental illness. Despite focusing on the gun used in the attack – “Authorities do not know how Kmetz got the gun, which the sheriff described as a ‘pistol-grip shotgun with the serial numbers ‘obliterated'” – the paper’s coverage clearly indicates that Kmetz was a known nutcase and violent threat to pubic safety. To wit . . .
Over the past few years, Kmetz had clashed repeatedly with authorities, particularly in New Hope, often about his longtime and now former home on Nevada Avenue, according to documents and family members. He had addressed the New Hope City Council several times in recent years.
In nearby Crystal, police had filed a restraining order against him in August after Kmetz’s family warned police that he had threatened to bring a shotgun to City Hall. The order raised concerns about his increasingly volatile behavior and obsession with city officials . . .
Kmetz had undergone years of court-ordered mental health treatment and was released from the state hospital at St. Peter in 2013 after being found incompetent to stand trial, according to court documents. A week before his release, the hospital notified the Hennepin County attorney’s office that Kmetz was no longer treatable . . .
On Wednesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman discussed his office’s long involvement with Kmetz, including threats he made to one of his prosecutors. When Freeman’s office learned that his mental illness was so profound he was no longer amenable to treatment, the decision was made to dismiss the charges.
What are the odds that the anti-gunners will use this shooting as justification for degrading and destroying Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms? As always, what’s needed here is criminal/crazy control, not gun control. While our hearts go out to the wounded officers, the New Hope shooting should give new hope to those who wish to make that case, as we’ve just done. Again. Still.