On Monday night in Nashville, suspect Travis Reinking was arrested with accusations of killing four people at the local Waffle House earlier that weekend. Authorities found Reinking hiding in the woods about a mile from the restaurant. He then immediately laid on the ground and surrendered.
Unfortunately, shootings are becoming more and more frequent in the United States, but the bigger issue with these is mental health. Reinking showed signs of having a mental illness and obtained his weapon illegally. Reinking has previously reported being harassed online and around town by pop sensation Taylor Swift, and was also fired from his position at a crane company after one day of work. Supposedly he was threatening an employee while holding an AR-15 rifle and wearing a pink dress. Later that same day, he drove to a public pool, took off the pink dress and jumped in, exposing himself and yelling at those present.
Co-workers from another job he had claimed he was a “loner” and didn’t have any friends and also showed them all of his guns. He was also said to be paranoid on the job and had delusions numerous times.
Family members of Reinking have said that he had previously threatened to kill himself and told police he “owned and had access to many firearms at his residence.” Two years prior to Reinking’s shooting, he was taken to a local mental hospital to be evaluated but it’s unknown what the evaluation found or when he was released.
We have seen this time and time again; mental health disorders resulting in devastating murders. For instance, Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz was reported to have mental health issues and had been in and out of mental health facilities multiple times prior to his shooting. Another very familiar case is the Las Vegas shooting; Stephen Paddock was diagnosed with bipolar disorder but never wanted to talk about it.
Most of the mass shootings in America have been linked to mental health issues and something needs to be done about it. These people are unstable and should not be able to possess a gun. Reinking’s father had said he took three rifles and a handgun away from him but later returned them to him, which in my opinion was a big mistake.
These people need to be heavily evaluated before being able to own any type of gun and need proper education and safety knowledge of the gun they have, if they should even be allowed to have one. Reinforcement also needs to be taken more seriously because most of these people have gotten these guns illegally or used someone else’s.
