Orlando Harris’ family pleaded with Missouri police to confiscate the 19-year-old’s bullet-proof vest, ammunition and AR-15-style rifle. They knew his mental health was fragile after more than one suicide attempt. But the best officers could do in a state with some of the most expansive gun rights is suggest Harris keep the weapon in a storage unit.
Nine days later, Harris entered his former St. Louis high school and declared, “All of you are going to die.” A new 456-page police report details the efforts Harris' family took to try to take his gun away in the days before he walked into Central Visual Arts and Performing Arts High School on Oct.
24, 2022, when he killed a student and a teacher and wounded seven others before he was fatally shot by police. Missouri is not among the 21 states with a red-flag law . Also known as extreme risk protection orders, red-flag laws are intended to restrict the purchase of guns or temporarily remove them from people who may hurt themselves or someone else.
The case highlights how hard it is for law enforcement to restrict gun access, even when there are clues something is deeply amiss. After an Army reservist killed 18 people in October 2023 in Lewiston, Maine, an investigation found missed opportunities to intervene in the shooter’s psychiatric crisis. And before a 14-year-old was charged in a deadly shooting this fall at his Georgia high school , a deputy talked to him about an online threat and family warned of an “extreme .