EXPLAINER: Should red-flag law have stopped parade shooting?

By MICHAEL TARM
AP Legal Affairs Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — Days after a rooftop gunman killed seven people at a parade, attention has turned to how the assailant obtained multiple guns and whether the laws on Illinois books could have prevented the Independence Day massacre. Illinois gun laws are generally praised by gun-control advocates as tougher than in most states. But they did not stop Robert E. Crimo III from carrying out the attack in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. One focus is on the state’s so-called red-flag law, which is intended to temporarily take away guns away from people with potentially violent behavior. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.