Mentally ill must not have access to guns, sheriff says

People with mental illness should not have access to guns, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Sunday, two days after an alleged gunman with known psychological issues killed five people at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

“Something has got to change,” Israel said in an interview with the Sun Sentinel.

Esteban Santiago, 26, the suspected shooter, is under suicide watch at Broward County Jail, Israel said, and is scheduled to appear before a federal judge today. Besides the dead, six other people were shot. No names have officially been released.

“A person suffering from mental illness, in my opinion, should not be able to buy, possess or carry a handgun or a rifle, any type of firearm. Convicted felons — same. People who are put on no-fly lists — the same,” the sheriff said. “We shouldn’t be selling them weapons and allowing them to carry weapons.”

Israel called on lawmakers, “to step up to the plate.”

“They need to be sick and tired of burying Americans in these mass-murder acts,” he said. “We need to take guns out of the hands of people that are suffering from mental illness.”

Israel didn’t know what form the laws should take, but said people diagnosed with mental health issues, “should be put on some type of list that it’s mandatory that they not come in possession of firearms.”

Florida law already states any person who has been adjudicated mentally defective or been committed to a mental institution by a court cannot buy a firearm, and any person ruled mentally incompetent cannot possess a firearm.

The sheriff said he has compassion for the mentally ill.

“Those people are not problem people,” he said. “They’re people with very real problems.”

Israel did not attend Santiago’s interrogation, but said he spoke with detectives and the FBI.

“[Santiago] did say he was being controlled. He spoke of a chip that was put in his head, and he talked about being forced to watch videos of ISIS and things of that nature,” Israel said. “Then, there were times, later on, when he spoke about being hired by ISIS.”

George Piro, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, has stated it was too soon to determine if this was a terrorist act, but the bureau couldn’t rule out terrorism, either.

The sheriff planned to meet with law enforcement and the airlines to decide whether airport security needed to be improved beyond the current checkpoints, but he added that “it’s impossible” to protect every large public venue in America.

“Something happened in [Santiago’s] life, and it sparked violent behavior and mass murder,” Israel said.

Investigators still don’t have a reason for Santiago’s selecting the airport for his acts.

“We have no understanding at this time why he chose Fort Lauderdale,” Israel said.