March 6th 1998: Red Flag Law.

Matthew Beck had been an employee of The Connecticut Lottery for eight years when he walked into work on this day 1998. He had gotten up that morning and fed his cat, he'd made plans to go and see Titanic in the cinema with a friend when he finished work that evening. He said goodbye to his father as he headed out to work. Matthew Beck had a history with depression and his father was happy to see him doing well after his recent bad moods and suicidal thoughts. Making plans to go and see a movie, to get up in the morning to go to work were all signs of Matthew being in a good place and doing well. Matthew was no longer the "all American guy" he once used to be and had began to grow facial hair and had began to look what some people have described as "scruffy". In 1997 Matthew's father had found him in a comatose state having overdosed and had to call paramedics to save his son's life, his father remarked that Matthew had acted "perfectly normal" that morning. 

This part of Matthew's life all started started in July 1996, he had been working as a lottery accountant with The Connecticut Lottery but was told that his role would be changing, he would now be a data processor. He was expecting a pay rise with his new position and when it never came, he filed a grievance report and successfully he won his case and was awaiting his back pay. Due to the case against his employers and Matthew's stress at the time he had been on a four month stress related leave from work. Peter Smith, Matthew Beck's psychiatrist had cleared him to go back to work at the end of February and Beck returned to his work life as normal while the back payment he was due was being processed. In the months prior, Mathew had spoken to local newspapers about the company, claiming that they inflated the amount of winnings they said they were paying in order to boosts sales of tickets. 

I haven't been able to find anything on this topic but to me, it seems strange to return to a workplace where there will obviously be quite a lot of tension. Matthew had publicly spoken out to complain about his bosses and to try and attempted to damage their character. From the company's point of view and HR reasons it seems strange that he wouldn't have signed a some form of employee contract where he would be forbidden to speak out about the company in such a public manner while he worked there. From Matthew's point of view and his history of stress, depression and his several suicide attempts, it seems strange that his psychiatrist would clear him to go back to work, especially in what to me, would seem like a very volatile environment. 

When Matthew arrived to work that day, he worked for about thirty minutes before he left his desk and headed for the executive suites of his supervisors. There he shot, stabbed and killed four of his supervisors with a semi-automatic handgun and a knife. 

His first victim was Michael Logan, an information services manager who had denied him a pay rise when his role in the company changed. Logan was stabbed and shot. His second victim was Linda Mlynarczyk, the chief financial officer. He simply said "bye bye" and shot her three times. Third was Rick Rubelmann who was vice president of operations. Lastly, out in the parking lot he found Otho Brown, the Connecticut State Lottery President. Brown begged for his life as Matthew told him to shut up before shooting him too. As police had arrived on the scene Matthew then turned the gun on himself as they approached where he fell to the ground and subsequently died of a gunshot wound. 

The tragedy that unfolded that unsuspecting spring morning has remained a sensitive subject for every cloud there is a silver lining. As a result of the killings, Connecticut became the first state to introduce a red flag law, which allows for the appeal to a state court by police or family members to temporarily seize guns from a person who may be a risk to themselves or others. After the introduction a handful of other states followed. A study published by Law and Contemporary Problems in 2013 stated that out of over 750 gun seizures between 1999 and 2013, for every 10 or 11 seizures made at least one suicide was prevented. (https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4830&context=lcp link to full publication of the study "Implementation and Effectivness of Connecticut's Risk-Based Gun Removal Law: Does It Prevent Suicides?" 

Matthew's actions on March 6th 1998, left his father questioning if should have saved his son from the overdose he took the previous year. While it is undeniable that Matthew suffered from serious mental health problems a number of law suits were filed by the families of the victims including against the psychiatrist and Matthew's Father. Is anybody to blame? 

One thing I feel is that while Matthew had his troubles in life, the introduction of the red flag law may not have stopped the attack from happening, it may have slowed the attack down by enough for law enforcement to reach the scene on time to save some of the victims. Many mass murders are carried out using guns as it takes less time to kill somebody using a gun than most other methods. Matthew committed these murders using legally owned guns and ammunition and it does raise the question of being mentally competent to own or possess a gun.