A 22-year-old gunman who entered an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado and opened fire, killing at least five people and injuring 25 others before being stopped by club patrons, could have been stripped of weapons after earlier incidents -- but somehow managed to evade the state's "red flag" laws.
A year and a half before the deadly shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, forcing neighbors in surrounding homes to evacuate while the bomb squad and crisis negotiators talked him into surrendering, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
Aldrich was taken into custody, but there's no public record that prosecutors moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges -- or that police tried to trigger Colorado's "red flag" law, which allows authorities to seize weapons and ammunition from gun owners believed to be an imminent danger to themselves or others.
Gun control advocates say the incident is an example of a red flag law ignored, with potentially deadly consequences.
"We need heroes beforehand -- parents, co-workers, friends who are seeing someone go down this path," Colorado state Rep. Tom Sullivan, whose son was killed in the Aurora theater shooting and sponsored the state's red flag law passed in 2019, told NPR. "This should have alerted them, put him on their radar."
Colorado has one of the lowest rates of red flag usage despite widespread gun ownership and several high-profile mass shootings. According to an analysis by the Associated Press, more than 8,500 shootings resulting in 1,800 deaths have taken place in Colorado since 2020, yet the law was used just four times.
"It's as if the law doesn't exist," Jeffrey Swanson, a Duke University sociologist who has studied red flag gun surrender orders across the nation, told the AP.
On Saturday night, Aldrich allegedly entered Club Q and opened fire before being subdued by at least two club patrons, who held him until police arrived. Five people were killed and 25 were injured; of those wounded, at least seven are said to be in critical condition.
Police recovered two firearms at the scene, including a long rifle described as an AR-style weapon, and a handgun, CNN reported. Club owners told the New York Times the gunman was wearing a military-style flak jacket as he entered the club with "tremendous firepower."
Police have declined to offer any motive for the shooting as the investigation is ongoing. On its Facebook page, the club called it a "hate attack."
Aldrich faces five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury in connection to the shooting, CNN reported.
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