Guest columnist Christine Radogno: We can combine policy changes, research to address shootings

The Daily Herald Editorial Board regularly seeks opinions and reflections on issues we expect to comment on from a Sounding Board formed as a diverse group of independent suburban voices. In the aftermath of the July 4 shootings in Highland Park, we have struggled to find words to respond to unspeakable crimes with the depth and range of ideas such a tragedy demands. So we decided to hold our own voice for a day and instead turn over the editorial space directly to individuals on the Sounding Board. We asked members who felt comfortable doing so to provide in a few sentences their reactions to the mass shooting and offer their ideas about solutions. This is one essay from that project.:

I am, like everyone else, horrified by the mass shooting at the Highland Park parade.

I will share my opinion as to what I believe should happen, but first I feel compelled to acknowledge the continual gun carnage in the city of Chicago and other metropolitan areas. The outrage over those shootings is so much less, perhaps because it has become so common. While both mass shootings and the ubiquitous urban gun violence use guns, I believe they are two separate and distinct pathologies and require different approaches.

My thoughts today center around the mass shooting cases.

As a former elected policymaker, a Republican state senator, I am somewhat familiar with the complexities and challenges any solutions pose. I acknowledge the Second Amendment and the right of law-abiding citizens to own guns.

That said, I do not think it is inconsistent to raise the national age for the purchase of guns, other than hunting rifles or limited-magazine hand guns. We have a great deal of evidence that 18- to 21-year-old males are involved in these mass shootings, as well as ample scientific evidence that the executive functions of the brain are not fully developed until the age of 25 or so. Yes, 18- to 21-year-olds serve in the military, but they use guns with much supervision and training. We also treat that age group differently with respect to alcohol.

Individuals under 21 should be required to have a sponsor to purchase a gun. I believe that sponsor should bear some legal responsibility if the individual sponsored commits a crime with the gun. Sponsorship for a gun purchase should be given at least as much thought as co-signing a loan and have real consequences.

Finally, I believe we should use the full force of the federal government to look back historically and to thoroughly examine the many mass shooting over the last 50 years to develop predictive analytics. We need better profiles of those who commit these crimes, what warnings were missed and how the reporting of those warning signs escaped notice until after the fact.

Further, a universal (national) reporting system that functions in real time must be developed with mandated reporting. An appeal mechanism needs to be built in, but in my opinion the benefit of preventing an unfit or mentally ill person from acquiring a weapon outweighs the delay a fit individual may experience.

This concept is not unlike child abuse reporting. Children are sometimes removed from parents while an investigation takes place. Protecting the child outweighs the parental rights until the situation is sorted out.

I am well aware of the argument that people don't have to conform to social norms and that doing so does not make them a criminal. I am also aware of the argument that one cannot be denied a right if they haven't actually been found guilty of some offense. Those arguments allowed at least the Highland Park shooter, and probably others, to avoid being red flagged. Coincidentally, that same thinking has led to thousands of homeless people living on the edge of society, doing drugs, in some case defecating in the streets. I suppose they have the "right " to be "different," but at some point, socially odd behavior crosses the line to socially deviant behavior and we must address it.

I believe not doing so conveniently absolves our society from dealing with the messy and expensive issue of mental health, which I firmly believe is at the core of the mass shootings.

• Christine Radogno, of Lemont, is retired Illinois Senate Republican leader. She has a background in work with mental health issues and continues to serve in roles related to education policy and other Illinois issues.