James Shaw, Jr is a hero. He hit a guy armed with an AR-15 with a swinging door, then wrestled the gun away from him, in the process severely burning his hand and likely saving the lives of many people in a Waffle House. Based on his press conference, he doesn’t seem to like the word hero, but what true hero plays up that title? He is pretty awesome.

We have the typical white-guy-shoots-up-a-place-randomly narrative: “mental health!” “He’s crazy!” “Bad guy with a gun – lone wolf!” This time he actually did seem to have mental health issues – he seemed to believe Taylor Swift was stalking him, he tried to have a meeting with Donald Trump at the White House that got him arrested by the Secret Service, and apparently his family told police that he’d been having delusional thoughts. So how did he end up with these guns?

It isn’t totally clear right now. Apparently his right to possess weapons was removed and his firearms confiscated, but then given to his father. News reports said that he told law enforcement that he would keep them from his son, but apparently he was crossing his fingers or something because he definitely gave them back. Additionally, it isn’t clear if he was even breaking any laws by having the firearms in Tennessee, since he had been living in Illinois when all of the other events occurred.

Since when does law enforcement just give the property of one adult to another adult after confiscation under the law? If he pinky-swears he won’t let the delusional son have access to the weaponry, is that apparently is enough? A lot of people are, rightfully, saying that the father of this shooter should face some penalties under the law. I’m here wondering why the law enforcement agency who let the dad have the guns back shouldn’t be facing some penalties too.

I have so much more to say about this, but my back muscles are spasming really bad all of a sudden, so I’m going to go lay down. I’m thinking about the poor college-aged kids and the cook who was shot. They just wanted a late night breakfast, probably after a party, just like I’ve done so many times with my friends. We are broken, America.