48-year-old Dale Collinge, of Pembroke, New Hampshire, has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of his roommate Karen Boelzner. The shooting comes just nine days after a judge returned seized guns to Collinge.
In 2006 Collinge's then wife claimed that he had threatened to shoot her, their three children, and himself. She took out a domestic violence protection order on Collinge, under which Collinge could not possess firearms. The guns were seized by the Pembroke police.
On November 4 of this year, Judge Scheffy noted that because there are not "any outstanding protective orders or qualifying domestic violence misdemeanor convictions which would prohibit the defendant from possessing a firearm" Colligne was now legally eligible to possess firearms and ruled that police should return Collinge's guns.
Colligne was convicted in 2006 for criminally threatening his then-wife but this conviction does not prohibit him from possessing a gun. For that, he would have to have been convicted of a charge of misdemeanor domestic violence.
Police would not say if the gun used in the shooting was one of the returned seized guns. Collinge is being held without bail.
Yet another example of how easy it is for violent offenders in America to legally possess firearms, with tragic results. How many examples like this are needed before we take action, I wonder?
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