To be fair, the guy did actually self checkin to a mental facility this summer for two weeks and was released. Additionally, Maine is a yellow flag state where firearms can be taken away via a mental health review. (To be clear, this is NOT enough in my opinion).
Even if that were true, they should STILL try it. You do it to put the pressure on, to slowly move forward, put the idea in the news, on people's minds, etc. It may seem futile but we have to start somewhere.
You're seeing that in-between moment when a wildly ignorant comment is upvoted to the top quickly but comes down slowly. It's still hot, but the OP has been downvotes far below most corrective comments.
This isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. Mythbusters did an episode years ago to prove that you.can actually "polish a turd", testing with various species of poop. If memory serves, Lion was the shiniest of the bunch. I don't recall if giraffe was on there but maybe she's onto something...
Clearly the best course is something that failed before and only keeps the criminals armed. Brilliant