GUNSRed Flag Gun Laws Under Fire
Laws meant to keep firearms away from unstable people are under attack by Second Amendment radicals. An investigation by The Trace and Rolling Stone exposes the ugly campaign to undermine a bipartisan compromise to stop mass shootings.
Susan Webb stood with her colleague on Parks Road. The Chesapeake Bay and the abandoned store with the sagging roof were behind them, the smell of discarded crab lingering in the air. Once again, someone had lodged a complaint against the ramshackle property that belonged to Donald Willey.
The home was on Hoopers Island, an isolated speck of land off Maryland’s Eastern Shore, connected by a narrow road that often took on water during high tide. On that day in April 2021, Webb had been working for six months as assistant director of planning and zoning for Dorchester County, which encompasses the island plus a handful of communities that depend on the water for their livelihood. This was her first visit to Willey’s place, though he was locally infamous. Over the previous 18 years, he had been involved in one feud after another. There were repeated warnings, court dates, and jail. Once, he was featured on an episode of “Hoarding: Buried Alive.”
Webb looked at the 42,000-square-foot property as her colleague, an inspector named Tom Esham, made meticulous notes and took photographs. The place looked more like a junkyard than a home. Multiple commercial flatbed and dump trucks were strewn about, along with passenger vehicles, a late-model Ford pickup, a camper, numerous boat trailers — some with boats loaded on top — and a reddish motorcycle. Countless containers and drums were mixed in, as well as household appliances, scrap metal stored in bins, heaps of piping, and piles of wood and tires. A skid loader and an excavator were in disrepair. The cab of a broken-down backhoe was packed with still more junk.
Tucked amid the chaos was an unfinished two-story house, where Willey lived. The first level was made of concrete bricks, and held more discarded items that were visible through the windows. The second level had an ornate wooden front door, but there were no stairs leading up to it. Willey’s property was on a residential street. One neighbor shared a fence with him, and Willey’s belongings cascaded right up against it.
