John Russell Houser was deeply troubled long before he shot 11 people in a movie theater in Louisiana, but decades of mental problems did not keep him from buying the handgun he used.
Despite public signs of mental illness — most importantly, a Georgia judge’s order committing him to mental health treatment against his will as a danger to himself and others in 2008 — Houser was able to walk into an Alabama shop six years later and buy a .40 caliber handgun.
It was the same weapon Houser used to kill two people and wound nine others before killing himself at a Thursday showing of Trainwreck. Three people remained hospitalized on Saturday.
Photo: AP
Court records strongly suggest Houser should have been reported to the state and US federal databases used to keep people with serious mental illnesses from buying firearms, legal experts said.
“It sure does seem like something failed,” said Judge Susan Tate, who presides over a probate court in Georgia and has studied issues relating to weapons and the mentally ill. “I have no idea how he was able to get a firearm.”
Houser never should have been able to buy a gun, said Sheriff Heath Taylor in Russell County, Alabama, whose office denied him a concealed weapons permit in 2006 based on arson and domestic violence allegations, even though the victims declined to pursue charges.
No evidence has surfaced of any criminal conviction that would have kept Houser from passing the background check required for many gun purchases. Federal law does generally prohibit the purchase or possession of a firearm by anyone who has ever been involuntarily committed for mental health treatment.
That is what happened to Houser in 2008 after his family accused him of threatening behavior, warning authorities that he had a history of bipolar disorder and was making ominous statements. His wife removed his guns and the family persuaded a judge to issue a protective order to keep him away once he left hospital.
At that point, court officials should have reported Houser’s involuntary mental commitment to the Georgia database that feeds the FBI’s background check system, which provides for a delay of up to three days when records suggest a buyer might be ineligible.
When Houser tried to buy his gun on Feb. 26 last year, the system only briefly delayed his purchase, according to a federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The seller was advised the following day that the sale could proceed.
It was not clear on Saturday whether the judge who authorized authorities to detain Houser in 2008 filed a report with the Georgia Crime Information Center, which keeps about 5,000 records on people who cannot buy guns because they have been judged insane, involuntarily hospitalized or legally depend on someone else to manage their affairs. The judge did not return a phone message seeking comment.
Like many states, Georgia has a highly decentralized court system, spread over 159 counties. Experts have long worried that probate judges are not reporting every mental health commitment.
In March, Kellie Houser filed for divorce, saying their relationship was irretrievably broken and John Russell Houser’s whereabouts were unknown. He called her the next week, threatening her again, she wrote in a court document.
Then she got a call from Houser’s mother, saying he had threatened to kill himself outside his mother’s retirement community if she did not give him money. She wrote that she urged the mother to seek to have him hospitalized again. Instead, the woman gave her son US$5,000, police said.
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