The NYC Shooter Had a Documented Mental Health History. How Did He Get a Gun?
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
The NYC Shooter Had a Documented Mental Health History. How Did He Get a Gun?
At least 13 high-profile shootings over the past 20 years were carried out by assailants who bought guns after being released from an emergency hospitalization. The shooter had mental health crisis holds in Nevada in 2022 and 2024. A new law went into effect in Nevada authorizing police to temporarily confiscate guns from people placed on a mental healthrisis hold. The law came too late to apply to the Manhattan shooter, who was able to get a gun despite his history of mental health issues. The perpetrator may have been legally able to purchase guns despite his mental health history, but New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on July 29 that he had assembled his AR-style rifle with a lower receiver bought by an associate in an illegal straw purchase. Under federal law, only the lower receiver — which houses a gun’s vital components like the hammer and trigger — is considered a firearm and subject to a background check. He could have purchased the other parts of the weapon without vetting.
The shooting has renewed questions about what kinds of mental health hospitalizations disqualify someone from gun ownership. Until recently, only five states restricted guns after an emergency hospitalization, according to a 2023 Trace analysis. Nevada — where the perpetrator was hospitalized — wasn’t one of them.
At least 13 high-profile shootings over the past 20 years were carried out by assailants who bought guns after being released from an emergency hospitalization, according to our 2023 analysis. They include the 2022 Buffalo, New York, supermarket shooting (10 dead, three wounded); a 2021 workplace shooting at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis (eight killed, four wounded); and the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting in Roseburg, Oregon (nine dead, eight wounded).
On July 1, a new law went into effect in Nevada authorizing police to temporarily confiscate guns from people placed on a mental health crisis hold, as emergency hospitalizations are known in the state. The law came too late to apply to the Manhattan shooter.
The shooter had mental health crisis holds in Nevada in 2022 and 2024. Someone can be held for up to 72 hours for an evaluation if they are thought to be a danger to themselves or others, but a court hearing is required to detain them longer. Officials have said the man drove across the country and entered New York City with an AR-style rifle and a revolver shortly before the shooting.
In Nevada, an emergency hospitalization on its own does not automatically disqualify someone from possessing or buying guns. Even the state’s new law only allows law enforcement to seize guns in a person’s possession. It doesn’t apply to guns purchased or acquired after an emergency hold, and any guns that are seized must be returned unless a court determines the person poses an ongoing risk.
“This law allows us to take that firearm for safekeeping and impound it into our evidence vault,” said John Abel, the director of governmental affairs for the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the largest police union in Nevada. “Once the person is out of the hospital, and the firearm has been cleared — meaning the gun isn’t stolen, and they’re not a prohibited person — then we give that firearm back to them.”
“There would be nothing that would prohibit you from going to buy another gun,” he added.
Neither hold appears to have resulted in a longer hospitalization for the killer. If it had, and he chose not to go voluntarily, he might have been involuntarily committed by a judge. In that case, his information would have been automatically transmitted to the federal background check system, barring him from purchasing guns nationwide.
The perpetrator may have been legally able to purchase guns despite his mental health history, but New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on July 29 that he had assembled his AR-style rifle with a lower receiver bought by an associate in what may have been an illegal straw purchase. Under federal law, only the lower receiver — which houses a gun’s vital components like the hammer and trigger — is considered a firearm and subject to a background check. He could have purchased the other parts of the weapon without vetting.
He also held a Nevada concealed carry license, which he obtained in 2022. While the process to acquire a license involves more stringent vetting than a typical background check for a gun sale, anyone who has a license is exempt from future background checks when purchasing guns.
In Nevada, a sheriff can deny a concealed carry license application or revoke a license only if an applicant “has been voluntarily or involuntarily admitted to a mental health facility during the immediately preceding 5 years,” according to state statute. That doesn’t appear to include emergency mental health hospitalizations that do not result in a court-ordered admission.
Rebecca Fischer, the executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, a gun reform advocacy group, said that while New York has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, those laws are undermined when other states have lax regulations. “There’s really only so much our state and local officials and residents can do to strengthen our gun laws if states like Nevada and our federal government just enable, allow, encourage, and promote this kind of violent behavior,” she said.
Source: https://www.thetrace.org/2025/07/new-york-mass-shooting-mental-health/