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 Suspect John R. Houser, who killed himself after Thursday's
rampage in Lafayette, Louisiana, purchased the weapon he used in the
attack from an Alabama pawnshop in 2014, authorities say.
Houser made the purchase even though there was a 2008 court order in
Georgia that sent him to a mental health facility due to his
"volatile mental state."
But that hospital visit did not result in an involuntary order,
according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is charged
with registering the orders and passing them along to the FBI for
background checks on gun purchases.
"We did not receive an involuntary commitment order on John Houser,
because there was no order," Sherry Lang, deputy director of public
affairs for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told Reuters in a
phone interview on Monday.
Federal law prohibits the purchase of guns by anyone who has been
involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, but they do not
ban gun purchases by someone who has volunteered for treatment or
successfully argued against commitment.
 A 2008 petition by the Houser family for a protective order against
the man that came to light after last week's shootings had indicated
that such a commitment against his will was ordered. The family had
asked a judge to have a doctor evaluate him, saying he was a danger
to himself and others.
Houser was taken to a hospital for that initial evaluation under an
"order to apprehend," court records show. Public records on the
results of such evaluations are protected under privacy laws.
But Muscogee County Probate Judge Marc D'Antonio said he handled all
cases of involuntary commitment in that area in 2008, and he would
have reported any such commitment to the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation to pass along to the FBI.
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If such a report does not turn up, then that means the person was
not involuntarily committed, said D'Antonio, who declined comment on
the Houser case specifically, citing confidentiality concerns.
"If we had adjudicated somebody in need of involuntary treatment, I
would have reported that fact to the GBI," he said, referring to the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The absence of a report suggests that Houser's evaluation resulted
in either his immediate release or his voluntary agreement to be
committed, neither of which would have blocked Houser's purchase at
the Alabama pawnshop.
Houser's history in Georgia's mental health system has not been
disclosed, and the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and
Developmental Disabilities has not returned a call seeking
information.
Concerns over how Houser could have purchased a gun despite his
history of mental illness have emerged two weeks after the FBI
revealed that the man charged with the fatal shooting of nine
African-Americans in a South Carolina church was able to buy a gun
because of mistakes in a background check.
(Reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by Frank
McGurty and Eric Beech)
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