LOS ANGELES, CA – In the wake of the Minneapolis shooting, Ian Ayres of the Los Angeles Times argues that psychiatric holds often fail to prevent people placed under those holds from buying firearms. He points to cases across the country and highlights possible reforms by comparing states like California and Washington, which restrict access to guns after emergency psychiatric detentions, with states such as Nevada, where such holds have little effect on gun rights.
Research from the Anti-Defamation League sheds light on the Minneapolis shooter, noting, “Research suggests the shooter held a deep fascination with mass killers and researched them extensively.” The ADL also reported, “Shortly before the attack, the shooter uploaded two YouTube videos, displaying what appears to have been a handwritten suicide note addressed to their family that detailed struggles with mental health and suicide ideations.”
“It is easy to become desensitized to the all-too-frequent stories of mass shootings where the perpetrator then ends their own life,” Ayres wrote. “But simple legal changes at the state or federal level could have made it harder for people like the Manhattan shooter, Shane Tamura, to obtain a firearm.”
Ayres further examined how state-level differences complicate the issue. In Tamura’s case, “Tamura was not legally prohibited from purchasing a weapon despite these previous psychiatric holds, because in Nevada emergency holds do not trigger a loss of gun rights,” Ayres said.
California and Washington impose stricter standards. California bars anyone placed on an emergency psychiatric hold from purchasing or possessing firearms for five years, while Washington suspends gun ownership for up to six months after such a hold.
According to The Trace, Chip Brownlee and Jennifer Mascia found that “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,” based on a 2023 analysis.
Ayres argued that such restrictions aim to balance public safety with civil liberties. He noted, “The prohibitions are merely presumptive, as any affected individual is free under state law to petition for their gun rights to be restored if they can prove they are not a risk.”
Even though most people placed under emergency psychiatric holds do not commit violence, Ayres warned that the risk of future violent behavior remains higher in this group compared to the general public.
Jeffrey Swanson, writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, studied about 75,000 Floridians with mental health issues. Swanson and his coauthors found that individuals under emergency holds had a greater likelihood of being detained for crimes involving firearms or violence than those who had not been placed on holds.
In the Manhattan case, Ayres noted that antipsychotic drugs were found in the shooter’s home. Mira Wassef of The Hill added that “several prescription bottles for antipsychotic, antiepileptic, and anti-inflammatory drugs were also recovered, according to an NYPD spokesperson.”
Data from the Violence Project reported that 24 percent of mass shooters had previously taken psychiatric medication. The project also found four recurring crisis indicators: mental health struggles (28 percent), social isolation (16 percent), recent job or financial loss (14 percent), and paranoia (14 percent).
Ayres suggested a framework for reform: “To protect liberty and avoid stigma, the pause should be time-limited, rebuttable through a rapid petition or possibly through a physician’s attestation that the individual is not dangerous, and privacy-respecting, relying on purpose-built reporting (or voluntary certificates) rather than broad disclosures of medical records.”
He concluded, “A brief, petitionable pause after emergency holds and during high-risk treatment better aligns the law with clinical reality and public safety.”
Ayres also drew parallels to aviation, explaining that commercial pilots sometimes conceal mental illness because they fear losing their Federal Aviation Administration certification to fly.
He concluded that, while reforms may not have prevented the Minneapolis shooting, they could reduce the risk of similar tragedies. Ayres urged government action, arguing that even imperfect reforms could disarm potential threats and improve public safety.
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