Audrey Hale Nashville shooter stockpiled 7 weapons, parents Norma and Ronald Hale, insist they didn’t know daughter acquired arms cache despite Tennessee law forbidding anyone undergoing mental health treatment acquiring weapons.
School shooter Audrey Hale was able to buy seven firearms despite receiving treatment for for an emotional disorder. The weapons were allegedly stockpiled at her parent’s Nashville home with whom she lived with- with the relatives insisting they had no idea the weapons ever existed at the family residence.
Hale, 28, was able to acquire the weapons from seven different gun stores despite being under doctors’ care for emotional disorder. It remained unclear how the transgender shooter was able to bypass state law and still acquire her cache of weapons.
State law mandates the non sale of weapons during the treatment of mental health issues.
The suspect’s parents – Norma Hale and Ronald Hale – said they knew that their daughter had a weapon at one time, but told her to sell it because they thought she couldn’t be trusted with it. The parents maintain they had no awareness that their daughter owned any weapons at the residence, let alone seven.
During Monday’s Covenant school shooting, Hale took took three of her weapons to the private Christian school – two rifles and a handgun. In the aftermath of the shooting, three children, each aged 9 years old and three adult staffers were shot dead.
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Shooter’s parents didn’t trust her with weapons
Police bodycam video showed Audrey Hale being shot dead by responding officers within 14 minutes of the gun rampage beginning at 10.13 am, Monday morning.
Another two weapons were seen being removed from the house yesterday in a video obtained by the dailymail.
At a press conference on Monday, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said of her family: ‘They felt she had one weapon and that she had sold it. She was under doctors’ care for an emotional disorder.
Said Chief Drake: ‘Her parents felt like she should not own weapons, and they were under the impression that she didn’t own any anymore. But she had been hiding several within the house.’
The police chief added that Hale’s mother saw her leave the house with a red bag yesterday and asked her briefly what was inside it.
‘She dismissed it, thinking it was just a motherly thing.’
Despite being under doctors’ care, her ’emotional disorder’ had not been reported to the authorities. If it had, Audrey Hale might have been prevented from buying so many weapons.
A tragedy that could’ve been averted
Federal law generally prohibits possession of firearms and ammunition by people who have been found by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority to be a danger to themselves or others, or to “lack[] the mental capacity to contract or manage [their] own affairs,” as a result of their mental condition or illness.1 Federal law also generally prohibits people from possessing firearms if they have been involuntarily hospitalized or committed to a mental health or substance abuse treatment facility by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority.
No federal law, however, requires states to report the identities of these individuals when they become ineligible to possess firearms to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”) database, which the FBI uses to perform background checks prior to firearm transfers. As a result, state record reporting laws are critical to ensuring the accuracy and effectiveness of the background check system.
Tennessee law requires submission of mental health records to NICS. The state’s circuit courts, criminal courts, general sessions courts, county/probate courts and chancery courts that have made the orders and adjudications listed above must report this fact to NICS and the Tennessee Department of Safety.
