Shane Tamura legally purchased gun in June despite 2 prior mental health holds, using his Nevada gun permit to acquire weapon. Gunman had even previously confessed to suicidal thoughts.
A preventable tragedy? A Las Vegas, Nevada man accused of storming a NYC office building where he fatally gunned down 4 and then himself with a high powered semi automatic rifle previously confessed to having ‘suicidal thoughts’ but nevertheless was allowed to keep his gun permit.
Shane Tamura, 27, was granted the permit in June 2022 and notified police sometime after that he was suffering from a mental health crisis, including having suicidal thoughts, sources said.
A preventable tragedy?
But suicidal ideations are not enough to revoke a permit according to sources cited by the nypost.
In 2022, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police encountered Tamura on the street, where he was observed exhibiting behavior that made them believe he might be a threat to himself or others, police said. Police took him to a hospital where he was put on a psychiatric hold for an unknown period of time, CNN reported.
The former highschool football star who blamed CTE, on ongoing head trauma from the contact sport then had another mental health contact in Las Vegas in 2024, CNN reported.
Mental Health Crisis holds allow a person to be detained for up to 72 hours if they are thought to be a danger to themselves or others. According to one source, when there is this type of hold in Nevada, officers have to transport the person to the hospital. Once that happens, medical staff take over and decide how long to hold the person.
Mental health and gun law loopholes
Despite exhibiting a history of mental illness, Tamura was legally able to purchase a revolver in June using a Nevada concealed carry permit according to NYC police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.
Gun laws forbid those who have been involuntarily committed from possessing guns but not those who seek treatment for mental health issues. Strict gun laws only exist under certain criteria.
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.
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.
Sandy Hook Promise, the gun violence prevention group founded by parents of children who were killed in the 2012 elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., said in a statement that while a mental health condition alone doesn’t make someone more likely to commit violence, in this case there were ‘clear warning signs that indicated a serious situation was brewing.’
Despite his mental health history, Tamura was able to keep and maintain his gun permit which he used to legally buy a weapon as recently as June.
Tisch said Tamura had assembled the AR-15-style rifle that he used in the shooting. He bought a lower receiver, the central piece of the gun that other parts are attached to, from a man whom the police will question about the purchase, the nytimes reported.
Monday’s shooting rampage that left four people dead at 345 Park Avenue, Manhattan at the 44 story building was the single shooting with the highest death toll in New York City in 25 years.
The last time NYC recorded a higher toll was in 2000, when five people were fatally shot and two were injured at a Wendy’s in Flushing, Queens, during a robbery.
