Was the NIU shooter a prohibited person?
Seems to be the question. Over at CrimeFileNews, they think so:
The NIU gunman was well known by government authorities. He was confined to a Chicago mental institution for a year after refusing to take anti-psychotic medicine was unruly and engaged in strange behavior such as cutting himself. He later joined the Army but was tossed out after basic training for psychiatric reasons. The gunman was off his required medication and his rocker for two years prior to the shooting.
In order to buy the four firearms in Illinois, Steven Kazmierczak had to lie on four separate #4473 Firearm Transaction Forms, and his Illinois Firearms Owners Identification Application. That FOID process takes months to complete. Once the FIOD was received Kazmierczak could not take delivery until he had endured the mandated waiting periods for the guns he had already purchased.
I’m not certain but it seems plausible. After all, he could have been voluntarily committed for a year (though that is unlikely). If it was involuntary, then he was a prohibited person. And his discharge from the army could have prohibited him, if it was dishonorable.
In other news, stupid headline: Police finding dark side of man who killed 5 on Illinois campus.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I know what you’re thinking- he murdered 5 people and then painted the ceiling with his brains, but does the man have a dark side? We think some faults would make him seem more human.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:13 am
The Army discharge angle is highly unlikely. In my military experience, no one who received a Big Chicken Dinner (Bad Conduct Discharge, one level up from Dishonorable) got out without doing extensive time in a military prison. I can’t imagine a Dishonorable Discharge would be the end result of someone washing out of the Army in six months. He’d have to have been in longer, if only to serve his sentence.
Anything is possible, of course.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
If memory serves, even voluntary commitment makes you a prohibited person for 5 years in IL. At least, that’s what they told an acquaintance of mine who had been institutionalized for less than a week after a suicide attempt.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
As Boyd noted, you pretty much have to commit a felony to warrant a Dishonorable Discharge, which would mean he would have done time at the Disciplinary Barracks in Ft Leavenworth.
A psych discharge is pretty much like a medical discharge. I don’t recall if its legally an Honorable or Uncharacterized.
And I think the ‘voluntary’ commitment was done by his parents, when he was a minor. Which, I believe, legally makes it a non-entity.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 am
It can be a General discharge.