Killer in Florida got guns legally

BALTIMORE — Even though the gunman in a rampage at a Florida video-game tournament had been hospitalized for mental illness, experts said he was able to legally purchase the two handguns he was carrying at the time of the attack. David Katz had a 9mm handgun and .45-caliber handgun when he opened fire Sunday at a gaming bar inside a collection of restaurants and shops in Jacksonville. He killed two people and wounded 10 others before fatally shooting himself during the Madden NFL 19 tournament. Experts say the gunman’s history of mental illness apparently would not have stopped him from buying guns in Maryland, where buyers cannot pass a background check if they were either involuntarily committed for any period of time or voluntarily admitted to a psychiatric facility for at least 30 consecutive days. Divorce filings in Maryland from Katz’s parents say he was twice hospitalized as an adolescent in psychiatric facilities and was prescribed antipsychotic and antidepressant medications. However, the divorce filings do not clearly indicate whether Katz was hospitalized voluntarily or involuntarily, and the two hospitalizations described in the documents were both shorter than 30 days. “It appears that these disqualifications did not apply to David Katz,” said Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.