Judge says she did not involuntarily commit theater gunman

More than 450 people crowded into a historic Catholic church Monday to say goodbye to Mayci Breaux, one of two women killed in a shooting rampage at a movie theater four days ago in Lafayette. John Russell Houser stood up about 20 minutes into Thursday night’s showing of “Trainwreck” and fired on the audience with a semi-automatic handgun.

For the Georgia judge who reportedly made the order, the answer is simple: She never had Houser committed. Johnson, 33, was laid to rest in a Lafayette service that reflected her love of music and south Louisiana culture while hundreds of people packed a Franklin church to remember 21-year-old Breaux. While an Alabama sheriff said he denied Houser’s application for a concealed weapons’ permit in 2006, there appears to have been nothing in court filings that would raise concerns in the Federal Bureau of Investigation background check system.

Federal law prohibits the purchase of guns by anyone who has been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, but they do not ban gun purchases by someone who has volunteered for treatment or successfully argued against commitment. The family had asked a judge to have a doctor evaluate him, saying he was a danger to himself and others.

D’Antonio said that he believes it’s important to clarify the distinction and that a person should not immediately have his or her rights taken away for spending time in a mental hospital.

Muscogee County Probate Judge Marc E. D’Antonio, who was county clerk in 2008, told HuffPost that since West Central Regional Hospital is located in Muscogee County, any order to have Houser involuntarily committed would have been filed there, not in Carroll County.

On the other hand, “you have these people that can’t basically function, so the question is what do you do?” she said. In Georgia, court officials are supposed to report the committal to a state database that funnels the information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, a federal database used for background checks on firearm buyers.

Numerous accounts from Houser’s acquaintances detail stories of vindictive and unstable behavior by the 59-year-old law school graduate and rabble-rouser, known in Columbus for his political agitation. The seller was advised the following day that the sale could proceed.

Houser was subsequently “delivered by deputies to [a] hospital for evaluation”, but Cason said no order for commitment followed.

Like many states, Georgia has a highly decentralized court system, spread over 159 counties.

Still, some mental health advocates say the confusion over the reporting requirements in different states suggest that changes are necessary.

“If we had adjudicated somebody in need of involuntary treatment, I would have reported that fact to the GBI”, he said, referring to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. His wife was so anxious that she removed his guns from their home, her attorney said. By May 2014, a judge ordered him out. And Houser had left the TV on when he left the room. She wrote that she urged the mother to seek have him hospitalized again.

No one knows when they suddenly will lose someone they love, Benoit said.

Houser kept writing on right-wing extremist message boards after leaving Alabama.

Outside the theater, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Friday that “now is not the time” to discuss gun control, a position backed Saturday by rock musician and gun enthusiast Ted Nugent, who was in Lafayette for a sportsmen’s exposition and came by to lay some flowers. In that petition, it was erroneously stated that Houser had been involuntarily committed by Cason. I do think there is a mental connection of the mental incapacity of some level with all of the issues.