Hale’s own parents did not know Hale owned multiple firearms, mistakenly believing Hale had just one gun, then sold it, Drake said. The chief said the mother and father felt Hale should not have a weapon due to mental health concerns.
The chief said that on Monday morning, seeing Hale leaving the house with a red bag, the mother asked what was in the bag.
Hale “was under the care of a doctor for an emotional disorder,” the chief told reporters during a news briefing, without elaborating.
Under Tennessee law, mental illness is not grounds for police to confiscate weapons, unless a person has been determined by a court to be mentally incompetent, “judicially committed to a mental institution”, or “mental Due to the defect” has been placed under guardianship.
Tennessee prohibits the sale of guns to persons deemed by a court or other legal authority to be a danger to themselves or others, or to persons who lack the capacity to conduct their own affairs due to mental illness. But just being under a doctor’s care won’t by itself satisfy that limit.
Drake said that it appeared Hale had some sort of weapons training. Hale fired at the officers from the second floor of the school as they arrived in patrol cars, standing behind large windows to avoid becoming easy targets.