El Paso Matters
After a suicide attempt in March 2020, Army Pvt. Richard Halliday of Fort Bliss (Texas) was committed to a psychiatric center for 72 hours and declared unfit to carry a weapon on duty. But he was able to legally purchase a 9mm handgun at an El Paso gun store. Soon after, and despite being confined to base and subject to round-the-clock monitoring because the Army considered him a danger to himself, Halliday disappeared.
After being listed as missing for almost four years, Halliday was formally declared dead by the Army last year, though his remains have not been found.
Halliday’s case points to a loophole in the background check system that largely exempts the military from reporting mental health commitments; the military doesn’t have to report mental health commitments of soldiers to its facilities.
A Justice Department report showed that the Department of Defense made only one referral to the federal background check system for mental health reasons in 2019, 29 referrals in 2020, and 33 in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.
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