Denied Handgun, LaCalamita Bought Shotgun
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Last month, Troy police denied Anthony LaCalamita III a permit to buy a handgun.
But there was nothing to stop LaCalamita, 38, from buying a shotgun last Friday at Target Sports in Royal Oak.
Police say the general accountant, who had been fired last Thursday from his job with the accounting firm Gordon Advisors, used the gun Monday in a shooting spree that left a secretary dead and two executives wounded.
So how could LaCalamita be denied a handgun permit but easily buy a shotgun a short time later?
The answer lies in the different requirements for purchasing the two types of guns.
Michigan and all but four other states — Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey — don't require a permit to buy a shotgun or rifle. Instead, buyers have only to pass a criminal background check performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
There apparently was nothing in LaCalamita's check that kept him from buying the shotgun, despite what his estranged wife's attorney said is a history of depression and mental health problems. The application for the background check includes a box asking if the buyer has any mental or psychological problems, but anyone can simply mark "no."
And Michigan, unlike some states, doesn't forbid selling guns to someone with mental health problems. Arkansas law forbids the sale of any type of gun to anyone who has been committed involuntarily to a mental institution, among other bans.
An employee at Target Sports declined to comment on the record Thursday to The Associated Press about LaCalamita's application.
When LaCalamita requested a handgun permit last month from the Troy Police Department, the check was much more extensive than the FBI check.
Although the department's spokesman, Lt. Gerry Scherlinck, said he couldn't comment on why the Troy police chief turned down LaCalamita's request for a handgun permit, he added that the department looked at records that went beyond arrests or convictions that might have shown up in an FBI check.
"Theoretically, you could have a clear criminal history but still have contacts with law enforcement that would not rise to the level of an arrest or conviction," Scherlinck said. A police chief "can use those contacts to deny a permit whether or not those involved arrests that might show up on a criminal history."
Michigan is among a dozen states that require handgun buyers to obtain a permit, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C., and the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action in Fairfax, Va. A call was left with the institute Thursday afternoon.
LaCalamita was arraigned Wednesday on one count of first-degree murder, two counts of intent to commit murder, three counts of possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony, and one count of fleeing and eluding police.
A shotgun was retrieved from his car, and a receipt for a Remington 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun was found Monday by police in LaCalamita's Troy apartment.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, said he'd like to see more background checks done by states rather than the FBI. Only 15 states do their own background checks on long guns buyers, while 26 do their own checks on people buying handguns, according to his organization.
"Generally the database that any state has, including Michigan, is going to be better than what the feds have," he said, adding if states think it's important to use their own records to check out handgun purchasers, they might want to apply the same logic to rifle and shotgun buyers.
"The bottom line is, we make it awfully easy in this country to get weapons," he said. "Everybody likes to say, `Let's keep them out of the hands of the bad guys and in the hands of the good guys,' but a lot of the potential bad guys are good guys until they do something wrong."
Scherlinck said even thorough police checks aren't going to prevent guns from occasionally getting into the wrong hands.
"Someone intent on buying one is going to find a way," he said.
