Southport shooting sparks concerns over gun access for mentally ill; Gov. calls for ‘red flag law’

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY-TV) — As the city of Southport continues to recover from Saturday night’s mass shooting, questions are emerging about how the suspect, Nigel Edge, was able to have a gun despite a documented history of mental illness.

Dorothy Royal, manager at the Surf City Guns and Ammo said customers fill out a federal form prior to purchasing a firearm. Two questions specifically address mental health.

One asks if the buyer has ever been a “adjudicated mentally ill” meaning if a court has found them to be a danger to themselves or others. The second asks if they have ever been committed to a treatment facility by a court.

Royal says answering ‘yes’ to either means they cannot buy a firearm.

“Recently we had a gentleman who was honest and he marked off that he had been a adjudicated mentally incompetent or incapable and we had to stop the process right at that point and he looked a little surprised but I said you know, ‘it’s on here for a reason” and he was former military,” Royal said.

Royal said it’s not uncommon for customers to be turned away.

“We have seen that recently where people especially that have been in the military in probably the last eight years, were seeing more and more people come in that have had mental issues in the past,” Royal said.

In response to the shooting, Governor Josh Stein called for a “red flag law” which would allow courts to temporarily seize firearms from those deemed a risk.

“There are people in our communities who people know are a risk, a risk to others and a risk to themselves and they should not have firearms,” Stein said at a press conference on Monday in Southport.

Royal said her store is also offering a program called  “Pause to Protect” which gives military personnel or their loved ones a free option to store firearms during a mental health crisis.

“It’s designed directly for this kind of event where somebody is just at a point of breaking and either they have the forethought to say ‘please take my firearms’ or somebody else close to them does,” Royal said.

WWAY is still working to confirm whether the guns recovered from the suspect’s boat and home were legally obtained.