- About 3 months before the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, Robert Card tried to buy a silencer.
- Card could not pick up the silencer after he reported mental health issues, a gun store owner said.
When a customer purchases a weapon or equipment from a licensed US firearms dealer, every buyer must fill out a federal document known as Form 4473.
It's a 7-page document issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency that asks buyers what gun they are purchasing, if they have any existing criminal records, and if they have a history of mental health issues.
"Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution?" the form asks.
It was this question that Robert R. Card II answered that stopped him from picking up a silencer about three months before he fatally shot 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston, Maine.
Rick LaChapelle, owner of Coastal Defense Firearms in Auburn, Maine, and a city council member of Lewiston, told ABC News that Card attempted to pick up a silencer on August 5 but the store declined to complete the transaction after Card answered "yes" to the question on the 4473 form.
"He came in and filled out the form, he checked off a box that incriminated himself saying that he was in an institution," LaChapelle told ABC News. "Our staff was fantastic, let him finish filling out the form, and said, 'I'm sorry, Mr. Card, we cannot give you this" silencer due to "the answers that you've given us."
A silencer, or suppressor, is an attachment for a gun that reduces the sound produced when it is fired, though the noise is still quite loud and unlike what is represented in TV or film.
LaChapelle told ABC News that the mass shooting could have been worse if Card had successfully purchased a silencer.
"He could have spent more time in each location," LaChapelle told the outlet, speaking as a business owner and not in his capacity as a city council member.
In July, Card, an Army reservist, was transported to the Keller Army Community Hospital in upstate New York for a medical evaluation after leaders of the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment noted erratic behavior, a US Defense Department official told ABC News.
A bulletin sent to authorities across the country and reviewed by the Associated Press said that Card reported "hearing voices and threats to shoot up" a military base.
Officials recently said that the weapons found during a search for Card were believed to be purchased legally, the Associated Press reported. The gun Card used to carry out the shooting on the evening of October 25 was purchased days before he was ordered to seek a mental evaluation in July, law enforcement sources told CNN.
Card was found dead on Friday after authorities were led on a two-day manhunt. Officials said he was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.