If Anthony McRae, the Michigan State Shooter, had been tried and convicted after his felony arrest in 2019 for not having a concealed carry permit, he wouldn’t have been able to purchase the two 9 mm handguns that investigators found in his possession after the college campus shooting. According to a CNN report, the guns recovered were legally purchased but not legally registered.

And even if McRae wouldn’t have received the full five-year prison sentence for the felony, as some say he wouldn’t have gotten, he wouldn’t have been able to legally buy any more guns. But because he pleaded to a misdemeanor (possession of a loaded firearm in or upon a vehicle), he was allowed to continue to purchase guns. You can read more about the Ingham County’s lax prosecution of gun crimes and the deal that McRae made in my other article here.

McRae’s plea was made in 2019 and then in 2021, according to a law enforcement source who spoke to CNN, McRae purchased a Taurus pistol and a Hi-Point 9 mm pistol. Those were the two guns that investigators found with McRae after the MSU shooting.

Although CNN reports that the guns were purchased legally, Michigan’s Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel told them it “wasn’t clear” if the weapon used was purchased legally or not. That statement was most likely made because law enforcement has to do testing to see which of the two guns (or maybe another one) was used in the shootings.