Aaron Snyder, the man killed at the Capitol last week in a confrontation with a state trooper, was turned away from a Fort Collins gun shop in late March after he admitted he had struggled with delusions and depression.
Snyder wanted to rent a handgun and learn how to shoot it at Rocky Mountain Shooters Supply on March 30, but he was rejected after he noted on the background check form that he had a history of mental illness, said the shop’s owner, Tim Brough.
Snyder told store manager Bill Cates that he needed to learn to shoot because he “was the divine leader of the nation and as such should know how to use a gun,” Brough said.
Cates suggested Snyder come back at a later date and take a handgun safety course so Cates could determine whether he had severe problems.
Snyder later purchased a handgun from Sportsman’s Warehouse in Thornton and returned to the Fort Collins store to practice shooting, officials have said. Brough said Rocky Mountain Shooters Supply again turned Snyder away until he agreed to take a handgun class.
“He just stood and watched some shooters at the range and then kind of disappeared,” Brough recalled.
Brough said the form that his store uses for renting a gun and shooting at the range is a little more detailed than the federally mandated background check form that must be filled out to purchase a gun. A person must state whether they have ever been adjudicated by a court as mentally unsafe, Brough said.
There is no public record in Colorado indicating that Snyder, who had only traffic infractions in his past, was ever adjudicated as mentally ill by a court.
Brough said there’s no system that allows gun shops to alert other gun shops when a disqualifying problem is detected in a potential gun renter or buyer.
“It kind of makes you wonder if there should be something like that,” Brough said. “There’s just nothing set up for it now.”
Snyder, 32, of Thornton, was fatally shot July 16 by a trooper as Snyder tried to advance into Gov. Bill Ritter’s Capitol office. Snyder came to the office carrying a loaded handgun and a knife, authorities said, and he alarmed officials when he headed for the governor’s office and proclaimed that he was the emperor.
