![Officials wanted Florida school killer involuntarily committed in 2016 over mental health concerns](https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=18907991&width=980&quality=85)
Documents show officials wanted to involuntarily commit the Florida school killer in 2016, about 18 months prior to the massacre. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Florida officials and counselors recommended involuntarily committing the Florida school killer to a mental health facility in 2016 over concerns his mental health was becoming increasingly unstable.
The Associated Press broke the news Sunday afternoon.
If the killer had been committed involuntarily in 2016, the likelihood of him carrying out the massacre would have been severely hampered, David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor, told the AP. That's because it would have almost certainly prevented him from purchasing the AR-15 used in the shooting, let alone any firearm.
Mental fitness is a requirement for owning firearms in most states.
The Sun-Sentinel reported over the weekend that school officials at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were so concerned about the killer's fascination with guns that they barred him from participating in the school's JRTOC shooting team and prohibited him from carrying a backpack on campus.