© Chet Strange/Getty ImagesPolice respond at a King Sooper's grocery store where a gunman opened fire on March 22, 2021 in Boulder, Colorado. Ten people, including a police officer, were killed in the attack. Chet Strange/Getty Images
- The Colorado grocery-store shooter bought an AR-556 pistol less than a week before the shooting.
- Police say Ahmad Alissa, 21, shot and killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder.
- Just 10 states in the US have a waiting-period law requiring time before a person can buy a gun.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Police in Colorado said Tuesday that Ahmad Alissa, the man charged with killing 10 people in a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder bought a semi-automatic rifle less than a week before the Monday shooting.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, opened fire at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder Monday afternoon, killing 10 people, including a police officer, police said, adding that Alissa used an AR-15-style rifle in the shooting.
Alissa purchased the Ruger AR-556 semiautomatic pistol on March 16, according to an arrest warrant for Alissa released by the Boulder Police Department Tuesday. It wasn't immediately clear whether that was the gun used in the shooting.
According to the arrest warrant released, a woman, whose identity is redacted in the documents, who is married to Alissa's older brother told police Alissa was "seen playing with a gun she thought looked like a 'machine gun'" about two days before the shooting.
At the time, Alissa told the woman there was a bullet stuck inside it, she said, according to the affidavit. Two other people present, whose identities were likewise redacted from the arrest warrant, were "upset" with the way Alissa was "playing with the gun" and took it from him, the woman told police.
There is no waiting period in Colorado between the time a person first expresses interest in acquiring a gun and when they're able to buy the weapon
Just 10 US states and Washington, DC, have some sort of law requiring a waiting period between when a person attempts to purchase a gun and when they are actually allowed to take possession of that weapon, according to the Giffords Law Center. The longest waiting period - 10 days - is required by California and in DC.
There is also no waiting period in the state of Georgia, where last week a man opened fire on three different spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight people. The accused in that case bought the gun the same day as the shootings.
"Obviously that cannot prevent all acts of violence or self-harm, but there is good research that shows that it does lead to reductions in both suicide and homicide by preventing some impulsive, heat of the moment acts of violence," said Ari Freilich, the state policy director at the Giffords Law Center.
Freilich told Insider these laws intend to help eliminate the "heat of the moment impulse" to commit violence and provide more time for law enforcement to conduct background checks. It also gives families and friends more time to recognize a person is in a "crisis period" and intends to cause harm, allowing them to preemptively call law enforcement or mental-health professionals, he said.
According to the arrest warrant, Alissa had a prior charge of third-degree assault in the nearby city of Arvada, Colorado, though it's not clear if he was ever convicted of the charge.
If Alissa legally purchased the weapon from a firearms dealer, a background check would've been required under federal law, according to the Giffords Law Center.
Under Colorado law, a private seller is also legally required to use a Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL) to check the background of anyone purchasing a firearm, unless the transaction is between family members.
Freilich said Colorado has some of the stronger background check laws in the US as they apply to most sales, including from private sellers, with "narrow exceptions" that apply to family members or a "temporary loan" of a weapon.
Haven Orecchio-Egresitz contributed reporting.
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