Movie Attack Suspect Got Guns Despite Psych Issues A southwest Missouri man accused of plotting attacks at a movie theater and Walmart store legally bought the guns he allegedly planned to use, despite being forced to undergo a psychiatric exam three years ago after stalking a store clerk he said he planned to kill, authorities said. Blaec Lammers, 20, was arrested last week after his mother told police she feared he was planning an attack. Authorities say Lammers told investigators he planned to open fire during a showing last weekend of the new "Twilight" film and then inside a nearby Walmart in Bolivar, a town about 130 miles southeast of Kansas City. Investigators determined he legally purchased two assault rifles, and also had 400 rounds of ammunition. He is charged with first-degree assault, making a terroristic threat and armed criminal action, and remained jailed Wednesday on $500,000 bond. The case has gun control advocates concerned. Daniel Vice, a senior attorney for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said Lammers' case reminds him of what happened before the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. Student gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who fatally shot 32 people before killing himself, was able to buy two guns even though he had been ruled a danger to himself during a court hearing in 2005. "We've seen it before," Vice said. We've been trying to fix this. CORRECTS AGE OF SUSPECT TO 20 INSTEAD OF 23 - This undated photo provided by the Polk County, Mo. Sheriff's Department shows Blaec Lammers, 20, who is accused of plotting to open fire inside a movie theater during a screening of the new "Twilight" film. Lammers, of Bolivar, Mo., was charged Friday, Nov. 16, 2012 with three felony counts, including making a terrorist threat. Bolivar police say his mother contacted authorities Thursday, saying she was concerned her son had purchased weapons similar to those used in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Polk County Sheriff's Department) Close The National Rifle Association didn't respond to a phone message seeking comment. Lammers' attorney, DeWayne Franklin Perry, declined to comment about the case. Lammers' mother said her son had undergone inpatient treatment and has shown signs associated with Asperger's syndrome, borderline personality disorder and other conditions. "He didn't ask to be born different," Tricia Lammers said at a news conference this week at the National Alliance for Mental Illness in Springfield. He wanted to be successful and be somebody. Just two weeks ago he asked me - both my kids still call me mommy - he said, 'Mommy, do you think I'm a failure?' I said, 'No, Blaec, I don't.' Federal law has banned certain types of mentally ill people from buying guns since 1968, including those who have been deemed a danger to themselves or others, involuntarily committed, or judged not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial. Lammers was involuntarily committed in 2009, after he brought a knife and rubber mask to a Walmart store and followed around a clerk, according to an arrest report. Lammers, who was 17 at the time, told investigators he was planning to kill the clerk when he heard his name over the public address system and his father hollering at him. He wasn't charged, but he was involuntarily committed for 96 hours for a mental health examination. In Missouri, hospitals, law enforcement officials and private citizens can request a person be held against his or her will for up to 96 hours if the person appears to be a threat to themselves or others. But such an involuntary hold doesn't necessarily bar someone from purchasing a firearm, because the federal law requires that a person be "adjudicated as a mental defective," said Trista K. Frederick, a special agent and spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Kansas City. Each state has a system for making a legal determination that a person is mentally defective and submitting those records to a federal database.