Suspect In Apparent Attempt To Shoot Trump Wasn't Allowed To Have Guns. He Got An Assault Rifle Anyway.

The man accused of stalking Donald Trump from behind the bushes at the edge of one of the former president’s golf courses never should have had a gun in the first place. Like Trump himself, Ryan Wesley Routh was barred under federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition due to his status as a convicted felon.

It’s unclear how Routh, 58, obtained the semiautomatic rifle he allegedly used in an attempt to shoot Trump. But the confiscated weapon highlights the ease with which people prohibited from obtaining guns can continue to access them in a country where firearm ownership is common and constitutionally protected.

Routh’s long list of criminal convictions has disqualified him from firearm possession for at least two decades.

In 2002, he was convicted of possession of a weapon of mass destruction in North Carolina. That offense appeared to stem from an incident in which Routh barricaded himself inside a building, then had a stand-off with police, according to a contemporaneous report from the Greensboro News and Record . The weapon was a machine gun.

Routh was also convicted on multiple counts of felony possession of stolen goods, North Carolina records show. Those felonies would also prohibit Routh from possessing firearms.

The extensive list of misdemeanors on Routh’s record also includes convictions for carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest and repeated driving violations.

That criminal record would have landed Routh in the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The NICS database flags when someone prohibited from owning a gun attempts to buy one from a federally licensed firearms dealer.

But Routh still would have had several ways to obtain a firearm after his convictions. And