A recent report revealed that the alleged gunman who shot 10 people to death at a Boulder, Colorado grocery store was known to the FBI before carrying out the assault.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, a 21-year-old Syrian immigrant was linked to another person who the bureau was investigating, according to The New York Times. The report did not give any further details explaining why he wound up on the agency’s radar.

The authorities are still trying to ascertain the alleged shooter’s motive. Alissa was known for being quick to anger, especially when faced with derogatory comments about his Islamic faith.

From The Times:

When he was a senior at Arvada West High School, Mr. Alissa was convicted in 2018 of misdemeanor assault against another student in a classroom, and told the police at the time that it was in retaliation for insults and ethnic taunts. Fellow students recall him as having a fierce temper that would flare in response to setbacks or slights.

Alissa’s brother told the Daily Beast that he was antisocial, mentally ill, and paranoid.

The alleged shooter bought a Ruger AR-556 semi-automatic pistol, which is a shortened version of the AR-15 style rifle six days before the shooting. It is not yet known where he purchased the weapon.

Fox News reported that “Angel Hernandez, a former high school wrestling teammate, said Alissa got enraged after losing a match in practice once, yelling he would kill everyone. Hernandez said the coach kicked Alissa off the team for the outburst.”

“He was one of those guys with a short fuse,” Hernandez said to The Associated Press. “Once he gets mad, it’s like something takes over and it’s not him. There is no stopping him at that point.”

A law enforcement official stated that Alissa’s family told investigators that they believed he was suffering with mental illness which caused delusions. Some of his relatives described situations in which the alleged gunman claimed people were following or chasing him.

Hernandez told authorities that Alissa would sometimes turn around suddenly or glance over his shoulder. “He would say, ‘Did you see that? Did you see that?’” Hernandez recounted. “We wouldn’t see anything. We always thought he was messing with us.”

While the hard left tries to focus America on the supposed white supremacy of a Syrian Muslim shooter and how making it harder for everyday Americans to buy firearms, there is an aspect of these incidents that is being ignored. Indeed, in many similar scenarios, the public is often distracted by the gun control debate.

But when will we have a serious conversation about how mental illness contributes to these shootings? Let’s face it: Not a single shred of legislation that the Democrats have proposed would have prevented this atrocity. But it was clear that Alissa may have had serious mental problems that motivated him to kill the people in the grocery store.

Other than ensuring that people are armed to prevent more deaths from mass shooters, dealing with the motivation behind these attacks seems to be the only way to stop them from happening in the first place. Unfortunately, the left would prefer to politicize these shootings than look for authentic solutions.