CT Gun Laws Prevented Gunman from Purchasing Rifle Days Before Massacre

Three days before Adam Lanza massacred 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT on Friday, he tried to purchase a rifle at a sporting goods store in Danbury, CT but was turned away.

Lanza refused a background check and did not want to abide by Connecticut’s waiting period for gun sales, leading to him being denied a rifle. 

Even though Connecticut’s gun control laws prevented Lanza from purchasing a rifle, he was still able to obtain at least two firearms that he used on Friday.

On Friday, officials said “Lanza was armed with two pistols” that were “legally purchased and registered to his mother, Nancy,” whom Lanza also allegedly murdered.

But on Saturday, officials said Lanza may have had “four handguns on him as he stormed” the school. They also said a rifle was found “in the car he drove to Sandy Hook.”