ATF: John Russell Houser Purchased His Pistol 'Legally'

On July 24 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) announced that the Lafayette gunman John Russell Houser bought his gun “legally” at a pawn store in Alabama in 2014.

As we have seen numerous times before, the word “legally” means he passed a background check for the firearm.

This means Houser joins Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (Chattanooga), Dylann Roof (Charleston), Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi (Garland), Jared and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barabara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Andrew John Engeldinger (Minneapolis), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), Tennis Melvin Maynard (West Virginia), Wade Michael Page (Sikh Temple), James Holmes (Aurora theater), Jared Loughner (Tucson), Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood 2009), Jiverly Wong (Binghamton), Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech), Naveed Haq (Seattle), and Mark Barton (Atlanta) on the list of attackers and alleged attackers who acquired their guns via background checks.

According to Fox 8, the ATF said 59-year-old Houser bought his .40 caliber handgun “in February 2014 at a pawnshop in Phenix City, Alabama.”

Police still do not have a motive for Houser’s July 23 attack on Grand Theatre patrons and Louisiana State Police Col. Michael Edmonson said, “(The possibility) exists out there that [they] may not find [one].”

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