A White gunman who killed three Black people at a Jacksonville Dollar General store Saturday legally purchased the two firearms used in the racially motivated attack, local law enforcement confirmed.

The man, identified Sunday as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter of Clay County, Fla., on Saturday drove to Edward Waters University, a historically Black college, but was refused entry, according to the school. He then drove to the nearby store, where he opened fire using an AR-15-style rifle inscribed with Nazi insignia, authorities said.

Police described a methodic rampage that lasted less than 11 minutes and killed Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29.

Jacksonville police on Sunday said law enforcement had been called about Palmeter previously in a domestic incident, and he also had been held during a mental health crisis. But those cases did not result in a criminal record, so there was no legal reason to stop him from acquiring the guns he purchased this year between April and July.

  • Franzia
    3·
    1 year ago

    https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/ 28k so far this year.

    Legal vs. Illegal? Much harder to say…

    NPR: Major Takeaways from ATF Report

    over 80% of mass shooters at K-12 schools stole guns from family members

    In five years, there were more than 1 million firearms stolen from private citizens and reported to authorities.

    Going into this I figured illegally obtained firearms must make up a small percentage, since I’ve read about so many mass shooting + suicide style events that include use of a legally owned AR15 or taken from a family member who didn’t bother locking it.

    Nope, the illegal market for firearms in the U.S. is staggering.

    Forty percent of state prison inmates admitted they obtained the gun illegally on the black market, from a drug dealer, or by stealing it. Politifact: Most Gun Crimes committed with Illegally Obtained Firearms?

    illegally transferred crime guns sources sustain underground crime gun markets atf report

    • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 year ago

      I’m not trying to move the goalpost here, so we can take the numbers at face value if that’s the way we want to look at it. However, I would consider guns stolen from family members that didn’t lock them up as “legally obtained” because of the close proximity of the relationship and the disregard of basic safety on the part of the original owner. I know this just muddies the water, but as for myself, that is how I would classify it. There was little to no barrier to separate the killer from the weapon, it may as well have been handed to them.