D__ S____* was repeat felon with convictions for battery, depriving a child of food and shelter, and drug paraphernalia before hitting the big time with a felony drug possession sentence in 1998. He then did three years in prison for being a felon in possession of firearm after he killed his eight-year-old son in a “hunting accident” in 2001 that now, in retrospect, seems suspicious.

Police had been to his home on “numerous” other occasions, without criminal charges being filed.

S_____ illegally acquired a firearm at some point, and used to yesterday to do the unthinkable:

A grandfather shot and killed his daughter and her six children Thursday in the town of Bell, Fla. before committing suicide after police arrived at the scene, authorities said.

The children ranged in age from three months to 10 years old, Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert D. Schultz III told reporters at an evening press conference.

Schultz identified the suspect as D__ C. S_____, 51, a white man. The sheriff said S_____ had placed a 911 call around 4:30 p.m. in which he “made reference to harming people and himself.”

He wouldn’t release more details about S_____ or when he first made contact with the deputies. He also wouldn’t divulge where exactly the victims were found, though he said, “They were certainly all over on the property.”

Schultz declined to speculate on a motive, citing the ongoing investigation, but he said S_____ had a criminal history, and that police had been acalled previously to his house. He also declined to say if a weapon was recovered or what sort was used.

“There’s still a lot of unanswered questions,” he said. “There’s going to be questions that we’re never going to get answered.”

Some reports indicate that there may have been other people at the location who escaped the familicide, and they may shed some light on some of the events.

As we focus on Second Amendment issues, Bearing Arms would like to discover how S_____ came into the possession of the firearm that he used to kill his family, and if laws were broken, would like to see the person or persons responsible for providing him with a weapon prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Dawn Nguyen, was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this week for straw purchasing firearms for felon Joseph Spengler. Spengler used those weapons to ambush firefighters in Webster, NY on Christmas Eve in 2012, killing to and injuring two more.

* Bearing Arms has a policy of not naming mass shooters, because they are typically committing their crimes in hopes of achieving some sort of notoriety for their crimes.