Police in Butte County, California say the 56-year-old man who shot and seriously injured two kindergartners at a Christian school this week was prohibited from possessing a firearm and had a documented history of mental illness dating back to his teenage years.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea says the man apparently targeted the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists, arriving at the campus in an Uber and posing as a grandfather interested in enrolling a grandchild. Honea says the shooter attended another Seventh-Day Adventists school as a child, and might have had a relative who previously attended Feather River School as well, but the man had also scheduled another appointment at a second Seventh Day Adventist school on Thursday, the day after he attacked the kindergartners.
Butte County District Attorney Michael L. Ramsey says the man had previously written "ruminations" about a mass casualty attack, and the sheriff reported that his writings had also included plans to take “counter-measures” against Feather River, supposedly in response to U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
“That’s a motivation that was in his mind. How it was that he conflated what’s going on in Palestine and Yemen with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, I can’t speculate. I’m not sure that we’ll ever know that,” Honea said.
After shooting the two kindergartners, the attacker then turned the handgun on himself, and was deceased when the first responding deputies arrived at the school.
Honea says the man used a homebuilt firearm, though its still unclear where he obtained the parts to craft his firearm. California essentially treats unfinished frames and receivers as if they're completed firearms, requiring purchasers to pass a background check before they can take possession of the parts. The would-be killer was a convicted felon and prohibited from lawfully possessing a firearm, but apparently had little problem circumventing California's draconian gun laws.
In its report on the shooting, the Associated Press noted that the attack at Feather River was "among dozens of school shootings around the U.S. in recent years", which the agency says "have set off fervent gun control debates and frayed the nerves of parents" but "have done little to move the needle on national gun laws."
So what gun law does the AP reporter believe would have been effective at preventing this attack from taking place? As previously mentioned, California requires background checks on incomplete frames and receivers as well as requiring state and federal firearm manufacturer’s licenses in order to lawfully use a 3D printer or CNC machine to manufacture a firearm.
The state also imposes background checks on every ammunition purchase, while prohibiting online ammo sales and bringing ammo purchased out of state back into California.
Additionally, California has an expansive "red flag" law that allows almost anyone to file an Extreme Risk Protection Order petition, though the sheriff hasn't said whether the attacker was ever the subject of an ERPO hearing.
