A gunman who killed six people inside a Walmart store in Chesapeake, Virginia legally purchased the 9mm handgun used in the attack hours earlier.
Chesapeake officials reported that the firearm reportedly fired by Andre Bing was purchased from a local store on the morning of 22 November, hours before he fatally shot six colleagues.
Authorities did not name the store.
Police on Friday also released a “death note” reportedly found on his phone, including his apologies to God and a rebuke of the coworkers he believes harassed, bullied and betrayed him.
“I was harassed by idiots with low intelligence and a lack of wisdom,” the note reads. “I remained strong through most of the torment but my dignity was completely taken away beyond repair by my phone getting hacked.”
It was not clear when the note was written.
It also is unclear whether Virginia’s recently enacted gun reform measures could have prevented such an attack.
Virginia does not impose any legally required waiting periods from the time of purchase to the transfer of a sale of a firearm.
The state police, however, must process background check requests during the dealer’s call to the agency, “or by return call without delay”.
If police indicate that a response will not be available by the end of the dealer’s fifth business day, the dealer may immediately complete the sale or transfer, according to the Giffords Law Center.
Bing did not have a prior criminal history.
State law requires universal background checks for gun sales, reporting requirements for lost or stolen firearms, a limit of one handgun purchase per month for most people, and a “red flag” provision that allows law enforcement to seize firearms from people who pose an immediate threat to themselves or others.
Another recent measure limits possession of a firearm for people convicted of assaulting a family member.
Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has indicated that he could roll back some of those measures.
Everytown for Gun Safety ranks the state as having the 14th strongest gun control policies in the US. But the reform organisation also reports that roughly 1,065 people are killed by gun violence in Virginia every year, and 1,911 others are wounded.
Gun violence is also the leading cause of death among children and teens in the state, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tuesday’s attack, just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, followed a mass shooting inside a LGBT+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and injuring 18 others.
Officials in that state have come under scrutiny over that state’s so-called “red flag” provisions that allow families and law enforcement agencies to petition a judge to remove firearms from people believe to be dangers to themselves and others.
President Joe Biden has called on Congress several times this week to renew a federal ban on assault weapons like the AR-style rifle used in the Colorado attack and in several high-profile mass shootings that have killed dozens.
He also railed against what he called a lack of enforcement of red flag laws.
“The idea that we’re not enforcing red flag laws … is ridiculous,” he told reporters while speaking from Nantucket on Thursday. “The idea that we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. Just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.”
