The Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater shooter was 59-year-old John Russel Houser, Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said Friday.
Craft described Houser as "kind of a drifter" who was from Alabama and had been in Lafayette since early July, staying at a local hotel. Authorities have found various "disguises, basically" at the hotel room where he'd been staying.
Houser fired at least 13 rounds, according to the police chief.
"It appears he was intent on shooting and escaping," Clark said of the shooter. "The quick law enforcement response pushed him back into the theater."
As to his motive, Col. Michael Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police said, "Why did he come here? Why did he do that? We don't know that."
Mayci Breaux, 21, died at the scene, and Jillian Johnson, 33, died later at a nearby hospital, according to Craft.
They may not know why this gunman killed these people, but we certainly know how.
With a semi-automatic handgun.
Charleston, Chattanooga, and now Lafayette.
In how many industrialized countries in the world do people fear the possibility of being shot in a theater? Or in their local church? Or while walking into a military recruiter's office?
And it is not like our President has not wanted to do something to help protect us either. In fact he recently spoke about the greatest frustration during his presidency:
"If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which, we do not have sufficient common-sense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings," Obama said. "If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands."
We call ourselves the greatest nation on earth, but we do nothing to earn that title. Not really.
Apparently nothing is more important than our freedom to own a gun. Not even our very lives.
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