29 Mar 2013

School gunman had arsenal of weapons, search reveals

8:17 am on 29 March 2013

The man who killed 27 people in a massacre in the US state of Connecticut, owned an arsenal of weapons and ammunition, court papers show.

Adam Lanza shot his mother before making his way to Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown where he killed 20 children and six teachers before shooting himself in December last year.

Details of police searches of his home were publicised after a court seal lapsed on Wednesday. Records appear to show that the 20-year-old was obsessed with firearms and other weapons.

The list of guns and ammunition Lanza had in a safe in his bedroom goes on over three pages of the police search warrant, the BBC reports.

Alongside a .22 calibre rifle with which Adam Lanza used to kill his mother, there was an Enfield bolt action rifle, a starter pistol, more than 1000 rounds of ammunition, three samurai swords, 10 knives, a bayonet, gun holsters, ammunition magazine holsters, ear and eye protectors, binoculars and his certificate from the National Rifle Association.

Lanza managed to shoot all his victims and kill himself within five minutes of making his way into the school, state prosecutor Stephen Sedensky said in a statement accompanying the release of the search warrants.

All at the school were killed with a Bushmaster .223-calibre rifle. The gun Lanza turned on himself was a Glock 10mm handgun, Mr Sedensky said.

Lanza also had a loaded 9mm Sig Sauer handgun with him in the school and three 30-round magazines for the rifle. At the scene, investigators found 154 used .223 casings.

A 12-gauge shotgun with 70 rounds - was discovered in the Honda Civic that Lanza drove to the school.

In his two-storey family home retrieved a .323-calibre Enfield Albian bolt-action rifle, a .22-calibre Savage Mark II rifle, a BB gun and a .22-calibre Volcanic starter pistol, according to the papers.

The documents show the gunman's mother, Nancy Lanza, 52, had written a cheque for her son to buy a weapon and placed it in a holiday card.

President Barack Obama, who called the day of the shootings the worst of his presidency, has launched a campaign to tighten gun laws. On Thursday, he stood alongside parents of Newtown's young victims and urged senators to approve gun control measures in votes due in April.