What We Know About The Guns Used in Nashville School Shooting
Guns #Guns
The former student who shot and killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville was armed with two “assault-type” guns and a 9mm pistol, police said.
Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire inside the Covenant School in Nashville on Monday morning. Hale, who was transgender, was shot dead by two responding police officers.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department released photos of the three guns Hale was armed with during the shooting on Twitter.
One of the weapons used appears to be a KelTec SUB2000 Carbine Rifle, a foldable semi-automatic weapon that the manufacturer describes as “fun to shoot.”
“Folded, it tucks away nicely in situations where space is limited, but it’s quick to deploy in situations where time is of the essence,” the description on the KelTec website adds.
Another appears to be a Grunt .300 Blackout Rifle, a semi-automatic gun manufactured by Lead Star Arms, while the 9 mm handgun used appears to be a Smith & Wesson M&P9 Shield EZ.
Newsweek has contacted the three manufacturers via email for comment.
At least two of the guns are believed to have been obtained legally in the Nashville area, according to Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake.
A search of Hale’s home resulted in the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other unspecified evidence, police said.
Drake has said the shooting was a targeted attack, and that Hale penned a manifesto, drew a detailed map of the school that included entry points and conducted surveillance before carrying out the massacre on Monday.
The motive was not immediately clear, but Drake told NBC News that investigators believe Hale had “some resentment for having to go to that school.”
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee on March 27, 2023. The former student who shot and killed three children and three adults at the school was armed with two “assault-type” guns and a 9mm pistol, police said. Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
The three children killed were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, who were all 9 years old. The adults killed were Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61. Koonce is listed as the school’s head on its website.
President Joe Biden, speaking at the White House on Monday, implored Congress again to pass a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons in response to the shooting.
“We have to do more to stop gun violence,” he said. “It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation—ripping at the very soul of the nation.
“And we—we have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons… So I call on Congress, again, to pass my assault weapons ban. It’s about time that we begin to make some more progress.”
The National Rifle Association has said that school security is a “deterrent” for such crimes.