A White gunman who killed three Black people at a Jacksonville Dollar General store Saturday legally purchased the two firearms used in the racially motivated attack, local law enforcement confirmed.
The man, identified Sunday as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter of Clay County, Fla., on Saturday drove to Edward Waters University, a historically Black college, but was refused entry, according to the school. He then drove to the nearby store, where he opened fire using an AR-15-style rifle inscribed with Nazi insignia, authorities said.
Police described a methodic rampage that lasted less than 11 minutes and killed Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29.
Jacksonville police on Sunday said law enforcement had been called about Palmeter previously in a domestic incident, and he also had been held during a mental health crisis. But those cases did not result in a criminal record, so there was no legal reason to stop him from acquiring the guns he purchased this year between April and July.
There are privately possessed firearms, both legally and illegally. So long as there are, we are going to have to accept that sometimes people are going to use them to murder innocent victims.
The best we can do is attempt to reduce the number of those shootings. But that number will never be zero.
It is impossible to accurately screen legal firearm purchasers. Someone of sound mind today who buys a firearm may not be of sound mind tomorrow or the next day, month, year; and there is absolutely no way to know. Someone not of sound mind today who has yet to interact with police or mental health has no recorded background to screen against.
We can reduce the number of shootings by more diligently screening purchasers. We can reduce the number of shootings even further by not selling guns at all.
In the US, we have the second amendment. Courts have interpreted this to mean that private citizens can own firearms. Without a constitutional amendment restricting private gun ownership, we will always have shootings. Always.