The 16-year-old attacker who targeted Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday used a pump shotgun that was purchased “legally.”
Breitbart News reported that he used a shotgun his mother purchased. The New York Post cited anonymous sources that indicated the mother acquired the shotgun “legally.”
CNN noted that the attacker used a variety of shotgun ammunition during the attack and “had about 44 remaining rounds” when a father of two students cornered him and shot him dead.
When law enforcement talks of guns being purchased “legally” it indicates point-of-sale gun controls were followed.
The overwhelming majority of a high profile public attackers use guns that were acquired via background checks and other gun controls.
Below is a short list of some of the high-profile attackers or alleged attackers who passed checks to acquire firearms:
- White House Correspondents Dinner attacker (April 25, 2026)
- Pawtucket, Rhode Island attacker (February 16, 2026)
- Dallas ICE attacker (September 24, 2025)
- Minneapolis Catholic School attacker (August 27, 2025)
- UNLV attacker (December 6, 2023)
- Louisville Old National Bank attacker (April 10, 2023)
- Nashville Christian school attacker (March 27, 2023)
- Uvalde School attacker (May 24, 2022)
- Buffalo grocery attacker (May 14, 2022)
- Indianapolis FedEx attacker (April 15, 2021)
- Atlanta-area attacker (March 16, 2021)
- Parkland high school attacker (February 14, 2018)
- Texas church attacker (November 5, 2017)
- Las Vegas attacker (October 1, 2017)
- Alexandria attacker (June 14, 2017)
- Orlando attacker (June 12, 2016)
- UCLA gunman (June 1, 2016)
- San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015)
- Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015)
- Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015)
- Alison Parker’s attacker (August 26, 2015)
- Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015)
- Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015)
- Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church attacker (June 17, 2015)
- Muhammad Cartoon Contest attackers (May 3, 2014)
- Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015)
- Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014)
- Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014)
- Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013)
- D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013)
- Aurora movie theater attacker (July 20, 2012)
- Gabby Giffords’ attacker (January 8, 2011)
- Fort Hood attacker (November 5, 2009)
- Northern Illinois University attacker (February 14, 2008)
- Virginia Tech attacker (April 16, 2007)
Despite the broad compliance with existing gun control, the Democrat knee-jerk reaction to a high profile shooting is to push for more gun control.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.