Hasan spent $1,000 at Guns Galore before shootings

Sunday Times:

A MONTH after his arrival in Texas in July, Major Nidal Malik Hasan walked into Guns Galore, a weapons shop near the sprawling Fort Hood military base, and spent $1,000 on a high-powered, Belgian-made semi-automatic pistol that is said by its manufacturer to be “lightweight and easily concealable ... It will defeat the enemy in all close combat situations”.

It was an unusual purchase for an army psychiatrist who had never shown any interest in guns and who had spent almost all his military career learning how to deal with the consequences of gun violence at the US Army’s Walter Reed medical centre in Washington.

Army investigators now believe that Hasan’s 5.7-calibre FN Herstal tactical pistol was the only gun he fired in the horrific seven-minute rampage that killed 13 people and injured at least 30 others at the Fort Hood base last Thursday.

In army offices crowded with hundreds of soldiers, Hasan, a 39-year-old American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was somehow able to fire at least 100 times, pausing repeatedly to reload 20-round magazines, before he was shot by military police.

He was carrying another pistol, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, but does not appear to have used it.

At one point, said Specialist Eliot Valdez, who witnessed the aftermath of the assault, Hasan was shooting the occupants of a crowded room like “fish in a barrel ... It was too easy, you can close your eyes and hit eight people”.

...

There is much more.

We are now getting some details in his weapons and his method of attack. Check out the posts below to get a fuller picture. Also click on the Fort Hood topic below for links to all stories about the attack. The evidence now suggest he had been planning the mass murder attack since at least July and possible longer.

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