Shooting suspect's gun range membership rejected

(AP) AURORA, Colo. - Shooting suspect James Holmes applied to join a Colorado gun range last month but never became a member because of his behavior and a "bizarre" message on his voice mail greeting, the range's owner said Sunday.

Holmes, 24, emailed an application to join the Lead Valley Range in Byers on June 25 in which he said he was not a user of illegal drugs or a convicted felon, said owner Glenn Rotkovich.

But when Rotkovich called to invite him to a mandatory orientation the following week, he said he heard Holmes' voice mail greeting that was "bizarre - guttural, freakish at best."

It identified the number as belonging to "James," so Rotkovich said he left a message.

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He left two other messages but eventually told his staff to watch out for Holmes at the July 1 orientation and not to accept him into the club, Rotkovich said. His comments were first reported by Fox News.

"There's something weird here," Rotkovich said he concluded.

Holmes is being held without bond on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder after a shooting rampage minutes into a premiere of the new Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" early Friday that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded. He is scheduled for an initial hearing Monday and has been assigned a public defender.

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President Barack Obama left Washington for Colorado on Sunday to visit with the families of victims. The city of Aurora planned a vigil to remember the dead and wounded in the shooting later in the evening.

The gunman's semiautomatic assault rifle jammed during the attack at the Aurora movie theater, forcing him to switch to another gun with less firepower, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press. That malfunction and weapons switch during the shooting rampage might have saved some lives.

As the investigation into the massacre continued Sunday, the University of Colorado said it was looking into whether Holmes used his position as a graduate student to order materials in the potentially deadly booby traps that police said they found in his apartment.

Explosive material removed from suspect's apt.

Holmes got deliveries over four months to his home and school, authorities have said. The university is looking into what was received at the school to assist police with their investigation, said spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery.

The suspect was described as a budding scientist, brimming with potential, who pursued a graduate program even as he planned the attack with "calculation and deliberation," police said.

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[finkfurst4]

chimpkillah - Are you sure? I thought Colorado has no firearms registration system whatsoever, and any person over the age of 18 can sell or buy sell firearms or ammunition at any time. Is that wrong?

Is there anyone on here who actually knows what they're talking about?

[finkfurst4]

Can anyone tell me.... If a person living in Colorado has a previous conviction for a firearms or violent offence, are they still free to buy any guns or ammunition they want to?

[chimpkillah]

No.
A legal purchase of a firearm from an FFL dealer is preceeded by the completion and submission of a form,completed in person at the dealership.
This then is reviewed by an FBI contractor company based in West Virginia that performs a background check specifically looking ANYWHERE for, among other disqualifiers, felony convictions of any type and any Domestic Violence convictions, whether misdemeanor or felony.
Results come back thus:
1) Proceed...with sale and transfer
2) Deny..."Sorry. Go look at our camping gear."
3) Hold...no immediate determination one way or the other
When this permission process was first smeared upon us by the lying,systemically controlling Feds it was ONLY for handguns and slathered up with lying reassurances that it WOULD NOT expand to snare "sporting arms" like shotguns and rifles.
It also,originally,had FELONY CRIMES OF VIOLENCE as convictions that disqualify legal firearm ownership, apart from citizenship and involuntary mental institutionalization.
Now, if your significant other makes a phone call and states that you looked at her in a stern manner---the cops will pay a visit PDQ and take your gun(s) and very likely arrest you, you bad man.
Historically, this is all proximate with the release of many thousands of The Deranged and the removal of Fed money to support what used to be called "State Hospitals", as in "Nut Houses".
This Federal Jive had a smokescreen of "Personal Rights and Freedoms" drawn across the reality of Fed money being transferred into the Military-Industrial complex.
Ask any Baby Boomer about the magical, immediate appearance of many THOUSANDS of crazed homeless all over the country consequent to Nixon's presidency.
Enough!
If you're not enraged, you haven't been paying attention.

[gbreadmann]

This guy must have taken some experimental pills while a PhD, or shot up something into his arm. He's not the joker; more likely the green goblin. People don't go in a matter of months from being super-genius PhD's to sociopathic, premeditating mass-murderers. He almost certainly had access to things a little more potent than bath salts.

[lovetodrum]

You bring up an interesting possibility. I know very little but I have heard ( from professionals), that stress, trauma or drugs can precipitate the onset on schizophrenia. Just like diabetes or heart disease, if a person is "predisposed" to the illness, certain factors could contribute to the onset. Someone else mentioned "medical pot". People have different body chemistry and for some smoking pot could be enough to set off full blown symptoms of schizophrenia.

[lovetodrum]

Just remembered last week watching Morgan Freeman host a show ( science channel probably ), all about the brain. It was extensive. It talked a little about people who have extreme talents and abililities in one area and a total lack of skills in other ways. I wish experts would come forth with education for the public. If we could stop even one of these incidents from happening it would be worth it.

[jonnyooh]

This is one weird looking wacko!

[momwifenana]

Too many Monday morning arm chair quarterbacks. It happened, it's over, let the police an the FBI sift through the results. The question, come his trial will be was he responsible or was he too insane to be responsible? My summation is he knew what he ws doing, Yes he is mentally disturbed. No, it is not our place to sspeculate. Regardless of whether or not he got into a gun club is irrelevant. This is not the first time a distursed man committed a mass mder and it will not be the last. We live, we learn, we figure ou how best to deal with it. Evil is ever present, it is part of the grand design.

[Jhihmoac]

You couldn't pay me enough to defend this creep, were I a lawyer...

[lovetodrum]

He is a hated man, he is obviously guilty.

The beauty of living in America, we have certain rights to prevent being wrongfully accused. We know that is not the case here but thank God in America we have the right to an attorney and jury of our peers to protect the innocent. Despite that we still get wrongful convictions. Not in this case, pretty clear what happened. Very sad.

[gadfly65]

The man knew he had guns and he was unstable, but he didn't report it to the authorities, because that would be un-Murikan.

[lovetodrum]

What do you think authorities could have done? If we had laws in place his apt. could have been searched. Family and friends could be notified and interviewed. We need specialists to investigate and treat. (something like the NTSB when there is a plane accident)

??

[promontorium]

This is precisely the kind of thing that both the media and government have been completely ignoring about all these mass killings. While they're busy banning law abiding citizens from expressing their rights, they NEVER address that in EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE the person was absolutely insane. Every family member and friend knew it. They are never surprised, yet they do nothing to prevent these things. If you don't care about freedom or personal rights, at least consider the pragmatic issue. Which seems more likely to solve the problem, trying to stop all guns in the world, or getting people THIS CRAZY into institutions before they kill people? On the one hand you have hundreds of millions of gun owners with hundreds of millions of guns, and only and on the other you have maybe a handful of these psychos, and everyone who knows them, knows they are dangerous. Which way should we go? ban guns. Yeah I get it. You hate freedom, you have no interest in actually solving the problem. Because if you solved the problem, you wouldn't have an excuse to keep restricting liberty.

[vielmann]

Comments like yours are the problem because he began with a false premise: "banning your rights." There are no gun rights being banned. There should be, but by George the next murdering swine will have the very same rights as you. Now be happy.

[ladyang]

One white man killed 12 white people, SO WHAT! Why should anyone who is not white care? Do any white people honestly care that black an brown folks are killing each other in Chicago?

[Eugene2012]

Was there a mass killing in a movie theater in Chicago, too?

[lovetodrum]

Violence is so out of control in the U.S. I don't think much of it gets reported. One death by violence should be National News any day, every day. As a country we should be outraged. Is it too much to expect that we don't act like animals and take one another's life? I mean really. There is something very wrong about our society. Is it selfishness, greed, jealousy, are we too judgmental and unkind? Mental illness is a ball game of its own. We need to be better educated as a society and have some where to turn if we see something suspicious. There's always red flags, this case was no exception. We could honor victims by trying something different this time.

[cubscout09]

Thank-God, that piece of 'junk' 100 round magazine jammed. Really, when someone tries to buy one of these, it's a dead giveaway, like a minor ordering a Long Island Ice Tea.