Chicago: Accused Mass Shooter Had an Illegal Gun as He Had a Prior Felony for Assault with a Baseball Bat


Chicago: Gary Martin, 45, shot and killed five people at his place of work, the Henry Pratt Company water valve manufacturing company, and injured five policemen on Friday.. The state’s gun strict gun control laws failed as Martin was able to obtain an Illinois Firearm Owner’s Identification Card and a handgun, despite his felony record, for aggravated assault for hitting his former girlfriend with a baseball bat and stabbing her in 1994.  In addition to his felony, Martin had been arrested six times by Aurora police on traffic charges and domestic violence issues.

A new gun control law to collect the applicant’s social media data and internet search history is now under consideration in Illinois. 


A disgruntled employee, who fatally shot five people
and wounded five officers at an Illinois warehouse Friday, severely
beat a woman years ago in a domestic violence incident that turned him
into a felon — and should have kept him from buying a gun.

Two
decades before police said Gary Martin, 45, opened fire at his
co-workers, he was convicted of aggravated assault in Mississippi.
Authorities there said he regularly abused a former girlfriend, at one
point, hitting her with a baseball bat and stabbing her with a knife.

“All
I can remember is him hitting and kicking me, I can remember fighting
and screaming for help. I remember him pushing my head into that brick
wall outside the apartment and thinking that he was going to kill me,”
the woman told police in Mississippi in 1994, according to court
records.

The incident led to Martin’s arrest. He
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison, though
records show he served less than three years. He later moved to Aurora,
Ill., where he spent 15 years working at a warehouse, where he was able
to buy a gun despite his felony record, and where, on Friday afternoon,
violence erupted again.

Authorities in the
Chicago suburb said Martin was called into a meeting at the Henry Pratt
Co. warehouse. After he was told he was being fired, he began shooting,
killing the three employees who were at the meeting and two others who
were nearby, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman told reporters Saturday.
Among the dead was an intern on his first day at work.

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New gun control proposal to collect the applicant’s social media data and internet search history: