Skip to main content
Donate

Santa Monica Shooter Assembled Gun Himself

By Clarissa Wei
June 14, 2013
Support Provided By
ar15-600
Photo: robscomputer/Flickr/Creative Commons License

It's a chilling scenario that has gun-control advocates reeling. After his attempts to purchase a gun were denied, John Zawahri, the Santa Monica College shooter, assembled a semi-automatic rifle made of parts he obtained separately.

He also purchased ammunition and magazines carrying 30 rounds each, according to Santa Monica police department chief Jacqueline Seabrooks. Other components include an array of realistic-looking replica firearms, several zip guns capable of firing live ammunition, along with an antique black powder firearm converted to a revolver capable of firing .45 ammunition.

Zawahri's rifle appeared to be modified so it could fire more rounds, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Certain types of AR-15-style rifles are banned in California. Officials do not know whether the components were purchased over the Internet, and while the suspect's replicas and gun components were legal, the zip guns and weapon Zawahri ultimately used were not.

Though investigators are still working to determine what triggered the rampage, Seabrooks said officials now know Zawahri led a troubled life and experienced mental health challenges that likely played a role in his decisions to fatally shoot his father and brother then set fire to the family home before going on a 13-minute shooting spree.

Support Provided By
Read More
An oil pump painted white with red accents stands mid-pump on a dirt road under a blue, cloudy sky with a green, grassy slope in the background.

California’s First Carbon Capture Project: Vital Climate Tool or License to Pollute?

California’s first attempt to capture and sequester carbon involves California Resources Corp. collecting emissions at its Elk Hills Oil and Gas Field, and then inject the gases more than a mile deep into a depleted oil reservoir. The goal is to keep carbon underground and out of the atmosphere, where it traps heat and contributes to climate change. But some argue polluting industries need to cease altogether.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News