Las Vegas law enforcement has not yet determined how Jerad and Amanda Miller acquired the firearms that they used in this weekend’s attack that left two police officers, a civilian and the two attackers dead.
But in the weeks leading up to the attack, Jerad Miller posted multiple times on Facebook that he was looking for a gun and asked for help obtaining one.
“That would still be under investigation,” Las Vegas Metro Police spokesman Larry Hadfield told TPM Tuesday when asked if authorities had determined how the Millers got ahold of the guns used in the shootings. He said investigators did not have any new information on what specific firearms were used.
Clark County assistant sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters Monday that the Millers had “numerous handguns and a shotgun” as well as “hundreds of rounds of ammunition” in backpacks that they had in their possession during the attack.
Jerad Miller posted on Google Plus that he had been asked to leave the Bundy Ranch standoff, which he thought could be the “start of revolution,” because he was a convicted felon. Unless he had been reauthorized to possess firearms, a felony conviction would have prevented him from legally purchasing a gun under federal law.
In the weeks leading up to the attack, Miller twice asked for help obtaining a firearm on his Facebook page.
“So, if anyone can send me a rifle to help stand against tyranny, let me know,” he posted on May 7. “Revolution is coming and we are not prepared! Help!”
The same day, he wrote “I want an AK so bad.” Then a day later, on May 8, he posted: “Need rifle. Can anyone help?”
A week before the attack, Miller posted that a government-mandated background check for gun purchases “is absurd.”
Amanda Miller did not have any known criminal record, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Las Vegas police referenced Jerad’s criminal background at Monday’s press conference, but did not mention any legal history for Amanda.
Advocates of stricter gun controls pointed to the attacks and Miller’s possession of firearms as further evidence of lax gun laws.
“Events like these remind us that there are massive loopholes in our country’s gun laws,” John Feinblatt, president of Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety group, said in a statement, “and they demonstrate once more why political leaders at both the state and federal levels need to take action to fix our laws and prevent dangerous people from easily getting their hands on guns.”
