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Seven weapons recovered at Oregon gunman's home

Posted at 3:25 PM, Oct 02, 2015
and last updated 2015-10-02 15:25:37-04

A federal agency says the gunman who killed nine people at an Oregon community college had body armor and was armed with three pistols, a rifle and five additional magazines.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives provided the information late Thursday in an incident report obtained by The Associated Press. The guns included a 9mm Glock pistol and .40-caliber Smith & Wesson, both traced to the suspect.

He also had a .40-caliber Taurus pistol traced to someone in Portland and a .556-caliber Del-Ton.

It was also reported investigators recovered six weapons at the community college and seven at the apartment of the gunman.

ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Celinez Nunez said at a news conference Friday that all of the weapons were purchased legally, seven of them by the shooter or his family members in the last three years. She said investigators also found a flak jacket next to a rifle at the school, which contained steel plates.
 
The U.S. Army said the gunman flunked out of basic training in 2008.

Lt. Col. Ben Garrett, an Army spokesman, said the gunman, identified as Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer, was in service at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, starting on Nov. 5, 2008. But by Dec. 11, 2008, he was discharged for failing to meet the minimum administrative standards.

Garrett did not say which standards Harper-Mercer failed to meet.

The shooting Thursday at Umpqua Community College also wounded seven. Mercer died after a shootout with police.

He isn't believed to have a criminal history. Investigators believe he may have been a student there because a receipt found at the scene showed he purchased textbooks from the campus bookstore two days before the shooting.

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