Guns bought at a flea market were used by a 47-year-old jobless man to shoot dead seven people and wound a further seven in a Baptist church in Texas, it was disclosed last night. The US immediately began its well-rehearsed post-massacre hand-wringing after the 12th major multiple shooting of the year.
The shooting followed an earlier incident on Wednesday when three nurses were shot dead at a hospital in California by a man said to be angered by the death of his mother.
Police named the man who walked into the Wedgwood Baptist church in Fort Worth, Texas, and opened fire on teenagers at a service before turning the gun on himself as Larry Gene Ashbrook.
Ashbrook, who lived at his late parents' home five miles away, was said to be upset about the death of his father. Neighbours had considered him eccentric rather than dangerous. He had no criminal record and no ties with either the church or any extremist group.
About 150 teenagers were singing with a Christian rock band at the church after their annual "See You Round The Pole" meetings at local schools, where students gather around flagpoles to affirm their faith and show their concern for society's problems.
Ashbrook shouted obscenities and mocked religion before opening fire with a 9 m.m. handgun and a .380 semi-automatic rifle. He also threw a crude pipe bomb.
Three adults and three teenagers died at the scene and a teenage girl later died in hospital.
Some thought it was part of the service at first. "I never really knew it was for real until it was over and the cops were running us out of there and I saw blood on people's clothes and some of the bodies and wounded people lying around," said Ben Killmer (17). "It was so strange. People were smiling, at least at first, and laughing." When Ashbrook finished shooting at the congregation, he went to the back pew, put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Mr Bob Garrity, an FBI spokesman, said: "I think he was just a social outcast. It's clear in his writings that he was troubled by the fact that he didn't have a job. He couldn't hold a job, apparently. That might have been a causal factor."
The US Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, who is in favour of tougher gun laws, said the US needed to address the issue of gun possession - there are 200 million in a country of 270 million people - and how it deals with mental health and hate.