• The perpetrator of the Nashville shooting was a transgender former student with a detailed plan

The trans person who killed three children and three adults at a school in Nashville bought and hid several firearms in her home even though she was being treated for psychiatric problems, police in the southeastern U.S. city said Tuesday.

Two nine-year-old girls, a nine-year-old boy, two teachers and a school janitor were killed in Monday's shooting, which reignited the bitter public debate over gun rights in the United States.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake told a news conference that Audrey Hale, 28, had been receiving treatment for an "emotional disorder" and that her parents, in whose home she lived, believed she had bought and then resold a single firearm.

But Hale was carrying two assault rifles and a pistol when he entered Covenant School, a Covenant Presbyterian Church educational center of about 200 students he had attended as a child.

Hale, whom police described as a woman who identified with male pronouns on social media, had prepared detailed maps of the school and also left a written manifesto suggesting she planned attacks elsewhere.

"Audrey Hale legally purchased seven firearms from five different local gun shops," Drake said. "Three of those weapons were used in this horrific tragedy."

"He was under medical attention for an emotional disorder," he added. "His parents felt he shouldn't own guns. They had the impression that he had sold the only gun he owned," but "it turned out that he had been hiding several weapons in the house."

Drake said the children and adults killed were not individually targeted and the motive for the shooting was still unknown.

"Resentment"

Security camera video shows Hale shooting at glass doors to enter the school before stalking empty hallways as emergency alarm lights flash.

Hale, who was wearing a black military-style vest, camouflage pants and a red cap, broke through the building and opened fire on children and employees.

Police arrived at the scene about 15 minutes after the first emergency call Monday morning. Body camera footage of officers shows them entering classrooms and multiple gunshots are heard as they approach the site where Hale was killed.

Averianna Patton, a former high school classmate of Hale's, told CNN she had sent him direct messages via Instagram shortly before the massacre.

"Someday this will make more sense," Hale wrote. "I left behind more than enough evidence. But something bad is about to happen." Patton said he called police to raise the alarm about as the shooting began.

In search of a motive, Drake told NBC News that there may be "some resentment" from Hale about having to go to that school.

"Buying a gun can't be as easy as buying flowers"

One of the children killed was Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of the church's pastor. "We are heartbroken. It was a great gift," Chad Scruggs told local media.

When asked if Hale's gender identity may have been a factor in the attack, police said they were investigating all leads.

In front of the school, located in South Nashville, people left flowers and stuffed animals at a makeshift memorial. Some knelt to pray Chad Baker, 44, said he was "horrified and very sad."

"Most days I carry a gun, but I don't need an assault rifle," he told AFP. "I don't think buying a gun should be as easy as buying flowers."

There were more than 24 million AR-15-style assault weapons in circulation in the United States as of mid-2022, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that most Americans are against assault rifles and urged Congress to reinstate the nationwide ban on assault rifles, which existed from 1994 to 2004 and was not renewed.

"We owe these families more than our prayers," Biden said in a speech in North Carolina.

In the absence of better oversight, it is up to schools to review their safety protocols.

But "it's not up to schools to take care of security," Nina Dyson, a mother of four, lamented Tuesday at a small protest in Nashville in favor of greater gun control.

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Parents across the country have been demanding change for decades and there have been none," he said at the rally, which was scheduled before the shooting.

Attempts to ban these potent guns, often used in mass shootings, face opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms.

So far this year in the United States there have been 129 mass shootings in which at least four people were shot or killed, according to the NGO Gun Violence Archive.

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