Saturday night, a 72-year-old man opened fire at the Star Ballroom in Monterey Park, California, killing 10 people and injuring 10 more. An 11th victim died a day later in the hospital. People had gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The victims, five men and six women, were all over 50.
According to news reports, the shooter was armed with a MAC-11 9mm semi-automatic pistol with a large capacity ammunition magazine. MAC stands for Military Armament Corporation. The gun is a machine pistol developed in the 1970s. It is capable of emptying an entire 30-round magazine in less than two seconds. The gun was designed for combat and is currently being used by the special operations and terrorism unit of the Brazilian Navy as well as Venezuela's largest National Police Agency. Police found at least 42 shell casings and an empty magazine at the scene.
While the motive of the shooter has yet to be determined what is clear is that he intended to inflict maximum harm by using a military pistol with a large capacity magazine giving him the ability to fire many bullets in a short period of time. Why is a gun with such deadly firepower readily available to the public?
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