Louisville Bank Shooter Sought to Murder 'Upper-Class White People' to Promote Stricter Gun Control Laws
More information has emerged about Connor Sturgeon, the gunman who carried out a mass shooting in April at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, killing five and injuring eight. There were a multitude of issues that pushed the shooter to carry out the act, but his primary motivation was to promote gun control by killing white victims.
The revelations come from Sturgeon’s private writings that were revealed by law enforcement.
The man who killed five people at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank in April was motivated by his outrage over the nation’s gun laws, which he considered lax and hoped a bloody rampage of white victims would spur politicians into action, according to a police report released Tuesday that contained excerpts from the killer’s journal.
Connor Sturgeon, 25, gunned down co-workers inside a conference room at Old National Bank on East Main Street on April 10 after he admitted in his journal that he was suffering from mental health issues, was dissatisfied with his job and the direction his life was taking.
Eight others were injured during the shooting, including a responding officer who was struck in the head and critically wounded. Sturgeon fired more than 40 rounds in about eight minutes, according to the report.
In his writings, the shooter indicated that his rampage was driven by a desire to highlight the ease with which he acquired the AR-15 rifle he used to carry out the shooting. He wished to push politicians to take action on restricting firearms and believed that murdering white people would motivate the government to act.
"Perhaps this is the impact for change – upper class white people dying. I certainly would not have been able to do this were it more difficult to get a gun."
The April 4 journal entry was the same day he purchased an AR-15 rifle for $500 used in the deadly shooting six days later, according to a receipt in the police report. He also bought 120 rounds and four magazine cartridges in a process that took about 45 minutes, he said.
Sturgeon noted his surprise at how straightforward it was for him to purchase the weapon, given his mental health struggles.
"OH MY GO THIS IS SO EASY," he wrote in bold. "I knew it would be doable but this is ridiculous."
In a particularly striking criticism, the shooter expressed frustration with the unwillingness of Democrats and Republicans to crack down on guns. “I am just tired of fighting... [Democrats] get rich by doing nothing in the name of civility while they allow [Republicans] to do whatever they want to whoever they want. A level of corruption that stands directly between us and progress.”
He also lashed out at the National Rifle Association (NRA), saying: “Let’s give it up for the NRA…I couldn’t have done this without all your lobbying dollars.”
Investigators also discovered a plan stored in the shooter’s Notes app in which he said, “They won’t listen to words or protests, so let’s see if they hear this.”
As with other mass shootings, Sturgeon’s actions sparked another debate on gun control and mental health. But what is noteworthy about the shooter’s logic, or lack thereof, is that the massacre further demonstrated that gun laws do not stop these shootings. Indeed, Kentucky does not have red flag laws, but even if they did, his mental health issues were never reported to the authorities, meaning that they would not have stopped him.
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