James Holmes Tried To Join Local Gun Club

James Holmes, the suspect in the Dark KnightRises shooting rampage at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater that killed 12 people and wounded 59 others, tried to join a local gun range last month but his potential membership was rejected before he could attend the mandatory orientation meeting, the range’s owner said today.

Here are the details in this latest development in the ongoing investigation according to AP:

[Holmes] emailed an application to join the Lead Valley Range in Byers on June 25 in which he said he was not a user of illegal drugs or a convicted felon, said owner Glenn Rotkovich. When Rotkovich called to invite him to a mandatory orientation the following week, he said he heard a message on Holmes’ voice mail that was “bizarre – guttural, freakish at best.”

After leaving two additional voice mails, Rutkovich exercised good instincts by warning his staff to keep an eye out for Holmes at the scheduled July 1 orientation and “not to accept him into the club.”

Aurora police chief Dan Oates said on Friday evening that “all weapons [Holmes] possessed, he possessed legally. All ammunition he possessed, he possessed legally,” to the best of his knowledge. Holmes apparently began amassing his arsenal in May through purchases at Denver-area gun shops.

The massacre apparently could have been much worse according to a new revelation. Holmes’ AR-15 assault rifle, which was capable of firing 60 rounds per minute, reportedly jammed during the incident, forcing him to switch to a 12-gauge shotgun. Most of those injured were hit with shotgun rounds.