CHICAGO (AP) -- Benjamin Smith wanted a gun and he did what everyone is supposed to do: He got a gun owner ID card, filled out an application at an Illinois gun shop and returned three days later to pick up his weapons.
He'd been rejected -- a background check showed that an ex-girlfriend had taken out a protection order against him because of abuse -- so he hit the streets and in just three days had two handguns from an illegal dealer.Three days after that, authorities say, the white supremacist started the rampage that killed two people and wounded nine others -- all of them black, Jewish or of Asian descent.
Smith's experience and the devastation he wrought has renewed the debate over gun control just weeks after Congress considered -- but did not agree on -- new restrictions.
"This unfortunately hits home the point that we have to start regulating the secondary market as well," including gun shows, unlicensed gun dealers and sales over the Internet, said Lisa Morel Las, the director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.
The arguments echo those in the wake of the April massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado and the recent debate in Congress: Gun control activists say the case demonstrates the inadequacy of the nation's gun laws, while the gun lobby says the problem is lax enforcement.
Lt. Dave Sanders, a spokesman for the Illinois State Police, said the state issued Smith the gun owner's ID card on June 18 because of errors in the protection order, which -- among other things -- listed Smith's middle initial as "A." His eye color and weight also didn't match.
Smith tried to buy two 9mm handguns and a shotgun on June 23 at Heights Gun and Hunter Supplies in Peoria Heights, said Jerry Singer, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
After being turned down, Smith bought a Bryco .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun on June 26 and .22-caliber pistol on June 29 from an illegal dealer who already was being investigated by the ATF, Singer said.
Both guns were found with Smith's body after he killed himself Sunday near the southern Illinois town of Salem. Tests showed that weapons of those calibers were used in the spree.