A collection of more than 100 rounds of ammunition, multiple guns and three Samurai swords was found in the home of Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people, mostly small children at an elementary school at Newtown, Conn., earlier this year, according to search warrants made public on Thursday.
The warrants were executed as part of the investigation into the deadly day on Dec. 14, when Lanza, 20, went on his shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School. They provide insight into just how many weapons Lanza had at his disposal and could play a factor in the ongoing debate in Congress about gun laws in the United States.
A key fact could be that, according to a statement released Thursday by Dansbury State Attorney Stephen J. Sedenky, all the guns used in the Newtown killing were bought by Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, 52. So far, there is no evidence that Adam Lanza, who lived with his mother, tried to buy the guns himself.
The shooting spree began began when Lanza shot his mother. He killer her with a .22 caliber rifle. Sedensky said in his statement there were no signs of any struggle between the two.
Lanza then moved on to Sandy Hook Elementary. He shot his way into the building and killed 20 children and six adults before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun. According to the state attorney, Lanza had on him at the time a Bushmaster .223 caliber model XM15 rifle, loaded with a 30-round capacity magazine. When police found the Bushmaster, it had 14 rounds left in the magazine and one round in the chamber.
Investigators also found even more weapons on Lanza's body, including a loaded 9mm Sig Sauer P226 handgun, more ammunition and three 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster, according to the statement. In the area of where the shots were fired, they found even more magazines, a few still containing live rounds.
In total, 154 spent .223 casings were recovered from the scene at the elementary school.
Investigators also went inside Nancy Lanza's home with a search warrant and found even more weaponry. There were hundreds of rounds of ammunition for various types of guns. There were three Samurai swords. They also found paper targets, an National Rifle Association membership card for Adam Lanza and several long knivs, according to copies of the warrants made public Thursday.
