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Where'd They Get Their Guns?

An Analysis of the Firearms Used in High-Profile Shootings, 1963 to 2001

Date: August 20, 1986

Location: Edmond Post Office, Edmond, Oklahoma

Alleged Shooter: Patrick Henry Sherrill

People Killed: 15 (shooter committed suicide)

People Injured: Six

Firearm(s): Two .45 pistols and a .22 pistol


Circumstances

Pat Sherrill, a loner and former marksman in the Marines, was on the verge of being fired from his job as a postal worker. In response, Sherrill went on a shooting rampage at his office, killing 14 coworkers.


How Firearm(s) Acquired

All weapons were acquired legally. According to the District Attorney in Oklahoma City, Sherrill had no criminal record or history of mental instability.

 
  1. Owen Canfield, "Postal Employee Kills 14, Wounds Six; Takes Own Life," Associated Press, 20 August 1986.
  2. "Gun Laws Held Useless in Mass Murder," Los Angeles Times, 25 August 1986, sec. 1, p. 4.
  3. Jacob V. Lamar, Jr. "�Crazy Pat's Revenge," Time, 1 September 1986, p. 19.
  4. Gil Broyles, "Carnage Leaves 15 Dead, Questions About Motive," Associated Press, 21 August 1986.
  5. "Rampage in Oklahoma; Laboring at Home; Order of Silence," The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, 20 August 1986.


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 All contents � 2001 Violence Policy Center

 


The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.