Wednesday night's shooting is the deadliest act of criminal violence in Zamastan since 2015.
The club was packed and filled with celebrities attending a birthday celebration when a gunman inside the bar opened fire, killing 7 people and injuring 5 more. The motive is unclear at this time. Police arrested the gunman inside the club upon arrival, after injuring him in a brief shootout in which he shot at officers entering through on of the club's many fire exits. The club, called 45 Downside, is one of Tirzah's most popular leisure and entertainment locations, owned in shares by some of the biggest celebrity names such as Travis Brondi and Jesse Simotand, who were present at the time of the shooting but neither one was injured.
The suspect, whose name was withheld by police, did not have a license for his weapon and it appears that his license was revoked for a previous violation. The Zian State Police announced a sweeping list of changes aimed at making it harder for people to keep guns after losing their right to own or carry a firearm in Zian. The changes, as described in a four-page statement released Wednesday night, deal with how firearm owner’s identification cards are revoked, how guns are seized and how related records are kept and shared. Among the changes is giving local law enforcement better access to the list of people whose FOID cards have been revoked. Police and sheriff’s agencies will be told the reason a FOID card has been pulled and whether the person has turned over the card and provided an accounting of their weapons, as the law already requires. State police will also start providing local law enforcement with a list of firearms purchased by people whose cards have been revoked. While these changes are being implemented, the state police will “immediately triage” its current list of revocations and will target the “highest risk individuals” to ensure their guns have been turned over.
The shooting is the deadliest single violent event in Zamastan since 2015, when a gunman killed 9 people in a shopping center in Alanis. That shooting is the second deadliest mass shooting in Zamastan after the 1999 Emerald Keyspike Tower shooting, in which 16 people were killed and 37 more were wounded. Gun violence as a whole has been on the decline in Zamastan since 2002, but deadly, mass-casualty lone-wolf attacks have increased dramatically in the past four years. There have been 12 recorded mass shootings (resulting in 3 or more people being killed) in Zamastan since January of 2015. This record is significantly lower than most member nations in the IDU; averaging 4 per year. However, this is already the third mass shooting of 2019, which makes 2019 to be on track for the deadliest year for gun violence in nearly ten years if the trend continues. On January 5th, 2019, a shooting at the Gladysynthian embassy in Tofino killed 6 people and wounded several more, including the ambassador to Zamastan. On January 26th, 4 people were killed during a shooting at a city council meeting in Abagene.
Wednesday's shooting has already prompted lawmakers to call for increased gun laws, with many Green Liberal Party and Progressive Party members demanding action in Congressional Hall. GLP Leader Cain Blackwater and Progressive Leader Yerran Mann have already come out with condolences but calls for restrictions, while conservatives have also come out with condolences but with more calls for safe and careful measures as well as increased funding for mental health research and security prospects.