The Liberal Gun Club Forum

The teenage shooter who opened fire at Saugus High School died Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound as investigators seized unregistered firearms from his home and tried to determine the origin of the handgun used in the deadly attack.

Authorities say Nathaniel Berhow carried out the violence at the Santa Clarita campus on his 16th birthday after being dropped off at school by his mother. School surveillance video reviewed by law enforcement shows a boy pulling a pistol from his backpack and opening fire in the quad, killing a 15-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy and wounding three others in an attack that lasted 16 seconds.

At one point during the gunfire, the weapon jammed and the shooter cleared the firearm before he continued firing. He appeared to know how many shots he had fired and left the final round for himself, ending the attack with a gunshot to his head, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The teen died of that wound Friday afternoon. Authorities said his mother was with with him at the hospital. Investigators think the attack was planned but said they do not suspect specific students were targeted. “He seemed very familiar with firing the weapon,” Villanueva said. He added that the shooting was not a “spur of the moment act,” but officials have not determined a motive.

Federal and state investigators are also trying to determine whether the handgun used by the suspect was made from parts purchased separately and then assembled, law enforcement sources told The Times. The sources said the gun design appears to be unusual but emphasized that officials don’t know its origins at this time.

Investigators found several firearms during a search of the teen’s home, and some were not registered. Villanueva did not specify what types of guns were recovered. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is working with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace the origins of the .45-caliber handgun used in the shooting. These so-called ghost guns are unserialized weapons manufactured from parts that can be ordered through the mail or machined parts acquired from underground makers.

But that’s what the 26-year-old Saugus High School choir teacher did Thursday morning. Holt’s students had been listening to a recording of themselves singing at a jazz festival when several students ran into her classroom. They told her they had heard gunshots.

“It was just fight or flight,” Holt said. “I didn’t have time to think of anything except of survival for my students.” She locked and barricaded the door, moving her students into an office within the classroom. Once inside, one of the students who had run in told Holt that she thought she had gotten shot. “Her adrenaline was so high she didn’t know she had been shot,” Holt said. The girl, a freshman, had been shot on her right side and on her left shoulder. Months before, during a school staff meeting, Holt had watched a tutorial on how to use a gunshot wound kit. She left her office to get a kit from her classroom and wrapped the wound on the girl’s side while putting pressure on the shoulder wound.

Meanwhile, a senior student called the police to let them know about the wounded student. Another senior guarded the door of the office with a fire extinguisher. After about 20 minutes, police came into the classroom and told the students they could leave the room. Though the incident shook Holt, she said it hasn’t deterred her from wanting to teach.

Friends and neighbors of the suspect were stunned, saying the teen showed no signs of aggression. He ran junior varsity cross-country and helped younger members in his Boy Scout troop. Classmates described him as being very intelligent, an academic achiever who often received the highest marks in his classes. “He was pretty funny too,” Brooke Risley, 16, said. “He had a higher-level type of humor that often I couldn’t even get the joke ’cause it was above my head.” However, public records and a high-ranking law enforcement source indicated there were signs of trouble at home.

His family life in Santa Clarita was upended by his father’s sudden death in December 2017, acquaintances said. More recently, a source told The Times that the boy was having problems with his girlfriend, who was his emotional anchor.

“[The Saugus High shooter’s gun] was assembled from parts, it had no serial number — it becomes what is known as a ‘ghost gun’,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told ABC7 on Thursday of the .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow, 16, reportedly used in the shooting.

Authorities don’t know how Berhow was able to get the gun, as he was too young to purchase one legally.

According to experts and law enforcement officials, ghost guns are becoming a more common — and increasingly concerning — way for criminals to bypass gun laws and get their hands on firearms.

lurker wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:20 pm no, serial # not required unless you're selling them. you can build an AR on an unfinished (80%) lower receiver without a #.

lurker wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:45 pm oh, yeah, new jersey.

lurker wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:20 pm no, serial # not required unless you're selling them. you can build an AR on an unfinished (80%) lower receiver without a #.