Loughner bought Glock legally at store

TUCSON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old charged with killing six people in an Arizona shooting, bought a Glock pistol legally, records show.

Loughner passed a background check and bought the gun at a Sportsman's Warehouse Nov. 30, ABC News reported. Experts say the Glock 19 costs $400 to $500, not including ammunition.

Six people were killed and 14 injured outside a Tucson supermarket. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., believed to be the target of the massacre, was shot in the head and remained in critical condition Tuesday.

A spokesman for Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Tuesday deputies had gone to the Loughner home several times in recent years, The New York Times reported online Tuesday. Jason Ogan would not give details, pending a review by legal counsel, or say whether the calls involved Loughner or his parents.

A friend, Zane Gutierrez, told the Times Loughner had experience with guns going back to high school. He said he used to meet Loughner to shoot at tin cans but stopped seeing him some months ago because his words and behavior had become so strange.

"He was a nihilist and loves causing chaos, and that is probably why he did the shooting, along with the fact he was sick in the head," Gutierrez said.

Employees at one Walmart in the Tucson area refused to sell Loughner ammunition because of his "strange behavior," the store says. He was able to purchase it at another branch of the same chain, ABC said.

Loughner's employment history appears spotty, raising questions about how he could afford an expensive handgun. The Times said he worked briefly as a volunteer at an animal shelter and said when he applied there that he had a job at an Eddie Bauer store from October 2008 to November 2009.

Dupnik, in an interview with ABC, called Loughner's family "somewhat dysfunctional," although he refused to give details.

One neighbor, George Gayan, described the family as "pulling back" in recent years, the Times said. Others described Loughner's father, Randy Loughner, as having become more withdrawn and his wife as pleasant but very quiet.