Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik walked into a San Bernardino, California, social services center on Wednesday and, armed with two assault-style rifles and two handguns, opened fire. They unleashed at least 75 rounds during the assault, killing 14 people and wounding 21. Their .223-caliber rifles had the power to penetrate ballistic vests and walls, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In an era where mass shootings have become commonplace, the couple's firepower still raises eyebrows -- especially in California, which experts say has the nation's strictest gun laws. Those laws typically forbid the sale and possession of assault rifles of the sort used by the shooters.
But authorities said the shooters' arms were purchased legally, perhaps exposing the limits of state gun regulations in a country where gun laws vary widely from one state to the next.
Farook purchased the handguns in California, police said. Someone else bought the rifles. Local and federal authorities haven't elaborated on the purchases.
California's Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989, and a subsequent 2004 law, banned most high-powered rifles commonly known as assault weapons, save for a specific kind of rifle allowed under a technical loophole.
A state law that went into effect in 2000 also banned the sale or transfer of high-capacity magazines. Four such magazines were found spent at the social services center attack. Police said the couple had an additional 1,600 rounds of ammunition in their rented SUV.
California's so-called bullet button loophole allows for military-style, semi-automatic rifles that have a button to release their ammunition magazine, rather than a standard detachable magazine that is removable by hand. That circumvents the state ban on detachable magazines for long arms it deems assault weapons.
The DPMS Model A15 and a Smith and Wesson M&P15 that Farook and Malik used aren't explicitly prohibited under state law, since both rifles are available for purchase with bullet buttons, according to The Associated Press.
It was unclear if the rifles were purchased in California under the loophole, or in another state.
San Bernardino police didn't immediately respond to request for comment on whether the attackers possessed the weapons legally in California. ATF declined to provide details about the weapons, referring inquiries to local police.
If the assault rifles or the high-capacity magazines used in the massacre were purchased in another state, it would be consistent with a pattern.
"California is not an island," said Ari Freilich, staff attorney for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "People can go to neighboring states. A significant source of crime guns and guns used to inflict acts of violence in the state come from other states with weaker gun laws."
Seven states, including California, and the District of Columbia, have outright bans on assault weapons. Two other states regulate them in some fashion.
Read more on the San Bernardino shooting here.
In addition to barring an array of what it deems assault weapons, California requires all gun sales to be made through a licensed dealer, and mandates background checks and a 10-day waiting period for all purchases. Those regulations apply to private gun sales -- such as those made at gun shows -- which are notoriously exempt from federally mandated background checks.
There are limits to what California can do, however, when states like Nevada and Arizona, which have loose gun laws, are within driving distance.
"What we know is that each year more and more crime guns are coming in to California from states like Nevada and Arizona that don't have laws, like expanded Brady background checks, to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, suspected terrorists, and other people intent on doing harm," Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement. "The number of crime guns coming from NV and AZ, into CA has more than doubled since 2006."
Fifty-seven percent of out-of-state guns used in California crimes came from just 10 states in 2007, according to a 2008 report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
The report, which analyzes ATF data, correlates the strictness of a state’s gun laws with the likelihood that it will export guns to other states. States that require background checks on all handgun sales at gun shows have a gun export rate that is about half of the national average. None of the 10 states that accounted for 57 percent of exports to California in 2007 require background checks on handgun sales at gun shows.
In a separate 2010 analysis, Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that 4,462 of guns recovered in California crimes in 2009 were imported from out of state, whereas 1,772 guns recovered in other states were found to have originated in California.
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