The Iranian-born woman who injured three people at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, Calif. Tuesday used a legally purchased and registered Smith & Wesson 9mm, according to police.
Nasim Aghdam visited a nearby gun range before the attack, which was motivated by her belief that YouTube had unfairly reduced audience engagement with her videos, many of which focused on animal rights and veganism.
“We know she was upset with YouTube, and now we’ve determined that was the motive,” San Bruno police chief Ed Barberini told reporters Wednesday.
Under California law, Aghdam, 38, would have been required to undergo a background check and wait ten days before purchasing the gun.
California, which has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country, also bans the sale of “assault weapons,” requires gun owners to obtain a government-issued firearm-safety certificate, and subjects concealed-carry-permit applicants to a “good cause” standard.
The recent attack is just the latest in a string of high-profile mass shootings in the Golden State. Albert Wong shot and killed three people in March at a Veterans Home in Yountville. Prior to that, two Islamic extremists killed 14 of their coworkers at a San Bernadino County building in December, 2015; and, in March, 2014, a 22-year-old man killed six people and himself less than a month after police visited his Isla Vista apartment to ask about a series of threatening YouTube videos.