A teenage boy is being questioned after he apparently shot dead two adults and three children inside a home in the US state of New Mexico.
The youth, who has not yet been named and is 15, was arrested at a house near Albuquerque and faces murder and other charges in connection with the shootings on Saturday night, a Bernalillo County sheriff's spokesman said.
The victims' identities have not been released, and the boy's motive and connection to the five victims were not immediately known.
One of the weapons used was a semi-automatic military-style rifle.
The shooting came after pro-gun activists staged "high noon" rallies on Saturday to defend the right to own firearms that they say is being threatened by President Barack Obama's gun-control proposals. He has pledged a raft of measures to tighten gun laws following the mass shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, in mid-December that killed 20 children and six adults.
On the day the pro-gun rights rallies were being held, five people were wounded in accidents at three gun shows.
Three people were hurt when a 12-gauge shotgun discharged as its owner opened its case at the entrance to a show in North Carolina. Two others were wounded when guns went off accidentally at gun shows in Ohio and Indiana.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article