California shooting: Mother of man killed after surviving Las Vegas attack says 'I don't want prayers, I want gun control'
Telemachus Orfanos escaped mass shooting in Las Vegas, only to be among 12 killed in Thousand Oaks
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Your support makes all the difference.The mother of one of 12 people killed in a mass shooting at a California bar – having survived last year’s deadly attack in Las Vegas – has angrily rejected thoughts and prayers and called for immediate gun control.
Susan Orfanos said her 27-year-old son Telemachus had escaped the massacre at Route 91 Harvest festival in October 2017, only to be killed in Thousand Oaks.
“My son was in Las Vegas with one of his friends and he came home,” she told ABC TV reporters. “He did not come home last night.
“I don’t want prayers. I don’t want thoughts. I want gun control. And I hope nobody else sends me any more prayers. I want gun control. No more guns.”
She added that she wanted congress to “pass gun control so no one else has a child that doesn’t come home”.
Mr Orfanos, a US navy veteran known to friends as “Tel”, was among those shot dead at the Borderline Bar & Grill by former marine Ian Long, 28, using a legal .45-calibre Glock handgun fitted with an extended magazine.
Other victims included Sergeant Ron Helus, a 29-year-old policeman, Cody Coffman, 22, university graduate Justin Meek, 23, aspiring lawyer Alaina Housley, 18, college student Noel Sparks, 21, and security guard Sean Adler, 48.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in the US since Parkland in Florida nine months ago and has led to renewed calls for gun control.
Several Democrat politicians have vowed to take action in January when the party takes control of the House following the midterm elections.
Actor Ashton Kutcher also called for reform of gun legislation after revealing that his birthday party had been held at the same bar.
He asked Ivanka Trump, whose brother-in-law was at the celebration, to “plead” with Donald Trump to take action.
“Only reason we are alive is the shooter chose a different night,” he said on Twitter. ”My heart goes out to the victims.
“I’ll say it again... Gun Reform Now! Politicians need to stop standing behind the dollar & Protect the people!”
Between 150 and 200 people were at the Borderline bar when the gunman opened fire shortly before midnight on Wednesday.
The FBI are attempting to build up a profile of the shooter to identify his motives, according to law enforcement officials.
Long joined the marines at 18 and served in the infantry for five years before being honourably discharged with the rank of corporal in 2013, the Pentagon said.
He separated from his wife in June 2011, while he was deployed on a seven-month tour as a machine gunner in Afghanistan, and they divorced two months after he left the marines.
Long studied at nearby California State University, Northridge, until 2016 and was recently living at home with his mother in Newbury Park, about four miles from the Borderline bar.
Neighbours said they had heard frequent, aggressive shouting between Long and his mother over the last year.
Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said Long may have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Obviously, he had something going on in his head that would cause him to do something like this,” Dean said.
Additional reporting by agencies
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