@Arouet, @Redheadedgammy, @GipsyOfNewSpain, @bobwjr

The man may have been from Missouri originally, but the clash occurred in Illinois (near East Saint Louis). This makes the headline a little bit misleading.

A number of respondents to this story have apparently assumed that the people involved were white (using such loaded words as "Crackerville," "[white?] privilege ... inbreeding", "ameriKKKa" and "sundowner towns" ). Maybe they were all white, but that isn't especially likely because Washington Park, IL, where the incident occurred (4700 block of Caseyville Ave) is 92% African American according to the most recent census.

Maybe the shooter was of a different race from the children, maybe he wasn't; we just can't tell from the story. Without that information we shouldn't make assumptions either way.

I'd wager that the original shooter has already had some red flag incident(s) that ought (in a sane country) to preclude his owning a gun in the first place. Like @MojoDave correctly asked, who pulls a loaded gun on children??? (... then I think of Tamir Rice ...)

All's well that ends well; everybody who needed to be shot, became shot. Nobody's gun jammed; nobody ran out of ammo. Freedom triumphed and Crackerville is once more safe for democracy. EeeeeHaa.

Inbreeding..........privilege...........guns what could possibly go wrong.

Only in ameriKKKa.... The James Gang hit town!!!! Reminds me infamous John Wesley Hardin shot a man for snoring too loud. Of course... Hardin denied the Event ever happened in Texas town Marshalled by Wild Bill Hickok.
[truewestmagazine.com]

Yeah lot of whack jobs there during the 50s had the most sundowner towns in the country( blacks couldn't be there after sundown or risk death or injury)

I can't see how it can be anything except mental illness! Why in the world would you point a loaded gun at children?

These people are mad and the politicians who don't lift a finger to even slow the carnage are even madder.

Our country is on the Road to Perdition