Steven Spainhauer told MSNBC he witnessed victims massacred by a gunman in Texas over the weekend, and he disagreed with conservatives blaming "mental health" for the shooting.
In an interview on Sunday, Spainhauer, a former police officer, said he went to the scene of the shooting at the outlet mall in Allen after getting a call from his son.
"I found seven people shot in front of the store," he said.
Spainhauer recalled the horrific details of three victims, noting that one girl "had no face."
"There was nothing else I could do," he lamented. "I'll just be honest with you. When you get hit with an automatic weapon fire at close range, there's no opportunity for survival."
Spainhauer sought to push back on people who blame "mental health" instead of a gun for the killings.
"I don't know what the gunman's problem was," he said. "I don't know his motive, but it wasn't mental health that killed these people. It was an automatic rifle with bullets. That's what killed them."
"I'm a gun lover; I have guns," he added. I'm a former police officer. I'm a former army officer. But these M4s, MAR15s, they've got to get off the streets, or this is going to keep happening."
