Gun Jam stops AR-15 mass shooting at California Mall

In late August 2025, a disturbed man armed with an AR-15 and hundreds of rounds of ammunition started shooting at a mother with a two-year-old in a stroller at a California mall. The man’s AR thankfully jammed, but he then pursued the woman with a knife and stabbed her before police arrived and arrested him. Police found the ammunition in the shooter’s nearby car and notes stating that he wanted to hurt others. He didn’t know the woman whom he attacked. Police said the shooter was arrested two years ago for firing a military-style rifle in public and had been prohibited from owning a gun. It is unclear how he got the weapon used in the recent attack, but it is clear he wanted to carry out a mass shooting against innocent strangers. The alleged shooter is being held on $5 million bail.  As described in American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15, the rifle developed by Eugene Stoner for the military has become a go-to weapon in recent years for disturbed men seeking to go to war with American society.