Suspect contacted gun range

Aurora shooting suspect James Holmes applied to join a Colorado gun range but never became a member after the owner became concerned over the "bizarre" message on his home answering machine.

Owner Glenn Rotkovich said Holmes e-mailed an application to join the Lead Valley Range in Byers, Colo., on June 25 and there were no overt warning signs in that form.

Holmes wrote that he was not a user of illegal drugs or a convicted felon, so Rotkovich followed up by calling Holmes' apartment to invite him to a mandatory orientation the following week.

Rotkovich got Holmes' answering machine and said the voice message "was bizarre -- guttural, freakish at best."

Rotkovich said he left two other messages for Holmes but eventually told his staff to watch for him at the July 1 orientation and not to accept him into the club. Holmes did not call back.

Investigators found a Batman mask inside James Holmes' apartment after they finished clearing it of booby traps and ammunition, a law enforcement official close to the investigation said Sunday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

Holmes was being held in solitary confinement at a Denver-area county detention facility, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said, and is "lawyered up."

Tragedies like the "act of evil" that claimed 12 lives in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., may not be preventable by stricter gun controls, the state's governor said.

"I'm not sure there is any way in a free society to be able" to stop a deranged individual from assembling a deadly arsenal, Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

"If there were no assault weapons available and no this or no that, this guy is going find something, right?" he said. "He's going to know how to create a bomb."

The tragedy has reignited debate over gun control, with advocates urging consideration of tougher laws and stricter enforcement.

"Weapons of war don't belong on the streets," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on "Fox News Sunday." "We've got to sit down and really come to grips with what is sold to the average person in America."

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Congress should reinstate a ban on assault weapons in the United States. Saying that the suspect had enough ammunition "for a small army," Perlmutter added, "There's something wrong with that."