Nude gunman opens fire at US restaurant

A NUDE gunman shot dead three people and wounded at least four more at a restaurant on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee, early yesterday, police said.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said the shooting had occurred at a Waffle House restaurant in Antioch, a suburb southeast of Nashville, at 3.25am.

“A patron wrestled away the gunman’s rifle. He was nude and fled on foot. He is a white man with short hair,” they said.

A later statement named Travis Reinking, 29, of Morton, Illinois – a village about 725km north of Antioch – as a person of interest. Police said the suspect had arrived in a car registered to Reinking.

They said the gunman, who had shed his coat, had last been seen walking on Murfreesboro Pike, where the 24-hour diner is located.

Local media reported the gunman had been armed with an AR-15 assault rifle – a weapon commonly used by mass shooters in the US.

AR-15 rifles were used to kill 58 people in Las Vegas last October, while Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz opened fire on his former high school with an AR-15 style rifle in February, killing 17 students and staff members.

In the wake of the Florida massacre, student survivors launched a gun control campaign – drawing hundreds of thousands to demonstrations – and businesses took measures to restrict access to assault weapons and firearms in general.

However, Congress is sitting on its hands over the issue.

Meanwhile, an ABC News/Washington Post poll published on Friday suggested that support for a ban on assault weapons has risen sharply in the past few months.

Sixty-two percent of those polled said they supported a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, up from 50% in mid-February and 45% in late 2015.