Begins handgun practice

Rodger begins practicing with handguns at an Oxnard, California shooting range. His plans to become extraordinarily wealthy and thus attract women by winning the lottery have not borne fruit, and his failure to win the lottery has driven him into a screaming rage. He is planning for what he calls his “Day of Retribution,” where he intends to shoot as many women as possible for the “crime” of refusing to have sex with him. He later writes:

I had the knowledge, in the back of my mind, that the Day of Retribution was very possible now. Going to the shooting range … gave me the perfect opportunity to gain some initial training in shooting guns, which will be the main weapons I use as vengeance against my enemies when the Day of Retribution ultimately comes to pass. … As I fired my first few rounds, I felt so sick to the stomach. I questioned my whole life, and I looked at the gun in front of me and asked myself ‘What am I doing here? How could things have led to this?’ I couldn’t believe my life was actually turning out this way. There I was, practicing shooting with real guns because I had a plan to carry out a massacre.