We saw reports on this almost immediately after the awful shootings in Lafayette, Louisiana, but held off until more facts could be ascertained. It’s now quite clear the shooter, John Russell Houser, was yet another angry far right anti-government loon who admired Adolph Hitler, Timothy McVeigh, white power groups, the Westboro Baptist Church and the “scientific racism” of Charles Murray’s “The Bell Curve.”

Houser posted comments at many right wing online forums, including Tea Party Nation and the New York chapter of Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. As we’ve pointed out many times, the comments at right wing sites are now dominated by outright hate speech, predictions of violence and racism. How many more Housers are being created in this toxic stew?

There’s more information on his background of right wing extremism here: Lafayette Theater Shooter Fan of Hitler, Neo-Nazis, and Antigovernment Conspiracies.

And according to CNN, there is evidence that Houser’s rampage was not a spontaneous act:

Authorities searching Houser’s hotel room and vehicle found wigs, glasses and other apparent disguises. And he’d swapped out the license plates on his Lincoln Continental, parking it right outside an exit door to the Grand 16.

Yet, while he paused his barrage of bullets to head toward the exits, he never made it to the car.

Two police officers who happened to be at the theater made their way toward where “Trainwreck” was playing, as patrons rushed away from the carnage and their law enforcement colleagues on the outside rushed to get there.

“They heard a shot,” Craft said. “And upon entering the theater, the suspect was found deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

Edmonson said that the gunman got outside, saw police coming, and then returned to kill himself.