On March 10, 1993, Dr. David Gunn was fatally shot by anti-abortion extremist Michael Frederick Griffin in Pensacola, Florida.

Griffin waited outside, then ambushed Gunn by shooting him three times in the back with .38 pistol, shouting "Don't kill any more babies" before opening fire.

[9] Burt was also a former member of the Ku Klux Klan[9] and self-professed "spiritual adviser" to a group of activists who bombed three abortion clinics in 1984.

Gunn's murder also prompted Paul Jennings Hill to issue the Defensive Action Statement,[11] signed by 30 anti-abortion leaders, which stated their belief that the killing of doctors who provide abortions was justified.

The lead singer, Marilyn Manson, explained in a 1999 Rolling Stone op-ed piece on the Columbine High School Massacre, that to him, Gunn's murder by "pro-life" activists was the ultimate hypocrisy he had witnessed as a young adult.