Taxpayers may have financed alleged Batman shooter's $6,000 stash of weapons

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The U.S. taxpayers may have financed the $6,000 cache of guns and ammunition purchased by the alleged Colorado killer, James Holmes, in advanced of the mass murder at the theater in Aurora.

In answer to the question of how Holmes could have afforded such expensive purchases, University of Colorado officials have disclosed that Holmes was being paid $26,000 a year for his studies.

According to USA Today, the elite PhD program to which Holmes was accepted last fall admits just six students a year. Candidates for this neuroscience curriculum have top grades and "near perfect" test scores, graduate school dean Barry Shur said. They undergo a background check but no mental examination. "No program requires psychiatric evaluation, to the best of my knowledge," Shur said.

Doctoral students receive free tuition, and most get federally sponsored 12-month grants of $26,000, about $500 a week. Holmes, who was not employed, bought an assault rifle, shotgun, two semi-automatic Glock pistols and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition in the months leading up to what police called a methodically planned shooting spree.

Officials say virtually no doctoral student has an outside job, given the intense nature of the program, which can take four or more years to complete.