America's leading gun blogger Bob Owens shoots himself dead

One of America's leading pro-gun voices has died in an apparent suicide, according to police.

Bob Owens, who edited the blog Bearing Arms, was found around 11am (4pm BST) on Monday near his home in Fuquay-Varina with a gunshot wound in his head. A gun was located nearby Owens' body.

Police have said that the gunshot wound was "possibly self-inflicted" and that they are investigating the death as a possible suicide.

Several hours before he was found, Owens wrote a chilling Facebook post that read: "In the end, it turns out that I'm not strong. I'm a coward, and a selfish son of a bitch. I'm sorry."

His wife commented underneath the post: "You were nothing but a wonderful husband, loving father and giving friend. You always did what you thought was right even though it was not the popular thing to do. You were never a coward, or selfish, just hurting. I love you baby, you were my world."

On his blog and on social media, Owens, a fierce supporter of the Second Amendment to bear firearms. He had criticised people for taking their own lives, describing the suicidal as "stupid".

Jean Jacques, Owens' co-editor, said in a statement that she was "profoundly devastated" by his death.

"I am having an extremely hard time with this and am asking everyone to just focus on and pray for his family. He would laugh at how many tissues I went through writing this status. And I would do anything to hear that laugh again."

"In the end, all that matters is he will be sorely missed, and the truth is that we will never truly know what happened," she added.

Owens was an outspoken critic of Hillary Clinton, describing her as "the most dangerous and corrupt candidate to ever be nominated for President" and warned that she would deliver a "death blow" to the Second Amendment.

Owens was scheduled to finish writing a new book, The Deplorables' Guide to Guns, at the time of his death.