Culture Or Gun Driven Or Perhaps Culture And Gun Driven?

[inchman]

A couple of pieces of information that I found interesting beyond the obvious:

• States that have higher gun ownership have higher rates of police deaths due to homicide (3 times higher than states with low gun ownership).
• States that have higher gun ownership have higher tendency for police to kill.

Both of these, of course, are devastating for the police officers and their families... the first for obvious reasons. The latter because of the emotional impact of having to take someone's life. It even affects our military where they never see the eyes or know the name of those they must kill.

Police in high-gun states are obviously more nervous because of stat 1, above, and more likely to shoot early in cases where the perp has, or may have, a gun. How many of them spend years questioning their decision to take an often young life or simply being sucked into doing the dirty work for someone attempting "suicide by cop"?

In the 3 1/2 months after Ferguson, 14 teenage boys were killed by police in the US. Some, it would appear, are justified.

One of them was a 12 year old boy with a BB gun who did not even point it at police. I'm not judging the cop. I would be nervous as a police officer, too. But it's pretty much a sure thing that that cop will never properly recover. It is possible that this might happen in Canada, but I would suggest that the odds are much higher in a gun-centric country like the US. In Canada, a kid with a gun would be assumed to be holding a toy. In the US, not so much.

So, gun ownership has many side issues beyond the obvious.

There are many aspects of restricting gun ownership in the US that do have the support of the majority... the requirement to have ID at gun show sales (which has the secondary benefit of restricting sales to mentally ill people) and banning assault weapon and high-capacity clip sales. Whatever inroads can be made will provide the first steps to improvement in the situation down there. It has to start somewhere.

I feel sorry for people who feel that they need to carry a gun for personal protection just to carry on with normal life.

[DEFCON]

"I feel sorry for people who feel that they need to carry a gun for personal protection just to carry on with normal life."

As everyone should.

Back in the days of the wild west every man that wanted a chance at staying alive carried a gun. Society eventually came to understand that law, order and a civilized way of life in the west was the better way to live and then moved to tame it by forcefully removing the wild parts. It seems the notion of law and order has been replaced today by a mosaic of Rights and personal irresponsibility, which has now resulted in enough carnage, or the threat thereof, to drive the perception there's a genuine need to rearm and protect oneself.

[Don Hudson]

And now for something completely different...

Here's a down-to-earth, calm article from Bloomberg on the Fed's Janet Yellen. I think it's worth a read.

[DEFCON]

I think the article is purposeful propaganda intended to serve as a reintroduction and to elevate Yellen, an unelected individual, in the eyes of the public. They took the same approach with Bernanke, every time the public was about to receive a sheet-kicking, we’d all receive a refresher on Bernanke’s stellar qualifications. When they ran out of tricks and accolades to heap upon Bernanke, they gave him the boot and by replacing him with another banker that just happens to be a woman; they were able to add political correctness to their strategy to assist in placating the public.

[Woody Pusher]

A slightly different perspective - from the SW Pacific...

An article by Gwynne Dyer - a UK freelance journalist appeared in the local rag today, and in part it said something of "possible" interest about Mr Trump.

------------

On Wednesday morning the Russian warplanes started bombing rebel targets in Syria.

Moscow gave the the US embassy in Iraq one hour's notice, requesting the US and "coalition" warplanes (which are also bombing Islamic State targets in Syria) avoid the airspace where Russian warplanes were in action.

And Donald Trump, bless his heart, said "You know, Russia wants to get ISIS, right?" We want to get ISIS. Russia is in Syria - maybe we should let them do it? Let them do it."

And for once, Trump is right. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

-------------

I think that sums it up fairly well.

[inchman]

Well, since the thread has become unravelled....

Russia is using the ISIS excuse to wipe out ALL anti-government insurgents in Syria in an effort to support their buddy Assad. So Trump stays consistent and continues to be less smart than even a stopped clock.

They'll get ISIS locations on occasion just to give themselves an excuse to continue, but that is not their ultimate goal.

[DEFCON]

Syria and the Assad regimes have been Russia's very long term mid-eastern friend.

It was the West and all its nation building bs that produced the middle eastern mess of the present day in the first place, not the Russians. I'm really surprised Putin has sat back and been as quiet as he has for this long, it suggests something about his leadership, while the US and friends made a mess of everything.

Bush started it all unravelling and because Obama has now made it abundantly clear over the past seven years that he doesn't have any greater ability in the area of geopolitics than did GWB, Putin has moved in to support his ally, protect his Country's interests and filled a void. If Putin is able to return Syria to stability, I would congratulate him for moving the middle east in a positive direction.

I can't get over how arrogant the west is either. Russian military operations mirror those of the US etc. and yet the western media still seeks to slant the story to suggest the Russians are behaving poorly by only giving an hours notice in advance of their intent to conduct various strikes.

[Guest]

when you allow the masses to carry .......

• Posted:Thu, 08 Oct 2015 14:34:44 +0000

  America is as always in the midst of a bitter debate over guns.

  In the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Oregon, gun control advocates called for new restrictions on weapons as a way of preventing such tragedies. President Barack Obama vowed to push for tighter gun control. Ian Mercer, the father of Oregon shooter Chris Harper Mercer, lent his support to the idea.

  “If Chris had not been able to get hold of 13 guns, this wouldn’t have happened,” he told CNN.

  Gun rights advocates argued this approach was all wrong. The answer to mass shootings wasn’t less guns; it was more. More guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens who could stop active shooters before they start slaughtering innocents.

  Now an interesting example has been tossed into the middle of this ideological tussle.

  On Tuesday, customers were coming and going in the parking lot of a Home Depot near Detroit when a shoplifter suddenly came tearing across the blacktop. The shoplifter, who appeared to be in his 40s and wore a black shirt and hat, was pushing a cart full of stolen power tools and welding equipment worth more than $1,000.

  As a Home Depot loss prevention officer came running after him, the shoplifter shoved the stolen goods into a waiting black SUV and jumped in.

  That’s when a female bystander pulled out a concealed pistol and fired several shots at the fleeing shoplifters, possibly striking one of the SUV’s rear tires.

  The shoplifters nonetheless escaped, according to a press release from the Auburn Hills Police Department.

  The female shooter stayed at the scene and is cooperating fully with the investigation, according to police. Cops have not identified her but have said she is 46 years old, from the nearby city of Clarkston and holds a valid concealed pistol license.

  By then, however, the talk of the town wasn’t the initial incident so much as the woman’s response.

  Related

  • Firearms groups apoplectic after Liberals promise new gun control measures
  • Trump dismisses gun control measures, says mass shootings will happen in U.S. ‘no matter what’
  • Investigators recover 13 weapons, ammunition and body armour in connection to Oregon college shooter

  A handful of local firearms instructors criticized the woman’s decision to pull her pistol and fire it in a busy public place when nothing but property was at stake.

  “It’s my worst nightmare as a [concealed pistol license] instructor,” Doreen Hankins told the Detroit Free Press. “You have to know the entire situation before you pull that handgun out. And I don’t see that a shoplifter at Home Depot fills any of those criteria.”

  Hankins and other firearms instructors told the newspaper that concealed weapon license holders should only pull their guns if someone is in imminent danger of death or serious injury, including a sexual assault. Those who pull their pieces too quickly and frivolously fire at people can face serious felony charges, from the reckless use of a firearm to assault.

  All three instructors agreed the woman had overreacted.

  “In that situation personally, there’s no way I would be shooting my gun,” Dawn Martin, another instructor, told the Free Press.

  “None of it makes sense,” Hankins said. “Even if it were law enforcement, they wouldn’t do that.”

  “You are not a police officer,” she added, referring to concealed gun license holders. “You are not a person out there protecting the public at large.”

  Yet, that is how Americans increasingly see things.

  Since the 2012 Newtown, Conn., massacre of 26 people, including 20 school children, the percentage of Americans who think gun ownership could “protect people from becoming victims of crime” has gone up by nine points, according to a 2014 Pew Research Poll.

  The shift was most significant among Republicans, whose support for gun ownership between 2012 and 2104 rose from 63 percent to 80 percent. The poll also marked the first time in two decades of Pew surveys that more Americans supported gun rights rather than gun control, The Washington Post’s Amber Phillips reported in July.

  Last week’s mass shooting in Roseburg, Ore., only seems to have reinforced this idea.

  On Saturday, law professor and Post contributor Eugene Volokh published a list of incidents in which holders of concealed-carry permits arguably stopped mass shootings.

  And on Sunday, Donald Trump took to the airwaves to echo NRA president Wayne LaPierre famous dictum that “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

  “I can make the case that if there were guns in that room other than [the shooter’s], fewer people would have died,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Fewer people would have been so horribly injured.”

  As with the massacre in Roseburg, the parking lot shooting in Auburn Hills, Mich., is already proving to be a Rorschach test for people’s preexisting views on gun rights.

  Critics flooded the Auburn Hills Police Department’s Facebook page with disparaging comments about the woman who unloaded on the shoplifter.

  “I am more worried about an armed vigilante than a non-armed petty theft criminal,” one Michigan man wrote.

  Why in hell is she not arrested for opening fire in a public place that could have mistakenly hit a bystander?

  “Life ain’t Grand Theft Auto,” another commenter wrote, referring to the popular video game criticized for allowing players to do just about anything they want on-screen. “You don’t freakin’ shoot at shoplifters!”

  Many of the comments were directed at the cops who let the woman walk away after the incident.

  “Why in hell is she not arrested for opening fire in a public place that could have mistakenly hit a bystander?” one person wrote. “Shoplifting is a misdemeanor, not a shoot-to-kill offense. They should’ve tackled the woman down for public endangerment.”

  “This police department seems to be amazingly confused on which crime actually matters,” another added. “Hint: it ain’t the shoplifter.”

  According to local media, authorities are still considering charging the woman. A spokesman for the Auburn Hills Police Department told The Post that police had met with prosecutors on Wednesday to discuss the issue, but had not yet announced a decision.

  Even some Second Amendment enthusiasts conceded that the woman had made concealed-carry permit holders look bad, although they argued she was an exception that should be dealt with as such.

  “Idiots like this one give the liberals that want to take our Second Amendment right away ammunition,” one man wrote on the police Facebook page. “She took the CPL class, she was taught under what circumstances she can justifiably draw her weapon. She deserves to be charged with discharging a weapon in public and possibly worse.”

[DEFCON]

More evidence of America's return to the days of the wild west.

[QFE]

It's a good thing they weren't just shooting a movie!

[Don Hudson]

Re the comment, "More guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens who could stop active shooters before they start slaughtering innocents."

Wow.

That kind of "justification" is not only plain stupid, it is the very definition of insanity within a large asylum where even the guards of sanity are inmates.

How can one put the words "law-abiding" in the same sentence as "could stop active shooters" (ostensibly by shooting them "before they start slaughering innocents") and not have such cultural insanity go viral?

And we thought Orwell and 'newspeak' were existentially dangerous.

[DEFCON]

The entire modern world is an affront to the notion of sanity.

Imagine the outcome had the perp walked into the classroom in question and had 30 muzzles pointed in his direction?

I'd definitely prefer that people were unarmed, but I can't for even a second acknowledge any plan that advocates disarming the legitimate masses in the hope that act will somehow result in a kinder gentler society.

It's only an opinion, but I think society is in a sad state because it has allowed itself to go way too far left; the 'Young Offenders Act' and the negative consequences that have come about as a result of this form of social engineering for example.

People, particularly the young crowd, need to become more informed as to their role in the greater mass and the RESPONIBILITIES to same they have versus letting little Johnny know how special & deserving he is.

[Don Hudson]

DEFCON;

Re, ". . . society is in a sad state because it has allowed itself to go way too far left;"

I fully agree with this view. I mentioned the Overton window in another post some time back; it might be worthwhile looking up.

I wouldn't even call what we dwell in, "left", I'd call it "lost".

The notion of P.C., the idea that everyone is an expert and has a right to speak into any and all dialog and to be taken seriously in areas of knowledge & experience of which they are clearly ignorant, the notion that everyone is equal when clearly they are not, the notion that personal address, discipline and responsibility are to be avoided because someone might actually fail at it, (please, let us leave out the notion of "accountability", another 'lost' notion which robs the concept of responsibility of its true meaning), the notion that the state has a right and obligation to oversee the raising children but fails miserably at the very right it so claims, and the notion of offence when someone actually speaks their mind in good faith, all are symptoms of the corruption of old-fashioned liberal, (thence 'conservative') thought.

How does one raise a family in such an environment where there is no 'center' from which families may secure their futures, no solid ground for sense, and sensibility; no sense of history?

The notion that our political economy should give an even break for people who do the work, and that looks after its broken, it's ill, it's weak (meaning its children and the elderly) and temporarily its unable, and to provide work for as many who can work as possible rather than institutionalizing unemployment, and provides a fertile, secure social environment in which to safely raise a family have nothing to do either with the traditional left or right nor has it anything to do with "egalitarianism". This was once not naive but merely an expectation; one which I grew up with, and in.

Refer to "Growing Up Tough" by Taylor Caldwell, for further.

[DEFCON]

Don

“I mentioned the Overton window in another post some time back; it might be worthwhile looking up.”

I did look it up when you first made reference. Mr. Overton did understand the nature of politics. The model makes it pretty clear that the politician wishing to get, or protect his seat will stay between the upper and lower bars during an election cycle. I can’t understand how the ‘Patriot Act’ ever made it; I would have thought that any attempt to pursue such a heavy handed assault on freedom would come in way below the ‘absolutely unthinkable’ mark, but here we are and in short order those alive will see it as ‘situation normal’ and accept it accordingly. Oh well.

“I wouldn't even call what we dwell in, "left", I'd call it "lost

Sadly, whenever humanity & civilization return to a state of insanity, history tells us that war is the preferred, perhaps only tool that can be employed to bring us back to the middle as it maybe defined by the values of the victor.

[deicer]

History repeats itself.....

[Guest]

Seems that someone has common sense, thus she is charged.

Michigan woman who fired at shoplifters is charged

• 5 hours ago

A Michigan woman has been charged with recklessness after she fired on a pair of shoplifters.

Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez, 46, is licensed to carry a concealed weapon, but police said she should not have opened fire because her life was not in danger.

Pursued by security guards, a shopflifter ran from a Home Depot hardware store on 6 October to a vehicle driven by an accomplice.

Ms Rodriguez fired several shots with a 9mm handgun as they drove away.

No-one was hurt outside the store in Auburn Hills, Michigan, about 35 miles (56km) north of Detroit. Police said Ms Rodriguez had hit the back tyre of the getaway vehicle.

"I find it very disturbing that someone would take out their gun in a busy parking lot and shoot at the tyres of a passing car," prosecutor Jessica Cooper said in a statement. "Once fired, the bullet could have easily ricocheted or fragmented and injured or killed someone else."

The thieves escaped with $1,000 (£652) worth of merchandise. Police arrested two people few days later and charged them with retail fraud.

If convicted, Ms Rodriguez faces up to 90 days in jail and a possible fine of up to $500.

[DEFCON]

Auburn Hills ,,, I can see the whole scene now and can't stop laughing.

[DEFCON]

Another New York cop was shot and killed last evening. According to media, the perp's history includes being arrested and charged over twenty times, mostly for violent weapon related crimes.

Who could claim that guns are somehow the problem?

[Guest]

‘This is one of those crimes that is unexplainable’: Four-year-old shot dead in road rage incident in New Mexico

‎Today, ‎October ‎21, ‎2015, ‏‎5 hours ago | Mary Hudetz, The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Police are asking for the public’s help as authorities try to identify and find an assailant who shot and killed a 4-year-old girl on an Albuquerque freeway.

ScreengrabAlbuquerque police say they do not know why a vehicle pulled up alongside a family's car and opened fire, killing a four-year-old girl.

The shooting about an hour before the start of evening rush hour on Tuesday was the result of what Police Chief Gorden Eden described as an unexplainable crime brought on by road rage.

Interstate 40, the highway where the shooting happened, would have been heavy with traffic at the time the shooter opened fire, he said.

“We have absolutely no suspect information at this time,” he said. “We need the community’s help. You had to have seen something. Please call us.”

He confirmed the girl’s death at an evening news conference, saying the shooting represented “a terrible, tragic loss” and a “disrespect for human life.”

The girl’s name wasn’t immediately released and it remained unclear what may have led the incident to escalate on the city’s west side.

“This is one of those crimes that is unexplainable,” he said. “It’s 100 per cent preventable. It did not have to happen. We need to rise up as a community and say enough is enough.”

Investigators were in “desperate need of information” that would help in their search for the suspect after receiving conflicting details about the assailant’s vehicle, including its colour and even whether it had two or four doors, he said.

The cars were both moving westbound when one car pulled up against the other and started firing

“The cars were both moving westbound when one car pulled up against the other and started firing,” said police spokesman Officer Simon Drobik.

Albuquerque police are appealing to the public for help as they try to track down the person who shot dead a child in an apparent road rage incident.

Shortly after the shooting, a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy arrived on the scene, pulling up on a vehicle he believed was in distress to find the child inside, Drobik said. The child’s parents, also in the vehicle, were not injured.
Her father told officers the shooting was the result of road rage.

The girl was rushed to the hospital. Drobik said he didn’t know if the family is local or from out of state.

As police investigated, authorities shut down westbound traffic on a section of I-40, one of two freeways running through New Mexico’s largest city. It reopened late Tuesday.

Detectives were interviewing multiple witnesses, Eden said.

“Our priority is always the collection and preservation of evidence,” he said. “We should never see these incidents happen.”

The shooting comes after a road-rage shooting last month in which police say a man fired at another driver in self-defence.

The Sept. 9 shooting that wounded 34-year-old Jacoby Johnson was being reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office.

[DEFCON]

Until the big dust up finally comes about, true order and respect for ones fellow man just isn't in the cards for our liberal societies; everything has become focused on the individual, his Rights and the protection of same.

In this case it’s a good bet the crime wasn’t random in nature and more likely the victims did something to tic off the perp, which instigated a ‘road rage’ event. If so, the use of the gun represented a form of emphasis; someone had crossed into the perps space without regard and he needed to let them know he wasn’t happy. The death of the little girl may well have been an unintended consequence of a moment of madness brought on by stress and a short fuse.

On the other side, until we’re properly informed, there’s an equal possibility the perp is a true bad actor with an axe to grind with anyone that gets in his space; you know the kind, he ‘demands your respect’. If that proves to be the case, the death of the girl falls on our shoulders for being liberal and granting chance after chance to repeat offenders; they keep coming back to inflict pain and suffering on the innocents and with our apparent blessing.

IMHO, the wild west is returning to America simply because of ongoing weak liberal social agendas. Over the past four decades the Dr. Spock’s of the child rearing world have been pushing a continuous and somewhat irresponsible message to children, they’re taught that they’re almost never responsible for their actions. Instead kids come armed with the knowledge of their so-called Rights & a long list of unrealistic expectations.

By blaming guns for the failings of society, but never our selves, I think we’re ‘culturing’ people to an almost psychopathic standard and should expect that some will come to pose a risk to everyone around them as a result of their misguided beliefs.

Edited to ad ... I too would prefer to live in a society where you could feel relatively comfortable that people weren't packing and a potential gunfight about to break out, but I'm yet to be informed of a realistic solution to the problem.

[deicer]

A good movie that illustrates this incident...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106856/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[Guest]

Any bets that this is an example of "Home Grown" terrorism?http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34950261

Colorado Springs shooting: Police officers injured

• 16 minutes ago
• From the section US & Canada.

Media captionEyewitness Carol tells the BBC that she saw an officer being shot and then dragged to safety

Four police officers and an unknown number of civilians have been hurt in an "active shooter" incident in the US city of Colorado Springs, police say.

Officers were exchanging fire with a gunman inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, police Lt Catherine Buckley said.

It was unclear if hostages had been taken, she said.

The city's Penrose hospital said it had received five patients from the incident.

The situation was still active and roads were closed, the city's police said in a tweet.

"We do not have the shooter at this point but we do have all of our resources brought to bear," Lt Buckley told local TV.

The manager of a nearby haircut salon, Denise Speller, said she heard as many as 20 gunshots in under five minutes.

She told a local newspaper that she saw one of two police officers appear to fall to the ground and the other attempt to get the wounded officer behind their police vehicle.

Police have told shoppers at a nearby centre to stay indoors.

Planned Parenthood said it was monitoring the situation.

"Our concern is for the safety of our patients, staff and law enforcement," said its CEO Vicki Cowart.

​

[Guest]

Seems I was right, not a refugee, not an immigrant but rather a home grown terrorist.

Suspect identified in Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting

57-year-old suspect from North Carolina surrendered to police

The Associated Press Posted: Nov 28, 2015 5:54 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 28, 2015 9:42 AM ET\

A gunman burst into a Planned Parenthood clinic and opened fire, launching several gunbattles and an hours-long standoff with police as patients and staff took cover under furniture and inside locked rooms.

By the time the shooter surrendered, three people were killed — including a police officer — and nine others were wounded, authorities said.For hours, police had no communication with the shooter other than intermittent gunfire from inside the Colorado Springs clinic. As the standoff progressed, officers inside the building herded people into one area and evacuated others.

Officers eventually moved in, shouted at the gunman and convinced him to surrender, police said. About five hours after the attack started, authorities led away a man wearing a white T-shirt.

Colorado Springs police on Saturday identified the gunman as Robert Lewis Dear, 57, of North Carolina.

The 6-foot-4-inch man was taken into custody Friday after the standoff and shootout. Jail booking records indicate that Dear is due in court on Monday.

No other details about the suspect were immediately available, including whether he had any connection to Planned Parenthood.

"We don't have any information on this individual's mentality, or his ideas or ideology," Colorado Springs police Lt. Catherine Buckley told reporters.

Two women are escorted out the Planned Parenthood building where a shooter opened fire on Friday and engaged in an hours-long standoff with police. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)

Buckley said items the gunman brought to the centre have been secured and are "no longer a threat." She would not say what the items were or why they were no longer a threat.

Planned Parenthood said all of its staff members at the clinic were safe. The organization said it did not know the circumstances or motives behind the attack or whether the organization was the target.

The University of Colorado in Colorado Springs police department identified the officer killed as 44-year-old Garrett Swasey, a six-year veteran of the force. He was married and had a son and daughter, according to the website of his church, Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs.

There were no immediate details about the two civilians killed in the attack. Five officers and four others were hospitalized in good condition, police said.

"Certainly it could have been much, much worse if it were not for the heroism of our police officers to corner the person in the building," Colorado Springs Fire Chief Chris Riley said.

Shots fired at driver

Witnesses described a chaotic scene when the shooting first started just before noon.Survivor Ozy Licano describes how the gunman fired toward him while he was in his car. Licano suffered cuts from the shattered window glass and was treated and released from hospital. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette/ via Associated Press)

Ozy Licano was in the two-storey building's parking lot when he saw someone crawling toward the clinic's door. He tried to escape in his car when the gunman looked at him.

"He came out, and we looked each other in the eye, and he started aiming, and then he started shooting," Licano said. "I saw two holes go right through my windshield as I was trying to quickly back up and he just kept shooting and I started bleeding."

Licano drove away and took refuge at a nearby grocery store.

Garrett Swasey, 44, a University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer, was shot and killed while responding to the shooting. (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

"He was aiming for my head," he said of the gunman. "It's just weird to stare in the face of someone like that. And he didn't win."

Inside, terrified patients and staff hid wherever they could find cover. Jennifer Motolinia ducked under a table and called her brother, Joan, to leave him final instructions for the care of her three children in case the gunman found her.

Joan Motolinia said he could hear gunshots in the background as his sister spoke. "She was telling me to take care of her babies because she could get killed," he said.

Mother of 3 ducked under table

For others, the first sign that something was wrong was when police officers appeared and ushered people to the building's second floor. Planned Parenthood employee Cynthia Garcia told her mother, Tina Garcia, that the officers wouldn't say why they were gathering everybody together — then she heard the gunshots.

Hostages are escorted to an ambulance during the standoff. (Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)

Her daughter and the others were holed up there for hours while the standoff continued, Tina Garcia said.

Some people managed to escape the building and flee to a nearby bank. An armored vehicle was seen taking evacuees away from the clinic to ambulances waiting nearby.

With the immediate threat over, authorities swept the building and turned their attention to inspecting unspecified items the gunman left outside the building and carried inside in bags. They were concerned that he had planted improvised explosive devices meant to cause even more destruction. As of late Friday, police did not say what was found.

'Enough is enough,' Obama says

U.S. President Barack Obama said the shooting rampage shows the urgent need "to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons" for "people who have no business wielding them."

"Enough is enough," Obama said in a statement, a day after the incident.

Obama said it's not known what motivated the gunman, but it's clear "more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them" — and that, the president says, "is not normal. We can't let it become normal."

He says if "we truly care about this — if we're going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience," then America must make it harder to get guns.

​

[Kip Powick]

It seems I was right, not a refugee, not an immigrant but rather a home grown terrorist.

Just my opinion but I think you are stretching the meaning of "terrorist".

I would tend to lean toward a "disturbed" individual....

I think the word "terrorist" is being thrown around every time someone kills, for whatever reason, more than one person.

Once the killers "motive" is released perhaps he will fit in a more defined category for the few nut-bars every country has..

[Guest]

terrorist

noun

1.

a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism.

2.

a person who terrorizes or frightens others.

​