Clayton notes a report that suggests that the deranged Kindergarten murderer (I shall not name him here) attempted to buy a gun legally, but was thwarted by NICS and Connecticut’s waiting period. But it would seem he exploited the “Murder your mother and steal her guns,” loophole. The premise of these laws is to make society safer. When they are circumvented, I consider that a failure of the laws. In fact, it plays into the argument many of us have long made; that these laws are easily circumvented by those determined to cause harm. This is really just another example.
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It is a giant hole in their logic. CT already had an assault weapons ban. Didn’t stop the killer.
The “assault weapons” ban in Connecticut is mostly semantics-based and was enacted almost 20 years ago. For example, actual Colt AR-15’s would not be legal under Connecticut law, but the Bushmaster XM-15 and the Smith and Wesson M&P-15 series of rifles would be legal in Connecticut. All of these rifles are completely based on the original design by Eugene Stoner at Armalite, though.
I have been to Connecticut on business at times over the last several years and made the acquaintance of the employees at three different FFL-holder retail gun business establishments in Connecticut. This is how I already had some familiarity with Connecticut’s gun laws even before this state’s last mass shooting in August of 2010.
(I am referring to Omar Thornton here. He was a beer truck delivery driver and Teamsters union member who was caught stealing from his employer several times on video during a lengthy investigation by a private detective agency, then given the opportunity by his employer to resign from his job rather than be reported to the cops for what had to have been multiple felony crimes, like anybody who didn’t belong to a major labor union would have been. Rather than just manning up to his criminality on the job and being thankful that he would not get arrested for it, Omar Thornton then pulled out his two legally-purchased Ruger SR9’s from his lunch cooler instead, shot his boss, shot his Teamsters rep, and then went out into the warehouse to shoot his coworkers. Then Omar Thornton called 911 with his cellphone to claim that he had to kill all of the “racists” at his job, being that he was black and that they were all white and so, so “racist” to him. Then Omar Thornton turned one of his guns on himself. Omar Thornton’s family and girlfriend later claimed that his cellphone, which police recovered at the scene that same day, had photos on it of “racist graffiti” in the workplace’s bathroom, but those photos never materialized, because they never actually existed to begin with. A subsequent yearlong police investigation also determined that no evidence whatsoever existed of racism anywhere at this beer distribution business.)
So anyway, when I heard the reports that this school-massacre shooter went to buy a rifle at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Danbury, which would be less than ten miles from where the shooter lived, and was then denied by the NICS check, I knew that this was not likely what actually happened. The shooter was of legal age to purchase a long gun in Connecticut, and he had no history of criminal convictions, nor pending criminal cases.
I know from my own personal experiences that at least some of the Dick’s Sporting Goods locations in Connecticut do actually stock at least a few AR-type rifles in their “Hunting Lodge” departments, but Connecticut law also requires a two-week waiting period for all long gun purchases. The shooter reportedly went to the Dick’s Sporting Goods in Danbury three days prior to the actual day of his shooting spree, so if this report is to be believed, he was unwilling to wait those two weeks. It was either that, or he was unwilling to fill out the requisite state and federal paperwork for all long gun purchases.
If this report of the shooter having gone to Dick’s Sporting Goods in Danbury is to be believed, this would mean that he went there last Tuesday, December 11th. This was also the same exact day that the other now-deceased, 20-something-loner-type over in Oregon went to the mall with a stolen AR-type rifle an opened fire on the shoppers, yet apparently the Oregon shooter had some FTF issues with that AR-type rifle, he was within the sights of a CCW permit holder’s Glock, so then he cut his shooting spree short by offing himself with said AR-type rifle.
Isn’t that just an amazing CO-INKY-DINK or what? Two mass shootings, each on opposite coasts, each involving one of America’s currently most popular type of rifle, each perhaps even planned to be perpetrated on the same exact day, but one failed to produce a large body count, and the other was perhaps stymied by Connecticut’s two-week-long waiting period on long gun purchases. The more this story unfolds, the more questions to me and many others it poses.
The copycat effect from the media coverage has been pretty well documented by this point. The media sensation caused by the previous shooting plants the seed in the brain of the next whack job, who is looking to get himself some infamy. That’s why these things tend to come in clusters. I don’t think there needs to be any elaborate an unlikely conspiracy theory to explain it.
Uh, Sebastian, how can two seemingly different 20-something guys on opposite coasts copy the other’s mass shooting sprees ON THE SAME DAY? One perpetrated his shooting spree in Oregon on the evening of December 11th, which is three time zones behind the eastern time of Connecticut, while the other apparently attempted to buy the very same type of rifle reportedly used in Oregon, perhpas sometime during the daytime hours, in the Eastern time zone. The “copycat” explanation would not likely cover this, but the uncanny CO-INKY-DINK explanation would.
Both of these shooters had regular access to the internet. We don’t know yet who either one of them were communicating with online, or if they were communicating with each other online.
The shooter in Oregon reportedly used Craigslist to sell off his possessions, and he had a profile on Facebook, but I could not find anything else about his online activities.
Little seems to be known about the online activities of the shooter in Connecticut. I heard media reportage on him not having a profile on Facebook, but no concessions to the fact that Facebook still has pseudonym-type profiles on it.
A computer reportedly belonging to the shooter in Connecticut was reportedly found by the police with the HDD removed and smashed up into pieces. That would suggest an attempt to hide something on a HDD. Did the Connecticut shooter do this at the suggestion of anybody? Can we even assume that he was the one who did smash up that HDD?
Again, all of these questions linger, but meanwhile, the current regime in charge of the executive branch now has a seemingly tailor-made horrific tragedy to exploit so as to make more panicky and media-spoon-fed Americans jump on the bandwagon for a renewed ban on semi-automatic rifles that look scary to those who are ignorant on firearms and/or loathe them.
My impression so far is that the mother was aware of her sons problems. Which makes me wonder why she would have her collection accessible by him. Then again, I’m stepping close to speculation.
Yeah, I also would say that you are stepping close to speculation.
The mother is dead now and so is her son. For all we know, the son might have seized upon an opportune moment to gain access to this mother’s gun collection.
Actually, I have yet to hear anything from the state-controlled media about the manner in which this mother stored her guns, but we have heard from them about how she was supposedly a “prepper” who stockpiled food, guns, and ammunition, all because she was fearful of an economic collapse in these United States.
That was a thinly-veiled smear upon everybody within the “prepper” community who also are fearful of an economic collapse if you ask me, because national economies have NEVER EVER collapsed, right?
Oh, wait a minute…yes, they have…at least 80 different times…over the last 150+ years…all around the world.
I don’t buy it. What disqualifier did he have? He isn’t a felon, he hasn’t been adjudicated as incompetent. AFAIK, he was not a prohibited person.
No, he was not a prohibited person, but Connecticut law makes their residents wait two weeks before they can take home their long gun purchases, unless they have a hunting license, or a handgun carry permit. This guy was reportedly also a vegan, so there is little likelihood that he would have ever purchased a hunting license.