So it looks like the shooter may have followed Joe Biden’s advice and got himself a shotgun, then proceeded to use the cop killer loophole to get a pistol and magazines. It’s not clear yet that is the case with the AR, but the narrative isn’t looking too good for our opponents.
You almost have to wonder if they feel pangs of disappointment when it’s discovered they didn’t get their guns from Ahmed the terrorist at a gun show in Virginia. So when can we have a discussion about mental illness? It looks like this was another case of the authorities dropping the ball when it comes to protecting society from unbalanced people like this. We have laws on the books that strip people criminal or mentally ill of their gun rights, but none of those laws do a damned bit a good if there’s no follow through.
UPDATE: So much for the AR-15:
FBI Washington field office just confirmed gunman was NOT armed with AR15. Spokesperson says 1 shotgun and 2 pistols recovered
— Pamela Brown (@PamelaBrownCNN) September 17, 2013
Surprise surprise, the media got it wrong.
Its going to be real hard to justify gun control on this one. Maybe some sort of mental health thing, but that has to be done right too.
The psychiatrists at VA, had this been 1960, would have likely hospitalized because of the paranoia and hearing voices out of concern that he was going to hurt himself. Today, they would have to establish by “clear and convincing evidence” that he was a danger to others.
They’ll find a way to call for gun bans. They always do. They’ll probably compare the body count to Newtown and conclude using a shotgun “saved lives” therefore we must ban AR-15s because they spray bullets… Unlike shotguns.
But… but… David Frum said we shouldn’t wait! And New York Daily News already had their cover story.
It also seems that he bought the shotgun from a gun shop. So no private sale there.
There’s also that it looks like this mutt had a Secret level clearance. Which… on your Sec form you do have to document your arrest history. Course if the people doing the clearance don’t bother to read it… or check if you lied…
Speaking of lack of followthrough there’s the 2004 Seattle story. Did they really lose the paperwork to bring him to trial? I don’t know if that was confirmed.
A couple of news sources are reporting that the paperwork was lost. It happens, especially with the volume of cases that a city like Seattle has. Even a 0.1% failure rate (which would be excellent) if you have 10,000 criminal charges a year would still mean 10 cases lost.
The CNN article I read that indicated an AR-15 was NOT used and led with the headline that an AR-15 wasn’t involved, went on to list all the shootings where an AR_15 WAS involved just to make sure nobody forgot.
Because if you were writing an article on an accident involving a Prius, you should dedicate half the article to all the accidents that have occurred with SUVs.
Held my nose and watched CNN for a few hours this morning, talk of clearance and mental health issues. So far not a word on new gun control. The media has discovered a new bogy man to chase.
“UPDATE: So much for the AR-15:”
So much for the assault rifle spraying bullets we all read about yesterday.