NIU Shooter Was Known Whack Job

Over at Crime, Guns and Videotape:

In order to buy the four firearms in Illinois, Steven Kazmierczak had to lie on four separate #4473 Firearm Transaction Forms, and his Illinois Firearms Owners Identification Application. That FOID process takes months to complete. Once the FIOD was received Kazmierczak could not take delivery until he had endured the mandated waiting periods for the guns he had already purchased.

It would appear he was prohibited from having a firearm under both federal and IL laws, yet he still managed to get past the many obstacles Illinois throws up against purchasing a firearm, including state licensing, waiting periods, and a host of other controls the Brady Campaign and others say will prevent this kind of stuff.

It doesn’t work, now can we start talking about solutions that will?

Don’t Tase Me Dad!

Apparently the dad who beat his kid to death over an Xbox has some competition for the vile parent of the year award:

The father of an 18-month-old child is off to jail for four years after being found guilty of using a stun gun on the boy. His reason for using the 100,000-volt Dragonfire, which resulted in muscle damage to the kid’s heart, was because he wanted his son to be “the toughest cage fighter ever.” Yeah, the toughest heart-damaged, cage-fighting 18-month-old ever.

Crazy.

Shocking Developments

In the Virginia SWAT raid gone wrong which resulted in a homeowner killing an officer. Over at Captain of a Crew of One.

I absolutely believe that Officers have every right to defend themselves and fellow officers, but “suppressive fire?” I don’t suppose any thought of innocent people living next door or walking down the street two blocks over should be any concern to Police officers now should it???

WTFO? Suppressive fire is something you use against an opposing ARMY, not something you use against one guy wh0 may be a criminal…or may just be a guy who thinks you were trying to rob or murder him.

It sounds to me like the cops who think they are an occupying force or invading army are the ones who need to “get their minds right.”

Am I wrong???

No, you’re not. Read the whole thing. I do hope the officer making that comment is unaware of what suppressing fire generally entails, and is merely talking out his ass. If that guy is on a SWAT team, that’s scary indeed.

UPDATE: Radley has more.  Go read.  I also agree about his comments about not making this about individual officers, or about the officer killed.  That an officer was killed because of these poor tactics is a tragedy.  This is a systemic problem in our society that goes beyond individual departments or people.

Cracking Down on the Hard Core Criminals

I’m glad the San Mateo County Sheriff in California has so thoroughly solved actual, real crimes, that they take time out to bust small time poker games.

Police in San Mateo County, California apparently first spent months investigating the small-stakes poker game. From this firsthand account, it looks like a couple of the officers were playing regularly for several weeks before sending in the SWAT team, guns drawn, last week. If California is like most states (and I believe it is), a poker game is only illegal if the house is taking a rake off the top. In this case, it looks like that “rake” was the $5 the extra the hosts asked from each buy-in to pay for pizza and beer.

Police also took a 13-year-old girl out of the home, away from her parents, and turned her over to child protective services. In addition to the charge of running an illegal gambling operation, the hosts are also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Good thing the poor girl was saved before slouching toward an inevitable life of crime.

You know, I don’t even care if the folks involved here were taking money off the top.  Can someone explain to me why this is a crime?  Is illegal gambling worth the trauma of a 13 year old girl getting a gun stuck in her face by a SWAT team and then taken away from her parents?

This is a disgrace.