Just watched that video, I can't even imagine the pain that father is feeling. Aside from the sympathy...does anyone find any kind of coincidence that the girl who was shot was born on 9/11/01? There probably is none as she obviously wasn't the intended target, but it's just odd. I bet government conspiracy buffs are going crazy with that one.

She was shot 6 times. She wasnt the intended target, but he intended on killing her once he was there.

I hope he gets strangled in prison and his dead body gets passed around as a lifeless fuck doll.
If America showed criminal executions on national television, think it would drive the crime rate down? I don't. I truly believe that this country is so twisted, people would actually commit ruthless crime to become a name to remember.
What a sick and twisted world we live in.
Thanks for the prediction Oliver Stone.

Well, most criminals in jail cant afford cable. let alone read.

This ^^ +1

I am a proponent of concealed carry and not necessarily an opponent of open carry (I haven't done enough education to commit to a stance one way or the other on that subject).

However, this guy appears to have been mentally deranged enough that I highly doubt that would have deterred him in any way. If anything, it might have made those open carrying targets (as opposed to potentially random casualties).

For the record, someone there was conceal carrying, he ran towards the shooting and saw the guy had already been taken down. So he did not drawl his firearm.

yeah i posted the story.

You know you're spending too much time in South Carolina when...

:D

Turns out the Congresswoman was also an avid motorcyclist...

she still is.

It just sucks that something like this has to happen to get us on the map. Stupid reporters all think this is there big break. What pisses me off is that someone can live next door to the family, never say a word to them, and all of a sudden can be on national news as an expert on them. But I agree, the only station who was covering more then just Giffords was The Frank Show on KLPX. All the rest of the stations were already pointing fingers at political parties. They don't get it doesn't fucking matter. The dude had a letter and some other incriminating evidence in a safe at his house. Unless you want to look at it from another point of view and say someone planted it.......but thats a whole new leaf to turn over.

My statement was modified with an adjective. I imagine she's not as avid a rider as she was a week ago.

This interview with him suggests that he very nearly shot one of the people who had subdued the attacker and secured his weapon:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41018893/ns/slatecom/

Good on him for not drawing.

Arizona no longer has a requirement for permit for concealed carry. They require no permit to purchase a gun. They also dont require you to license your firearm.

And since the assault weapons ban expired, his extended clip was also not illegal.

But lets be honest here, it was really the part where he walked up and shot people that was the problem, not that a government entity had no knowledge of his gun capable of firing off 15 or 20 shots without a reload.

I'm all for letting people (sane, not criminals, etc) own whatever guns they want. The problem is that laws against murder are very reactive and sort of require dead people.

As far as the assault weapons classification for clips over, what, 10 rounds... the dude might have been tackled a few victims earlier. Speculation.

Joe Huffman had a great blog post about this very subject.

Basically what he tries to show is that the time between shots when having to reload (for an autoloader) is basically negligable for someone with a bit of training. For a person involved in this kind of situation to be able to identify an attempt by the shooter to reload, figure about .9 seconds. That leaves them with just over a second to close distance, all the while knowing that any moment a loaded gun will be pointed at them.

Why is it acceptable to have 10 victims, but the second you shoot the 11th it becomes an issue? I am being sarcastic of course...

Huh. Was wondering why all those flags were half-masted when we got back into port.

One of the disadvantages to not living in an Orwellian police-state. Every now and then, somebody is going to do something violent and stupid. Not much you can do about it.

In an Orwellian police state, the state does all the murdering, and it's really good at it too, outnumbering the murdering by citizens in non police states! Not to mention the perpetual war against Eurasia and/or Eastasia ... oh wait......

Well, yeah.

Obviously, behavior of this sort is all but unfathomable in certain places. China, Cambodia, places like that come to mind. The tradeoff, of course, is that societies such as these tend to encourage mass conformism, the absence of individual thought or expression, and a general fear that if you say or do something unpopular you will simply disappear.

It sucks. But it happens, it always has happened, and in anything resembling a "free" society (free as in speech, not as in beer) it will continue to happen.

Chiburbian makes a really great point that I think is lost on many "centrist" advocates of gun control, such as those who would encourage bans on certain classes of firearms, such as those having detachable magazines or magazines of greater than a certain capacity.

Would it have been better if this fellow had only been able to take down 6 or 8 folks before stopping to reload, or if he'd had to carry a second (or third, or fourth) weapon? You could outlaw semi-automatic firearms altogether, and the crazy ones will simply switch to revolvers. Two Colt Anacondas hold more ammo than one (formerly) illegal "Assault Rifle" and are much more easily concealable and maneuverable in close-quarters action.

As I recall, last year, there was a series of lunatics in China that went in to schools and stabbed teachers and children to death with blades (knives or machete-type farm tools). In other countries, it's some guy with a dynamite vest hijacking a bus (I'm not talking political or religious terrorism).

I would argue this kind of stuff does happen in nearly all societies, it's just not the sort of thing that shows up on US news when it happens overseas.