I think all those Civic Officials, Mayors, Governors, Congressmen, and the like should be incarcerated for 30 days if any of them had stated publicly after a mass shooting : "This has got to stop!" or "Enough is enough!" It seems that all they're good for is saying how terrible it is, and doing nothing until the next mass shooting. Hal
I don't know...you can't restrict the terrorists' weapons, because weapons will always be available on the underground market regardless of legislation against them. You can't threaten them with extreme legal punishment, because they don't listen to warnings. There seem to be more of them surfacing within our society, so this complicates planning against their terrorist activities by making it impossible to isolate them. Hal
It would be best to forget "due process" and execute anyone on the spot who was observed randomly killing innocent people with a firearm. Harold
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action.” ― Ian Fleming, Goldfinger
I think if anyone is caught in the act of killing more than 3 people, as the quote suggests in @Beth Gallagher post, it should legally be considered an act of terrorism, thus allowing law enforcement to shoot them on the spot. I'm not advocating vigilante responses, but in a mass shooting, I think anyone present who is armed shoot be able to stop them. If this was the agreed upon response for the next shooting, it would stop them from killing/injuring more people, and make them think twice before walking into a public place and opening fire. They are willing to shoot themselves after many deaths because they think they've made a statement. But if someone were to stop them at victim One, then they planned the whole event with no big outcome.
I listened to a "crime expert" talk about three recent shootings. This was before the one in Ohio, but after the one in Texas. He said all three shootings occurred in "gun-free zones", although he was confirming the one in Texas. The Gilroy, California shooting was in a gun-free area surrounded by chain link fence with all weapons forbidden. They had metal detectors at all gates to prevent even knives from entering. The shooter went to the back of the venue, cut a hole in the fence and entered through the hole. This guy also claimed that the Texas shooter was probably a Left-Wing nut, who adored and was following the shooter in New Zealand, who, according to this "expert" was an left wing environmentalist who hated Muslims because the number of children they had was killing the environment, not just the immigration thing that was portrayed in the media. I assume he would also hate Mormons and Catholics as well, although Catholics don't follow that teaching much any more. All these shooters are portrayed as right-wingers, but, according to the expert, they are about 50-50, with the liberal extremists as frequent as the conservative ones. It is just the agenda-driven media that describes them all as right wing nuts. It appears to me that eliminating "gun-free zones" would reduce this dramatically.
I dont give a rats butt....suicide, or taken out by a cop, victim or bystander- as long as there is no trial, no on going notiarity by the media....and no book by family or friend telling how this poor troubled soul was doomed because of their traumatic life!
I am mentally flipping coins about something akin to what you are saying Don. In a Walmart, any Walmart, there are always hundreds of people doing whatever they are doing. There are no real security measures at the door so declaring the store a gun free store is like them saying, “carry if you want but we just don’t want to see it”. How is it, that at a busy Walmart that everyone is so law abiding that no one had a weapon in order to stop the shooter? Or is it that not that many people actually carry weapons? And how is it that no one headed for the sporting goods section to find a weapon of some kind just to defend themselves? Dunno but I’ll bet Walmart starts having armed security fairly quickly now. Heck, one of our local gun ranges has a class for church goers who wish to know how to defend themselves whilst they are at church and there’s a waiting list!
Bobby not everyone is quick thinking, especially during a crsis.Not everyone has desire to learn firearms operations. Some would rather learn more about CPR , and other life savings techniques, in order to save lives. Also, I am thinking we will become a Policed nation. Police will oversee all of our go to places.
I suspect it happened too quickly fro anyone to get a firearm from the sporting goods department, especially as I think all those weapons are secure. I guess the staff could've gotten to them, but they probably would have been fired for it after the incident was over. During the 1990s I recall Walmart announcing they were no longer going to carry firearms. Up here, that never happened and they are one of the largest marketers of guns in the state.