11/23/2005
Tacoma Mall Shooting Update
First, Food for Thought for Those Who CCW
The only victim requiring hospitalization has been identified as Brendan McKown. Mr. McKown has a WA CPL, and had his pistol with him. According to a report I just saw on NWCN, he had his gun with him, and got as far as drawing it before the shooter gunned him down. Mr. McKown, for his attempt to do the right thing, is currently paralyzed from the waist down and may never walk again.
After this incident, as after pretty much every incident, there's been much talk on the various gunboards along the lines of, "If I'd been there, he (the shooter) would have been dead," or, "It's too bad there wasn't someone there with a CCW." This is the first time I can recall, that there actually WAS someone with a CCW at the scene, by the account I saw only a few yards from the shooter. And he wasn't fast enough.
So instead of the bravado, it appears we need an AAR. What can we learn? Situational awareness? Quite possibly. In all probability, it took Mr. McKown a few valuable seconds to comprehend what was unfolding in front of him. Practice? Maybe. If you're just yards from the shooter, who already has his gun out, if not necessarily pointed out you, you've got to be pretty damn fast to get a shot off. And you've got to not only be fast on the draw, you have to be fast to get on target, and you've got to be sure you hit your target. Remember, you're in the mall, and the background is people trying to run away, and concrete. Any round that doesn't go into the target stands a good chance of hitting an innocent shopper.
Why Was This Mutant on the Streets?
That's the question Jeff at Alphecca asks in his Weekly Check on the Bias. The answer, Jeff, is that the Washington juvenile justice system is a joke. From what I've seen, unless you commit a serious violent crime, catch and release, maybe with probation, seems an apt description, at least in the Puget Sound region. I'm told eastern Washington takes such things a bit more seriously. But I remember a talk radio segment, about three years ago, on auto theft, which is a huge problem in the Seattle-Tacoma area. It was stated that, in King County (Seattle) at least, juvenile car thieves were often convicted up to six times without significant punishment. It took a seventh conviction to even put these creeps in juvenile detention, and even then, they could only be kept there until they turn 21. That's for seven repeats of grand theft-auto.
Note to the utopian-dreaming morons who are running the juvenile injustice system: actions need to have consequences. Real ones, not a stern lecture from some coddling judge who doesn't want to damamge their fragile self esteem. Personally, I say bring back corporal punishment. And no, it's not cruel and unusual. Flogging was legal, although I'm not sure how common, when the Constitution was written, and was used in the military at least as late as the Civil War. So the Founders knew about it, and I don't recall them saying much about it. Make their little crimes hurt, and they're less likely to commit bigger ones.
And lastly, a clue to the tactics that the mutant's defense lawyer is planning on using, via The Olympian:
Maldonado's lawyer, public defender Sverre Staurset, said his job is to find out what made his client snap.
"Anything as horrible as this must have some genesis," Staurset said after the court hearing. "Normal people don't show up at the mall with guns."
Actually, jerkweed, normal people do. Like Mr. McKown, the man who tried to stop your client and who got shot for his trouble. And there are millions more of us.
As for the "genesis?" How about you start with the fact that your client is a no account fuckwit druggie who chooses to blame others for his shitty life, rather than doing something about it himself? Who felt that somehow the fact that he wasn't satisfied with his state of existence is somehow of concern to everyone else?
That's all for now. Still no definitive word on the types of weapons used.
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11/22/2005
Big Media Linkage! Kewl!
Netscape News linked to me. It's the last item in the "Editors' Web Picks" box.
Neat.
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11/21/2005
Tacoma Mall Shooting
Another case of a mentally not-all-there individual deciding to shoot up a public place yesterday in Tacoma, WA. This one actually scared me a little, because my wife had told me that she was going shopping with her mom, and the Tacoma Mall was one of the places they might have gone. Luckily, they went shopping elsewhere.
AnalogKid at RNS has the basics and some commentary, especially on the behavior of the local media. Some additional information from the Tacoma News Tribune:
-the shooter's ex-girlfriend broke up with him about six months ago when he started 'acting odd,' stating that people were out to get him. Also around that time, the shooter and his mom were evicted from the house they had been renting, for failure to pay rent and numerous health code citations. Connected? Possibly.
-the shooter had been ordered by a judge, after his first juvenile conviction in 1998, when he was 13, not to own or possess any firearm. I don't know, under the RCW, if such orders lapse when the subject turns 18 or not. He also had a more recent conviction in 2003, not sure if it was before or after he would have turned 18. But I'm guessing that he was not legally allowed to have a gun. Not that that will stop the usual suspects from braying about the need for more gun control.
There's also a forum at the News-Trib's website, but their format makes it kind of annoying to read.
UPDATE: unverified (meaning I haven't seen this any place else) report from Farnam's Quips: (HT: Les Jones)
"Today's shooting involved a twenty-year-old, Hispanic male, high on crystal meth. It was an attempted suicide-by-cop. However, during the entire incident, no police bullets were ever fired at the suspect. The suspect was armed with a CZ 9mm pistol, loaded with Remington Golden Saber ammunition. He also had a Kalashnikov clone (7.62X39, hardball ammunition) secreted in a guitar case.
He started by firing his pistol randomly down a mall corridor. He was jumped from behind by an unarmed mall patron who attempted to disarm him. In the ensuing struggle, the patron was hit four times in the torso before the suspect's badly-rusted and poorly maintained CZ experienced a stoppage which precluded additional shooting by the suspect. The heroic patron was the only person seriously injured during the incident. All other injuries were minor, mostly caused by ricochets and people being trampled during the panicked exit of mall shoppers.
With his pistol non-operational and apparently not knowing how to fix it, the suspect abandoned it and reverted to his AK, again firing randomly. Our ' Active-Shooter' training really paid off! First officers to arrive did not hesitate. They organized into the diamond formation and entered the mall building straightaway, moving toward the sound of gunfire. Some officers were armed with Ruger Mini-14s. Upon seeing advancing officers, then suspect ran into a mall store and took three hostages. Officers were successful in containing the suspect and clearing the rest of the mall.
Notes: it was briefed by our SGM this afternoon that one of the hostages was a soldier from my brigade. Also, given that the Tacoma Mall is the nearest mall to Ft Lewis and McChord AFB, I wonder if the unarmed citizen who attempted to disarm the shooter was military.
UPDATE II: The local media can't seem to get the story straight on the shooter's weapons. Three newspapers, three different stories. One says two 'assault rifles', one says an 'assault weapon and a semi-automatic machine pistol', and one says an AK and a semi-auto pistol. Sorry guys-when you get the story straight, I'll provide links.
Also, check out RNS again.
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