You picked on and that means all the others need to be overlooked. The
law here now reads that anyone buying the amount of ammo he did, the
clips he did and the weapon that did the most damage (an AR style) is
outlawed. He fired approx 60 rounds. Yes, in one minute he killed or
wounded that many people. He fired apprx 60 rounds in one minute. 30
were from the SW Rifle that was a copy of an AR-15 but it jammed at 30.
It had a 100 round clip full prior to the shooting. AFter that, he
turned to his shotgun and his 40cal semi auto hand gun. He ran out of
ammo fast from those two and elected to return to his car. The Cops
were there in under 90 seconds and spent their time getting people to
hospitals and arresting him at his car. I don't care if the cops had
been there in 30 seconds, most of the people would have been still
killed or injured. Fate, Karma, Higher being or just plain luck caused
his most lethal weapon to jam. The laws aren't against the shotgun or
the handgun, they are geared to the most lethal holding the most ammo.
Giving that the shotgun had 5 rounds and the Glock 40 at 15 rounds, if
the Rifle hadn't jammed, instead of 60 rounds he would have done 120 or
more rounds in that one minute going into the second minute. So they go
after the 15 round, the 100 round clips. While the crime may not have
been thwarted without these the number of people killed or injured would
be greatly reduced. And no, the law didn't include or ban the Rifle,
the shotgun or the handgun, just the 100 and the 15 round magazine.
under the federal law that ended in 2004, the 100 round magazine and the
Rifle would have not been able to legally be purchased. He bought his
equipment (including guns, clips, gas mask, flak vest) from two gun
shops LEGALLY. This included the basic background check and the
appropriate waiting period for the weapons. The Guns may not have been
a good indicator but the rest of the items certainly are. The Gun Shops
should have been alerted with the purchase of the other items including
the Gas Mask, Smoke Bombs, Flak Vest, etc. during such a short time
along with the Extended Mag and the amount of ammo.
You can say that he was mentally deranged but you should say that about
anyone that would do such a thing. Yes, there were warning signs. But
in order to figure out he was serious you would have to have all the
warning signs put together by a responsible person. It didn't happen
and he reacted to his illness.
What does the mass shootings have in common?
Sandy Hook School Shooting - Bushmaster 223 (AR style Rifle) larger clip
(multiplel 3 round clips). 26 victims with 6 dead and apprx 154 rounds
fired. He continued shooting until the police arrived on scene. There
was a classroom that was spared because his rifle jammed allowing 6
children to escape. unlike the threater shooting, he had to go room to
room and did exactly that.
Denver Theater Shooting - Smith and Wesson M&p 15 (ar15 style rifle)
large clip. 12 dead, 54 injured.
The others in recent times did not have the AR style and expanded mags
involved and the victims were kept to less than 10. While this is still
too high, it wasn't in the 20 to 30 range of the shooting with the AR
style Rifle and the expanded mags.
Now, how would You prevent this from happening? Think if they 100 round
clip or rifle had not jammed. How could this have been either prevented
or minimized?
By removing the "Easy Access" to the ammo needed and the extended mags
that means there is less ammo involved. Like the others that happened,
limiting the ammo doesn't prevent it but it minimizes the amount of ammo
that can be carried. These two nut jobs wouldn't have had the ammo and
the clips to carry the ammo had they been banned. And this isn't the
first times that this has happened with equal deadly results in the us.
Yah, Yah, I know, they couldn't legally buy the amount of ammo or the
clips and could purchase them illegally. Just how many illegal gun
sellers do you think they knew? Just finding one is not too bright.
You may also find a police sting operation while you are at it which
would have prevented this in the first place.
Now include the AR style Rifle and you now have handguns with 10 or less
bullets in the clips and, maybe, a shotgun holding 5 rounds. Instead of
30 to 70 people killed and injured it keeps it well below 10. It
doesn't prevent it it just minimizes the damage. And for every one you
minimize that makes the prevention worth it.
The ball is in your court. How do we either prevent or minimize such
shootings? And don't say we can't minimize them.
daryl