Contributors

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Usual Malarky

The gun community and the Right are foaming at the mouth again about gun free zones after the Navy Yard shooting. As usual, they aren't really thinking. If they allowed anyone to carry a gun in a place like the Navy Yard, then guys like Aaron Alexis, a gun enthusiast with mental health problems, would have free access to roam around as they please. Further, Alexis was going in to kill people no matter what the state of defense in the Navy Yard. This was a very mentally disturbed man who was angry at his employer.

This military directive, issued in February 1992 under George HW Bush, explains the policy of the Department of Defense on Use of Deadly Force and the Carrying of Firearms by DoD Personnel Engaged in Law Enforcement and Security Duties. It is a very reasonable policy that makes perfect sense which is why the gun community hates it.

Speaking of making perfect sense, props to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz for politely asking his customers to leave their guns at home. This comes on the heels of some gun supporters playing a role in "ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners.” I guess there was an incident recently at the Newtown, Connecticut Starbucks. Man, these folks are all class. I love the first photo in the link that shows the woman working on her laptop next to the nutjobs.

Note that Mr. Schultz did not call for a ban on the premises of his stores which means people can still bring guns into Starbuck's. Essentially what he is saying is, "Hey, jack wagons, take your psycho elsewhere."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If they allowed anyone to carry a gun in a place like the Navy Yard, then guys like Aaron Alexis, a gun enthusiast with mental health problems, would have free access to roam around as they please.

So then Monday didn't happen because the nutcase was not able to take a gun into a "gun free zone". What a relief to know that there aren't any actual dead people!

The problem, Mark, is that—just as we saw Monday—nut cases who are intent on killing as many people as they can will find a way to take a gun into a "gun free zone" in spite of such a "restriction". What this sick man proved Monday is that such people cannot be prevented from starting a shooting spree, even with exactly the policies you are demanding—and then some—already in place at the time of the shooting.

Notice what it took to stop this nut case: Men with guns. But because of exactly the policy you demand, disarmament, there were far fewer men with guns available to stop him, with the result being far more innocent lives lost.

But once again, we are seeing a recurring pattern. This nut (notice I refuse to use his name) was showing symptoms of psychosis weeks ago. But because of the rules preventing involuntary commitment even in clear cases like his, he was able to act on his illness.

Anonymous said...

No one knew what time it was anymore. It was simply gunfire, screams, and the heat of midday. “What the hell to do?” Martinez remembers thinking. “I figured the source was up in the tower–I’d better get up there.”

Meanwhile, Houston McCoy ferried another student to get guns and ammunition. After the first fifteen minutes, the sniper was pinned down by students and other civilians who’d spontaneously flocked to the university area with deer rifles. McCoy then found a university employee who knew the tunnels of the campus, and he plodded through them, with his shotgun off safety, to the tower. The sniper had been killing for more than an hour now.

Reality slammed into Martinez as he rode the elevator up to the twenty-seventh floor of the tower, one floor below the deck where the shooting was coming from. As the numbers rose during the climb, he said the Act of Contrition. He figured there would be a police assault unit of some kind on top and he would join it. Instead, he found Officer Jerry Day, bookstore manager Allen Crum, and bodies mangled by whoever had taken over the tower. “I didn’t know it was just us chickens,” he says. Day was busy attending to a man whose family–tourists taking in the vista that day–had been shot to pieces and who now moaned and bled on the stairwell going up to the top. At the same time, Houston boarded the elevator and rode up with his shotgun ready at his shoulder. When the door opened, he was facing the gun of Jerry Day, and both men slowly lowered their weapons. Meanwhile, Ramiro had gone up with Crum to the office just off the tower platform. Crum had been deputized by Martinez and given a rifle. Houston got to the top just as Ramiro banged open the blocked door to the deck and slipped out. A gangway laced around the tower, just under the clock. Houston told Crum to cover one direction with a rifle and slipped out behind Martinez.

Source

‘If We Had the Ammunition, We Could’ve Cleared that Building,’ Son at Navy Yard Told Dad:

"My son was at Marine Barracks -- at the Navy Yard yesterday - and they had weapons with them, but they didn't have ammunition. And they said, 'We were trained, and if we had the ammunition, we could've cleared that building.' Only three people had been shot at that time, and they could've stopped the rest of it."

GuardDuck said...

Considering it was your Jack wagons who brought the psycho there to begin with.....

Anonymous said...

BTW, the crazy idea to keep soldiers disarmed on military bases goes back much further than the DOD Directive issued under Bush the Elder; at least as far back as 1974.