As of 8:30 EST this morning, state police finally shot and killed the suspect as he was holed up in an abandoned apartment building after he killed a police canine. Still no answers as to his motive, premeditation, etc., but just based on what I know about the area, it was pretty clear that this crime was premeditated. If he was bent on a true shooting rampage, he could have easily gone to the high school, which was less than a quarter mile from his home, or the local Wal-Mart, closer than the oil change place across the river. My theory is that he set fire to his house as a distraction, walked to the barber shop around the corner because he had a problem with the barber, then to the oil change place for the same reason.
I had no family or friends among the killed, but the barber was a true village institution, he moved there when I was young and I never had my hair cut anywhere else until college. The people shot and killed were friends and parents of friends, however.
I wasn't trying to start a(nother) gun control thread on the forum when I posted the story. At the time, it was just a story of note that happened to hit the national news and happened to be (somewhat) close by to several webdippers. Dan-i-Am88 (who still lives there), TheJok3r, and a few other occasional players are all from the same area, so there was at least a personal connection for a few of us.
However, after seeing FB and Twitter reactions of some of my friends and neighbors, I can't help but pose the forum a few questions regarding gun violence:
1. A lot of vitriol was expressed toward Gov. Cuomo in the aftermath of the original shooting. Not entirely sure why. As the biggest political name to tackle gun control issues thus far, it was legislation like his that tried to prevent an incident like this from occurring in the first place. Knowing the area and the type of crime this (likely) was, I can say with a relative certainty that the shooter would NOT have been dissuaded by knowledge that barbershop patrons or the barber himself had a gun. In all likelihood, one or two of the patrons may have even had a gun in their car or several at home. The barber himself would never keep a gun in his store as it is a very popular place for junior high and high school kids to frequent as well as young children. Furthermore, the suspect, while admittedly being a somewhat strange man (I'd seen him around town on a few occasions, never knew who he was) would never have submitted himself to mental health counseling or never been identified as a potentially unstable individual. He had a good relationship with his landlord and kept to himself. After the fire was put out, police recovered nearly a dozen firearms of various sizes and types from his apartment. Why does a man need a dozen guns? He may well have hunted for all I know, since my village is very small and rural and hunting is quite popular. Does that make a difference? Why is anybody with a clean record allowed to purchase and own twelve guns?
2. On a somewhat unrelated note, several local businesses posted different variations of "WE'RE UNHARMED THANK THE LORD" to FB in the aftermath of the shootings to let people know that patrons and themselves were unhurt. Is posting something like that appropriate when a shooter has just killed and injured six people and is still on the loose? I understand the need to let people know you're uninjured, but does invoking God make the victims and their families feel slighted in any way? I feel like it's a lot similar to saying "Good thing the cops were there to protect me, why weren't they protecting you?" Anyone (Mujus, et al.) care to weigh on on this?
I'll post any more pertinent details as they arise, but for all intents and purposes, the incident is finally over except for the final investigation, motive, connections, etc. I feel like obiwan posting such a long post, and I apologize for it, but this incident has really made me rethink some of my stances on the gun control debate, and for the better IMO. As long as people have guns, people will kill others. Yes, people can kill with knives, bats, fists, poison, or whatever, but I'm not talking about knives and baseball bats. Killing isn't as wonton and as devastating with a knife or bat. If this man didn't have any guns, he wouldn't have killed four people. Period. If the Newtown shooter didn't have access to guns, he wouldn't have killed as many (if any) kindergarteners. Whatever "protection" I have when I own a gun could just as easily be turned into fear or murder at the drop of a hat.
Sorry for the long post.
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