The 'Americans Getting Shot' Thread

[beachbound]

He did not stop to use hand sanitiser.

You’re right, to say that he “stopped” would imply that he was actually doing something before applying the hand sanitizer.
He paused from doing fuck all, while children, and teachers were being murdered, to apply the hand sanitizer.

[panama hat]

You’re right, to say that he “stopped” would imply that he was actually doing something before applying the hand sanitizer.
He paused from doing fuck all, while children, and teachers were being murdered, to apply the hand sanitizer.

Simply incredible . . . and what does a town of 16.000 need a 15-person SWAT group anyway? Well, in this case it's obvious, but so much policing with so little effect - the cost is simply extraordinary.

[DrWilly]

He paused from doing fuck all, while children, and teachers were being murdered, to apply the hand sanitizer.

Now we agree.

And then we went back to fucking around on his handphone.

[Norton]

77 minutes of milling around smartly before anything was done points squarely at a complete leadership failure.

[Cujo]

[panama hat]

It just gets better and better

[bsnub]

^^

I live in Seattle, and I can only say that those people in that picture are as foreign to me as they are to you.

Texass is another world from where I live. Every time I have had to travel there on business, I am glad to be home. Anyplace in the south, for that matter. May as well be another country because I have nothing in common with those people.

[harrybarracuda]

It's nauseatingly stupid that they are more interested in cheering the "hero" and not the fact that yet another armed looney started shooting.

Of course now every twitchy, loner, psychopathic wannabe will take his antidepressants and arm himself before going to his nearest mall to emulate this "hero".

Three people have been killed by a gunman in a shopping centre in Indiana, with a "hero" bystander shooting dead the attacker.

The man entered Greenwood Park Mall on Sunday and began firing a rifle, fatally injuring three people before being killed by a 22-year-old armed bystander, police say.

One of two others wounded was a 12-year-old girl who sustained a minor injury, the Indianapolis Star reported.
"The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop the
shooter almost as soon as he began," said Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison.

Names of the victims, gunman or the person who intervened have not yet been released.

Indiana has some of the most relaxed gun laws in the US. This month it scrapped the need for people carrying a handgun to have a permit - even if the weapon is concealed.

'Hero' bystander shoots dead man who killed three at Indiana shopping centre | US News | Sky News

[nidhogg]

Jesus. The footage being released about the Uvalde shooting just gets worse. They really need to be looking whether people can be charged over gross utter f*cking incompetence.

[DrWilly]

Jesus. The footage being released about the Uvalde shooting just gets worse. They really need to be looking whether people can be charged over gross utter f*cking incompetence.

They can certainly be sued.

[panama hat]

It simply is astonishing:

Nearly 400 officers were in Uvalde before the gunman was killed, a new report finds

Uvalde school shooting: New report finds 400 officers were on the scene : NPR

[harrybarracuda]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is running to be Governor in the retarded state of Arkanasa, said “We will make sure that when a kid is in the womb, they’re as safe as they are in a classroom, the workplace, a nursing home. Because every stage of life has value. No one greater than the other.”

.... on the day of the Uvalde mass shooting.

You couldn't make this shit up.

[panama hat]

Yup, she is special . . .

[S Landreth]

Florida high school shooting leaves 17 people dead - Broward County sheriff

• Parkland shooter gets life in prison for deadliest US high school massacre

A Florida jury on Thursday recommended life in prison for a former student who murdered 17 people in the nation’s deadliest high school shooting.

Nikolas Cruz, 24, killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland on Valentine’s Day 2018, shooting into numerous classrooms with an AR-15 style assault rifle during the six-minute rampage and wounding 17 more.

The sentence of life without parole, now a formality, will be imposed at a hearing on 1 November after victim impact statements are given, circuit court judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty.

The jury of seven men and five women returned their verdict after seven and a half hours of deliberations, following a 60-day trial in which Cruz’s defense team argued his actions were the result of mental illness and brain damage caused by fetal alcohol syndrome.

Prosecutors had argued that Cruz, who had signaled his desire to become a school shooter in videos and drawings he made before the attack, had meticulously plotted the killings.

“It was goal-directed, it was calculated, it was purposeful and it was a systematic massacre,” state attorney Mike Satz told the court in Fort Lauderdale, arguing that Cruz was afflicted by antisocial personality disorder.

The jurors found that on all 17 counts of first-degree murder, the state had proved beyond reasonable doubt the existence of “aggravating factors”, specifically that the killings were committed in a “cold, calculating and premeditated manner”.

But in each case at least one juror found that the aggravating factors were outweighed by the mitigation offered by the defense. For a death penalty sentence, jurors would have had to be unanimous.

Family members of the victims, whose ages ranged from 13 to 49, attended the sometimes contentious trial daily, and were in court to hear the verdict of the jury, which began its deliberations on Wednesday afternoon.

The parents of Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, said they were “disgusted” that the killer was given mercy.

Talking to reporters after the hearing, her father, Ilan Alhadeff, said: “What do we have the death penalty for? What is the purpose of it? This isn’t about personal beliefs. It’s not about your religious values. It’s about the heinous crime that was committed.”

Others were in tears and hugged each other as the verdicts were read. Tony Montalto, the father of Gina Montalto, 14, told journalists later that he felt the verdicts were “unreal”.

“Today’s ruling was yet another gut punch to so many of us. The monster that killed them gets to live another day. [He] pressed the barrel of his weapon to my daughter’s chest, that doesn’t outweigh that what’s-his-name had a tough upbringing?

“Society has to re-examine who and what is a victim. My beautiful Gina, the other sons, daughters, spouses and fathers, they were the victims here. This shooter did not deserve compassion.”

Fred Guttenberg, father of Jaime Guttenberg, 14, said: “This jury failed our families today. This decision only makes it more likely that the next mass shooting will be attempted.”

Debra Hixon, widow of the school’s athletic director, Chris Hixon, 49, said of the shooter: “He should give thanks to God that someone had grace and mercy for him that he did not share with those other people.

“I hope that he understands the gift that he’s been given. I doubt that he will.”

Cruz, in a multicolored sweatshirt and gray pants, sat mostly expressionless through the hour-long hearing, occasionally removing his large-frame spectacles, and looking up once at a cry from the public gallery.

He pleaded guilty a year ago to 17 counts of murder, leaving the jury to decide only between a sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty.

The shooting prompted student survivors to found the March for Our Lives gun safety advocacy group, and led to changes in Florida gun laws, including raising the minimum wage for firearms purchases to 21.

The massacre affected the community deeply, and had significant recriminations. Two Stoneman Douglas students later killed themselves, one a close friend of one of the victims. The Broward county sheriff, Scott Israel, was removed by Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, for perceived leadership failures.

Additionally, families of the victims and survivors reached a $127.5m settlement with the Department of Justice earlier this year after the FBI ignored warnings that Cruz intended to “shoot up a school”.

[Troy]

^ Well, the jury got that right IMO, although it appears to be only 3 voting against the death penalty.

When will the USA become civilised and abolish the death penalty?

[S Landreth]

^ Not any time soon.

[S Landreth]

• Texas school districts distribute student DNA kits in case of school shootings

Texas school districts will be distributing DNA and fingerprint identification kits for students in grades K-8. These I.D. cards will be kept by parents and guardians who can give them to law enforcement in order to help potentially identify missing children. In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, this decision is making headlines across the state.

Back in 2021, the Texas state legislature passed a law that requires the Texas Education Agency to give inkless, in-home fingerprint and DNA I.D. cards to each public school system in texas.

While it’s not mandatory for parents and guardians to participate, the kits will be distributed beginning this week, according to The Houston Chronicle.

“Caregivers are under no obligation to use the kits, but they must be informed by your institution that the available kits will allow them to have a set of their child’s fingerprints and DNA in that they can turn over to law enforcement in case of an emergency,” reads a letter to recently sent to all HISD principals.

It’ a horrifying reality that parents and families could potentially need DNA cards in emergency situations, it’s a reality nonetheless.

After 24 children were killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this year, DNA samples were needed to help identify the victims.

National school security consultant, Kenneth S. Trump, tells the Chronicle that parents and guardians should be made aware that these kits are just an added resource in case kids go missing—but that the messaging surrounding these kits shouldn’t contribute to post-Uvalde anxiety.

Arnulfo Reyes, who survived the Uvalde shooting that left his entire fourth-grade class dead, lambasted the police response earlier this year.

“After everything, I get more angry because you have a bulletproof vest. I had nothing” Reyes said at the time. “You’re supposed to protect and serve—there is no excuse for their actions, and I will never forgive them.”

Robb Elementary, the site of the mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead, is scheduled to be demolished in the near future.

[panama hat]

What a sadly fucked up society, so different from when I grew up there

[david44]

What a sadly fucked up society, so different from when I grew up there

I too had a wonderful time Uni in Florida back in the last century, of course I was whiter and surely uptighter than the black folks who lived mainly in Thai style shacks with huge used cars and funny plumbing the other side of town. There were very very few minorities on campus yet plenty at the diner , carwash or gardening.

A tangental memory an Argentinian gf who couldn't believe that a Gainesville cop would actually pay his Bill at Skeeter's fantastic diner, Slogan eat at Skeeters he needs the money!!

Legacy of Skeeter's lives on years after closing

[david44]

I've wondered before which will run out first victims or ammo, my money is on the ammo until some US regime has cojonesto to revise the constitution, stand up to the NRA and stop behaving like cowboys at the Alamo.

PLAN B

The Right to ARM BEARS

[S Landreth]

• Parkland shooting gunman sentenced to life in prison, called a "monster" by victims' family members

The gunman who killed 17 people in the Parkland shooting was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday for the 2018 high school massacre in Florida. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer had no choice but to impose the sentence as the jury in the penalty trial could not unanimously agree that Nikolas Cruz deserved the death penalty.

Before the gunman formally received his sentence for the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in suburban Fort Lauderdale, family members of the victims, and survivors of the shooting, were given time to address him.

"It was extremely painful to hear all the horrific details of this massacre at our children's high school," Annika Dworet, who with her husband, Mitch, attended every day of the gunman's trial. "Just to be in the same room as this monster who killed our son Nicholas and attempted to murder our son Alex. It's unbearable."

She continued, "One of the most disgusting and unprofessional actions that occurred in this courtroom was the defense team holding, touching and giggling with this cold-blooded murderer."

The gunman, shackled and wearing a red jail jumpsuit, stared at the speakers but showed little emotion, as he did the day before. He removed a face mask after Jennifer Guttenberg, mother of Jaime Guttenberg, told him he shouldn't be wearing one.

"It's disrespectful to be hiding your expressions under your mask when we as the families are sitting here talking to you, lowered down in your seat, hunched over, trying to make yourself look innocent when you're not," Guttenberg said.

Since Tuesday, members of the victims' families and some of the 17 wounded who survived the shooting didn't waste the opportunity to verbally thrash the gunman face-to-face after almost five years.

"The idea that you, a cold-blooded killer, can actually live each day, eat your meals and put your head down at night seems completely unjust," teacher Stacey Lippel, who was wounded in the shooting, told the gunman. "The only comfort I have is that your life in prison will be filled with horror and fear, so my hope for you is that you die, sooner rather than later."

[harrybarracuda]

The only comfort I have is that your life in prison will be filled with horror and fear

Let's hope so.

[S Landreth]

5 dead, 18 wounded in shooting at LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado

A gunman killed five people and wounded 18 others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo. early Sunday, police said.

Police received a report of a shooting at 11:57 p.m. at Club Q, said Colorado Springs Police Department Lt. Pamela Castro, adding that the suspect was injured and being treated.

Castro added that those injured were transported to multiple local hospitals, and the FBI was on the scene assisting in the investigation.

“Club Q is devastated by the senseless attack on our community,” the club said in a statement. “Our [prayers] and thoughts are with all the victims and their families and friends. We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”

Police will provide an additional update later Sunday morning, the department said.

Castro declined to provide a motive for the shooting, saying the investigation was ongoing.

The tragedy echoes the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in 2016.

A gunman opened fire into the LGBTQ club, killing 49 people before the suspect died in a shootout with police in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the U.S.

The country this year has seen 601 mass shootings, defined as those that injure or kill at least four people not including the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Nearly 40,000 people have reportedly died from gun violence this year.

[S Landreth]

• Suspect identified in Club Q shooting that killed 5, injured 18

Police have identified Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, as the suspect in an overnight shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs that killed five people and wounded 18, Colorado Springs Police Department Chief Adrian Vasquez said at a press briefing Sunday.

Driving the news: "We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack," Club Q posted on Facebook after the attack.

• Club Q added that it was "devastated by the senseless attack on our community."
• The club was scheduled to host a drag brunch on Sunday for the 2022 Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Details: A single suspect was wounded and is in custody, police said.

• It's not yet clear whether the suspect was shot by police officers, according to Lt. Pamela Castro of the Colorado Springs Police Department.
• The first police officers arrived on the scene within three minutes of being dispatched and apprehended the suspect two minutes later, police confirmed at a press briefing on Sunday.
• Aldrich entered Club Q and “immediately began shooting at people inside,” Vasquez said.
• “While the suspect was inside of the club, at least two heroic people inside the club confronted and fought with the suspect, and were able to stop the suspect from continuing to kill and harm others.”
• Vasquez confirmed that Aldrich used a long rifle during the shooting and that law enforcement recovered at least two firearms at the scene.
• Police have not yet released any information about the victims.
• Police are also investigating whether any other people assisted the suspect.
• FBI is on the scene. Law enforcement officers are investigating the motive for the shooting as well as whether it was a hate crime, Vasquez said.

What they're saying: "This is horrific, sickening, and devastating. My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost, injured, and traumatized in this terrible shooting," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), said Sunday in a statement posted on Twitter.

• "We are eternally grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the gunman, likely saving lives in the process, and for the first responders who responded swiftly to this horrific shooting," he added.
• "Club Q is a safe haven for our LGBTQ citizens. Every citizen has the right to feel safe and secure in our city, to go about our beautiful city without fear of being harmed or treated poorly. I'm so terribly saddened and heartbroken," Vasquez said.
• "We are a strong community that has shown resilience in the face of hate and violence in the past and we will do so again. As a community, we will provide for the victims and witnesses of this horrific event, and law enforcement will pursue this case with the zealousness that it deserves," Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said at the press briefing.

President Biden also reacted to the shooting via a statement Sunday, saying:

• "Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often. We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate."
• "Jill and I are praying for the families of the five people killed in Colorado Springs last night, and for those injured in this senseless attack," Biden added.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the shooting on Twitter, highlighting that it had occurred on Transgender Day of Remembrance.

• "The horrific shooting at Club Q is a call to mourn victims, thank heroic responders, and take more actions to disarm hate and end gun violence," Pelosi wrote.

Zoom out: 49 people were killed in 2016 at Pulse Nightclub, an LGBTQ venue in Orlando, Florida. The shooter claimed affiliation with ISIS.

• Colorado Springs, a city known for its conservative leanings, is home to some Christian leaders who have openly denounced homosexuality. Still, the city of roughly 500,000 people has a small LGBTQ community, Axios' Esteban L. Hernandez writes.

[panama hat]

Nearly 40,000 people have reportedly died from gun violence this year.

Simply bizarre