This article indicates that the Army’s going to start going through its records looking for people with sniper training. I was talking to my Dad about the murders the other day, though, and based on our conversation I think that’s kinda unnecessary. Dad’s a deer hunter and he knows a fair bit about guns. Given the distances and the gun this guy is using, hitting his target would be fairly easy. Anybody with a laser sight and a stand of some sort could probably do the same from 150 yards. This is not a comforting thought. We like to think that the “sniper” is some well-trained psycho that we can easily identify and catch, and therefore remove the menace from society. I think it’s much scarier to acknowledge the reality that what this guy has accomplished isn’t that difficult, and there’s not much to prevent the next nutjob from doing the same.
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I think the whole saga is a great example of why the U.S. desperately needs tighter gun control. The whole ‘right to bear arms’ thing is so fricking stupid when you think about how many innocent Americans are violently murdered every year. Sheer craziness.
are we sure it’s a man, man? i’m not sure feminism is appropo in this argument, but it’s been bothering me lately that everybody assumes it’s a “crazy guy,” and not a “crazy woman.”
random, yes.
While tighter gun control would probably reduce crimes of passion, and may have prevented this guy/gal from getting a gun (?), it seems nearly impossible to prevent psychotic people who are bent on faceless large-scale killing (Oklahoma City, Unabomber, etc…) More valuable, I think, would be programs/facilities that recognize & deal with mental illness, preferably earlier rather than later. Scary stuff.
Statistically, Aim, serial killers are MUCH more likely to be men. And their victims are much more likely to be women. Sad but true. (It was even a question at trivia last night.)