mass shooting – Deputy Matt & Others Who Serve

“Gun Free Zones” Are A Myth

Sadly, early this morning another f&*#ing nutjob with a gun went to a posted gun free zone and committed yet another mass shooting. This one took place in Antioch, TN, which is essentially a suburb of Nashville. A naked man with a rifle walked into a Waffle House and began shooting people (Note: As more info comes out, it appears he may have been wearing pants. Early reports had him nude). He managed to shoot a total of eight (8) people before a patron, a big damn hero, managed to wrestle the gun away from him. The naked suspect fled and is actively being hunted by my brothers and sisters in law enforcement as I type this. Four (4) of those innocent, random victims have since died from their wounds.

This tragic, yet potentially preventable incident, happened inside a Waffle House, which according to corporate policy is a posted Gun Free Zone. Also, thanks to Tennessee state law, unlike many other states, gun free zone stickers on private businesses carry the full weight of the law thus anyone who chooses to ignore that sign could be arrested for a gun crime.

Unfortunately for all those people inside that Waffle House, this incident is yet another perfect example of the complete and total failure of “Gun Free Zones.”

A sign in the parking lot, a sticker on the door, cannot, will not ever prevent someone intent on murdering people from entering the location to do so. Seriously, what sort of magical, childlike, fairyland thought process is required of someone to make that seem remotely plausible?

In reality, you know, the realm where we actually live, what those signs do is prevent law abiding people from carrying their guns, thus preventing them from protecting themselves and other people. The incident this morning is the absolute perfectly horrible example of that. You see, to most of us, a naked guy carrying a rifle is a HUGE warning sign. You see that coming towards you and you know something bad is about to happen. Had there been a concealed carrier inside this restaurant, they could have been ready before this nutbag got off a single shot. Potentially, they could have prevented the entire incident as this is one of those cases where one would not even need to hear a gunshot before you knew something bad was happening.

So let’s talk a bit about “Gun Free Zones” and their failures. Seems that every time we have a mass shooting, it is almost always in a gun free zone. According to the statistics, more than 98% of mass shootings in the US since 1950 have all taken place in “gun free zones.” This is a point that conservatives make repeatedly. In fact, President Trump has even talked about this glaring problem.

However, the rabidly anti-gun left argues this blatantly obvious fact with semantics. Take for instance this article from Mother Jones where they claim that mass shooters do not intentionally choose gun free zones as their targets. “There is zero evidence to support it.” The problem with Mark Follman’s entire basis of his article is, who cares why the suspect chose the gun free zone as his target? The fact is they killed people in a “gun free zone.” Who gives a rats ass what the crazy guy’s logic is, the statistically proven fact is that these cowardly mass shooters attack “gun free zones,” where law abiding people are prevented from defending themselves.

That line of thought is like saying back on September 11, 2001, we should have been more concerned about why terrorists attacked the United States rather than being concerned that they actually did. Who cares what their reasons were for attacking were. They brought the fight to our doorsteps. It was time to take it back to them.

I have also read other articles (sadly I am unable to locate any of them now) that examined a number of mass shootings and claimed that they did not occur in gun free zones, because the shooter was firing from a place that was not a gun free zone, while completely ignoring the fact that the victims were in a gun free zone and unable to fight back. One article specifically used the 2015 shooting at the Chattanooga Military Recruitment Center as an example for this argument, saying that, despite the recruitment center being a gun free zone, the fact that the shooter was on the street meant this was not a gun free zone shooting. This is yet another completely semantical argument. If the victims were prevented from carrying a gun due to the location being a gun free zone, does it matter where the shooter was?

Drawing on my cold war era childhood for this one, that would be like saying if Russia launched some ICBM’s toward the US, it was not an act of war because Russia was not on US soil when they did so. Who thinks like that?

Here is the thing, Gun Free Zones do not work. They do not keep anyone safe, and in fact, I would argue, and like it or not, the evidence supports my argument, gun free zones get more people killed. A “Gun Free Zone” sign no more prevents a person intent on killing from bringing in a gun than a speed limit sign prevents people from speeding. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or a fool.

Distrustful and Wary

I am distrustful and wary.

I am distrustful of evangelists, self-appointed do-gooders, politicians and speedy government.

I am distrustful because the laws never stop where they claim.

Every new law promises to reduce crime and tragedy, yet these atrocities keep happening.

The laws don’t work as promised.

We hear “inconveniencing a few” gun owners is okay “if it stops just one killer.”

Except evil won’t be legislated away. So it happens again. It happens no matter what law is passed.

Then again, the mob solution is to “inconvenience” the gun owners who didn’t kill anyone. EVERY TIME.

The mob shows more sympathy for the killer, than those who want to keep their belongings.

This is why I am distrustful. People don’t know what they’re talking about. Not even a little bit. They use terms they don’t understand.

They parrot lies that fly in the face of actual common sense.

They don’t even understand the very systems they employ. Yet, they want to give up other citizens’ rights, and “inconvenience” folks who didn’t hurt anyone.

They believe their mere outrage is sufficient to justify taking rightful personal property from someone else.

That’s just dangerous.

That’s tyranny.

Tyranny is insisting we can tell someone else what he or she needs and wants.

Maybe the “pass a law, lather, rinse and repeat” approach just doesn’t work. So why do we always look to that one, and only that one, as the answer?

Because the real answer requires real work, that few of us will actually do. They don’t have the power to take it themselves. They want others to do the lifting for them.

It’s easier.

They don’t want to fix the system. Hell, they don’t even understand it.

They know deep down the real answers include real work, HARD work, time, energy and money. They don’t have any of that; but their mere outrage justifies their forcing others to comply with their contrived notions.

This is why I am distrustful.

We distrust our politicians, our government, and mass media; because none of them has earned our trust.

Maybe this is exactly how it should be.

E. Alan Normandy
Retired Police Lieutenant

Put The Tinfoil Away!

To steal the words of a coworker, “Put the tinfoil back in the drawer. It was an act of terrorism committed by a piece of shit – not a conspiracy conducted by a secret government agency.”

Caveat: While it does not fit the FBI definition of a terrorist act, because there was no stated political goal, it sure fits the mold of most recent terrorist acts. Some asshole, or group of assholes, killing and maiming as many people as they can, then offing themselves in a most cowardly fashion.

With that said, can we please stop with all the idiotic conspiracy theories? Please? This shit is getting out of hand. I want to address the theories I have seen thus far as best I can. Most of these revolve around a supposed second shooter.

Video
There is a video floating around which claims to be definitive proof of a second shooter. It is shot out the driver’s window of a car leaving the Mandalay Bay main entrance. Here is that video.

There are a number of problems with this video, in terms of being proof of a second shooter.

First, the flashing light flashes at a constant rate, and is flashing before the gunfire starts (normal since sound travels slower than light) but it continues flashing at the same exact rate when the shots stop for a short break, and then keeps flashing until the shots resume.
Second, and most importantly, there were no windows broken out of the hotel that low. Unless these conspirators have some sort of magic bullets that can travel through glass without breaking it, this video proves nothing.

Natural News
A website named Natural News post an article very early yesterday morning titled “Five things that just don’t add up about the Las Vegas mass shooting.” This article was clearly written by someone who knows nothing about firearms, firearm laws and has never investigated a shooting first hand. I’m going to point to each of their five things and explain why they are wrong.

“Dozens of concert-goers reported the presence of multiple shooters” – Really? No shit? Out of 20,000+ people at a single scene, dozens reported seeing something different from everyone else? Anyone who has ever been involved in investigating a shooting will tell you that it is completely normal for people to see and hear different things, that is why we get statements from as many witnesses as possible. At a shooting with 10 people present, you will likely get multiple people who saw it and tell you exactly what happened (if they are cooperative that is) and you will have other people whose minds automatically fill in missing blanks by making up things. It is a normal human reaction in a situation like that. Your brain tries to fill the gaps and you are completely unaware that it is even happening. To you, it seems like that is really what you saw. But hey, don’t take my word for it. Here is an expert on the subject saying the same thing.
“Who warned concert-goers they were ‘all going to die’ a full 45 minutes before the shooting started?” – Wait, a crazy person running around the Las Vegas strip telling people they are all going to die? Have you ever been to Las Vegas? I go to Vegas every January for SHOT Show and I have had at least one person say something similar to me on every single trip there. The strip is host to a large collection of crazies and druggies who do and say stupid crap all the time.
“The weapon you hear on videos was FULL AUTO, which is almost impossible to acquire through legal means” – Complete bullshit! I will just give them the full-auto aspect (even though I am hearing rumors they were not). Full-auto weapons are completely legal in Nevada, they are just highly regulated and very expensive. The suspect in this case is rumored to have been very well off financially and had no serious criminal record, meaning he could have easily purchased legal full-auto weapons. Besides that, it is relatively simple to convert any semi-auto rifle to full-auto if you know what you are doing. Again, since the suspect had money, he could easily have paid someone to illegally convert them, or he could have purchased illegal full-auto guns.
“Why were the exits blocked, trapping victims like rats in a maze?” – Every single concert venue I have ever attended has had limited exit routes. That is absolutely normal. When something like this happens, and you have 20,000+ people trying to get out of a few exits, it creates a huge bottleneck. If this truly was some sort of conspiracy, and they were blocking exits, why would they not have blocked all of them?
“Why did the shooter have as many as 10 firearms in his room?” – Uh, because he was prepared? He actually had 16 weapons, not 10 (correction: last update from LVMPD said 23). Anyone familiar with firearms knows that you can only fire so many rounds rapidly through a weapon before they start getting very hot, to the point that things melt or light on fire. If you don’t believe me, go to YouTube and search for “rifle meltdown” and you will find plenty of videos of that very thing occurring. Also, anyone familiar with firearms knows that sometimes malfunctions occur and it is easier to grab another gun than it is to stop and clear a malfunction. The fact that he had multiple guns just means he was prepared.

Seriously people, these conspiracy theories serve no positive purpose, and they are generally created by people who are not firing on all cylinders. If you don’t believe me, try perusing the Facebook page that posted the video I included above. How’s about we all sit back, let the investigation get completed and then, and only then, if you have some wild theory about something, let’s talk about it. In the meantime, how about we let the families and friends of those lost or injured mourn in relative peace, without throwing all this conspiracy theory bullshit around.