High Powered Rifle May Make The Arizona Sheriff's Deputy Shooting Part of Another Mass Shooting

God forbid we restrict high powered rifles so they aren't used to kill people.

Where would the FUN be in that?

Every time someone is killed by firearms, it becomes a question of some people's pleasure versus other people's deaths.  Sometimes it is the SAME people's pleasure and / or death, when it is the pro-gunners who are also shot, as in the Skyway Washington shootings by the Mt. Rainier Ranger shootist.

In case readers are having trouble keeping the mass shootings straight, the Skyway Washington mass shooting was where two gun lunatics shot four other gun lunatics, and then one of the them shot and killed a park ranger, for good measure.

Since this latest shooting occurred on Sunday, while the other two shootings occurred on or around Friday; that may place them too far apart in time to qualify as a mass shooting for statistical purposes.  We won't know until a specific time of death is released. But since two people were killed by what now appears may be the same high powered rifle, that meets the minimum number of dead innocent victims for the stat counting criteria for mass shootings last week.

But hey, so long as the gun loons FEEL safer, it doesn't really matter if they really ARE safer, or if the rest of us are in greater danger, does it?  And so long as they are enjoying their delusional sense of power while playing with their lethal toys, it would ruin their pleasure if we required them to be, you know, responsible.

After all, just because it is illegal to sell a firearm to a prohibited person, we shouldn't expect them to actually FIND OUT if a person is prohibited before putting a firearm in that person's hand.  Because along with all that imaginary safety, that imaginary power they get from their firearm, they also gain the imaginary omniscience to know, just by looking at people, who is good and safe and who is not.  It would spoil their illusion to actually check; they might find out their impression was wrong.

And spoiling their illusion is far worse, in their minds, than being responsible, even when other people's lives are lost because of legal guns ending up in the hands of people who kill or rob or rape or just threaten other people.

So long as we keep the ILLUSION alive, it doesn't matter if we keep PEOPLE alive......at least, not in THEIR minds, or what passes for their minds.

In reading about the earlier shooting deaths of the two out of state tourists, I was caught by the phrase:

"It doesn't appear it was provoked in any way, that's what makes it so unusual and baffling for our detectives,"

From MSNBC.com and the AP:

Photo of the slain deputy

Authorities look for link between Arizona slayings

PHOENIX — Authorities are investigating whether a sheriff's deputy shot to death while answering a burglary call and a New Hampshire couple found dead in their car in Arizona were killed by the same gunman.

Deputy William Coleman, 50, was gunned down early Sunday at a north Phoenix medical building.

A man got out of a van and opened fire, striking Coleman under his bulletproof vest, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. The suspect was shot and killed by other deputies.

The Arizona Republic reported that Coleman and the couple near the resort town of Sedona on Friday were all shot with a high-powered rifle. And the two crime scenes are connected by Interstate 17.

The theory that the two shootings may be the work of the same gunman could explain why the man decided to open fire on the deputies, Deputy Jeffrey Sprong, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, told the Republic.

"That (a connection) is definitely something our investigators will look into," Sprong said. "It wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be the same guy."

Yavapai County sheriff's officials says they're comparing evidence with Maricopa County investigators and expect to have results sometime Monday.

Members of a Jeep club found James Johnson of Jaffrey, N.H., and Carol Raynsford of Nelson, N.H. in their red older-model Subaru sedan at a remote turnout on Arizona 89A on Friday morning.
Someone shot them with a .223-caliber rifle while they were parked on a highway turnout, Yavapai County sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn said. Detectives found numerous casings from the rifle on both sides of the car.
"It doesn't appear it was provoked in any way, that's what makes it so unusual and baffling for our detectives," he said. D'Evelyn said Johnson and Raynsford were not married but he did not know if they were romantically involved or just friends.
The couple were apparently vacationing in the area and detectives are trying to trace their travels.
Authorities have posted a reward and are asking anyone with information to call the sheriff's office or the county's Silent Witness program.
Deputies aren't sure when Johnson and Raynsford were killed, D'Evelyn said. Some callers reported seeing the car parked at the turnout on Thursday, and detectives are using receipts and other items found inside the vehicle to try to trace their steps and establish a timeline.
Coleman was a 20-year veteran. He is survived by a wife and two young children, ages 4 and 7, Arpaio said. He also has grown children in another state.
Coleman was assigned as a patrol deputy but had previously worked the sheriff's lake patrol unit.