Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Another Lawful Gun Owner Goes Berserk - South Dakota

An old grudge that spanned more than a half-century may have led a 73-year-old man to fatally shoot his long-ago classmate at his South Dakota home, according to a court affidavit filed Thursday.

Carl V. Ericsson, of Watertown, was denied bond Thursday during his first court appearance on a first-degree murder charge. The former high school sports star is accused of shooting retired Madison High School teacher and track coach Norman Johnson, 72, after Johnson answered the door at his house on Tuesday evening in Madison.
I guess this story could also argue for the PERMANENT loss of gun rights. Some unfit gun owners NEVER stop being a danger to themselves and others.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

6 comments:

  1. The reports are saying that this guy never had so much as a speeding ticket previously and he held a grudge against this guy for nearly 50 years.

    I'm curious as to HOW you would have determined that this guy was unfit to own guns before the incident happened.

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  2. If the shooter is convicted, and that's likely, he certainly will lose his gun rights. He's also likely to die in prison. But as Not My Real Name observed, how would you have identified him as a problem before this? You say that some gun owners are unfit, but your solution is to take guns away from all gun owners.

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    1. Godammit Greg, that's not my solution. I would like to see serious mental health screening as a requirement for gun ownership, for one thing, which would identify some of these unfit guys.

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    2. Mikeb, we're not stupid, despite what your side keeps saying. I look at all the proposed regulations and restrictions here, and what I see, if completely enacted, would make legal gun ownership so difficult that hardly anyone would qualify. Hardly anyone would have the time or the money to go through the whole process. So while you claim that you don't want to ban private ownership, and while you claim that your proposals would only cut legal ownership in half, the practical effect of what you want would make the number of legal gun owners almost zero.

      Illegal gun owners, on the other hand, would be unaffected.

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  3. And while we're on the subject, committing murder isn't lawful, and this man will learn.

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  4. Not a single idea on how you would have determined that this guy was a threat? That's odd, usually the bloggers here are so verbose.

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