Another Shooting, this one in Connecticut

No, we don't have too many shootings!  There aren't too  many guns!  Just ask the gun nuts, and don't look at television, listent to the radio, or view news on the internet, or pay attention to any other media. 

I'm betting this will be another murder suicide, given the odds.  I'll update you as news provides more details.  In any case, clearly, places like hospitals are WONDERFUL places to carry firearms, right?  We wouldn't want to stop our gun nuts from taking their fetish objects with them everywhere would we?

from MSNBC.com:

Two shot at Connecticut hospital

By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

Updated at 8:15 p.m. ET: Two people were shot Wednesday at a long-term-care hospital in New Britain, Conn., and a suspect was in custody, police said.

The extent of the injuries wasn't known, Mayor Timothy O'Brien told The Hartford Courant. O'Brien said he had been told that the suspect is a worker at the Hospital for Special Care, a long-term acute-care hospital specializing in pulmonary and brain injuries and other complex conditions. 

---

It wasn't immediately known whether the victims were also hospital employees.

The hospital was evacuated, including all employees not critical to patient care, and the hospital was on lockdown, a spokesperson told NBC station WVIT of Hartford.

A Busy Day - Another Murder Suicide, this one in Wisconsin, another lax gun law state

But I'm sure that the gun loons are only gripping their fetish objects even tighter, because no reason, no logic, no appeal will separate them from the fantasy into which they retreat with their gun delusions.

How many more instances of murder and suicide is that just today, compared to self defense uses of firearms? Not a good ratio apparently, but one that argues strongly for more gun regulation and fewer guns.

But heck, what are a few dead wives and some kids, so long as they have their precious guns, right? To the gun nuts, only their guns are important, not other lives.

And I've only started to scratch the surface of these gun violent events in the news........

from HTRN news:

Police: De Pere dad who killed wife, kids, self, was being kicked out

DE PERE — Denis Bay’s wife was throwing him out of the house on the day he shot and killed his wife and two children before committing suicide, De Pere police have concluded.
Long-running marital troubles were a primary source of stress leading up to the Feb. 3 murder-suicide that left the four family members dead in their east-side home, Police Chief Derek Beiderwieden said Wednesday.

Although investigators cannot pinpoint Bay’s exact motive, Beiderwieden said, his wife’s decision to throw him out of the house that day appears to be “the trigger.”

“When you piece it all together, it kind of makes sense,” the chief said.

The couple was in the middle of a divorce after almost 20 years of marriage.

De Pere police are wrapping up their investigation into the incident in which Bay, 46, shot and killed his wife, Michelle, 44, their daughter, Andrea, 14, and their son, Daniel, 10, before shooting and killing himself.

Beiderwieden said the murder weapon was a .45-caliber handgun that Michelle had bought for her husband as a gift three years earlier.

Rev. Matthew Knapp, a spokesman for the Bay family, said there would be no comment on the results of the police investigation.

De Pere police timeline

The following is a timeline of the incident released today by De Pere police. It is presented verbatim and is not edited in any way.

We have developed a timeline of the events leading up to the shooting at 1245 S Erie St on February 3, 2012.

Background: Denis and Michelle Bay had been having marital problems for quite some time according to family, friends and neighbors. Michelle had moved out of the house with the kids sometime around October 2010, but moved back in around September 2011. They owned the house at 1245 S Erie since December 1999. There were some serious money issues – Denis lost his job at Krueger Industries on March 31, 2011. He was employed as a Business Process Engineer starting October 19, 1998. He was let go due to “elimination of position as a result of consolidation of resources.”

Another Florida Murder Suicide with a Firearm, from the Weekend

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you when our gun nuts tell us that we shouldn't be too concerned about gun violence, because there just isn't that much, so we should be happy they are fondling their fetish objects.

Rather, this all seems to strongly suggest they just like to downplay, deny, lie, and just plain ignore the bad things done with all the guns in this country, things we'd all be better off NOT having happen, by NOT having all these guns around.  Yup, it looks like this was one of the many examples of gun violence that only hit little local news outlets, so it is easy for the gun nuts to turn a blind eye.  Good thing we're here to keep that from happening.

The 80 mile moped ride made for a novel twist to the classic murder suicide.  It's Florida; how hard could it have been for this man to get a firearm?  We sure wouldn't want to make that a DIFFICULT thing, now would we?  Come between gun nuts and every possible firearm fetish object they might want to own? What's a little murder suicide compared to that?  According to the gun nuts, that's perfectly acceptable - to them.

After all, how can someone get upset about guns when all this man did was shoot his business partner in front of the man's wife and children?  I mean, it's not like events like this should cause us to think badly about gun violence is it? (Of course it is!).  Gun nuts keep telling us there is only a handful of violent incidents like this, not enough to justify regulating firearms.  But the news reporting tells us otherwise, often, daily, sometimes multiple occurrences in any given day.

from the Sheepshead Bay Florida News blog:

The former storefront of Bauer Comfort (left), Gorbach (top) and Sergatiouk (bottom)

Two Sheepshead Bay Businessmen Dead In Florida Murder-Suicide

Former partners of a Sheepshead Bay-based business are dead after one of the partners killed the other on Saturday, then turned the gun on himself. Their business relationship, which soured two years ago, is believed to be the primary motive.
Aleksandr Gorbach’s wife and children watched Gorbach, 43, bleed to death Saturday evening by a shotgun blast to the chest delivered by former business partner Mikhail Sergatiouk.

According to WPTV, a local news station serving Port Saint Lucie, where Gorbach lived:

When Port St. Lucie police arrived at Gorbach’s house and spoke with his wife and children, they learned Gorbach was cleaning fish in the kitchen sink when they heard a “bang” and glass breaking.
“They next saw Aleksandr fall back to the ground with extensive trauma to his chest,” the warrant application states.
His wound appeared consistent with a shotgun blast. A screen enclosure had been cut, and Gorbach’s wife told police it had not been cut prior to the incident.

According to other reports, Sergatiouk rode a moped to Gorbach’s home from Coral Springs – a distance of about 80 miles. After shooting Gorbach, he rode the moped back, confessed to his family, then took off. His body was later found two miles away with what appeared to be a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
Sergatiouk’s body was not found until Monday morning.
The local CBS affiliate has additional details:

Port St. Lucie Police say Mikhail Sergatiouk rode his moped all the way from Broward County to the residence of Aleksandr Gorbach on Saturday, cut a hole in a screened enclosure and hid out, waiting for the right moment with a sawed-off shotgun in hand.
Gorbach, the victim was in the kitchen cooking dinner when the family heard a loud blast. His wife and three young children saw him fall to the ground, police report.
Gorbach died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Sergatiouk fled on his moped back to Broward County, where police say he confessed to his wife and child that he had just killed his business partner, Aleksandr Gorbach.
The suspect’s family called police and Sergatiouk was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head yesterday next to Sample Road in Coral Springs. Police say he used the same sawed-off shotgun.

After interviewing family members, investigators now believe a messy dissolution of a Sheepshead Bay-based business is at the root of the grisly murder-suicide.
Gorbach and Sergatiouk were business partners in Bauer Comfort, a luxury bedding store formerly located at 1402 Avenue Z.
The location closed in May 2010, moving to Midwood on Coney Island Avenue. According to family members, it was around that time that Gorbach and Segatiouk split ways, in a separation that appears to have left Sergatiouk feeling betrayed – and broke.
WPTV reports:

[Sergatiouk's daughter] knew her father didn’t like Gorbach due to a “bad business separation,” during which Sergatiouk lost a large amount of money.
Gorbach’s wife told Port St. Lucie police she and her husband “were in financial despair and the house was currently in foreclosure,” records state.
“Aleksandr’s main source of income is his company identified as Bauer Comfort which is based out of his listed residence,” the warrant application states.
… Sergatiouk’s wife and daughter didn’t know Sergatiouk to carry a gun, and thought “this occurred because Mikhail was still angry over the failed business venture,” the application states.
… Gorbach’s wife told police Gorbach had a “business falling out” with Sergatiouk, saying she “believes the business was not dissolved by mutual agreement,” records show.
She thought that happened about two years ago. She said her husband tried to call Sergatiouk within the past six months, but they apparently never spoke.

And the LATEST Murder Suicide with a Firearm IS.......

This is perfectly acceptable to our gun nuts. So long as they continue to embrace their fetish objects, without let or hindrance, any amount of gun violence is excusable in their eyes.  Anything is ok, so long as nothing comes between them and the firearm they love more than life itself - other people's lives anyway.

From the Silicon Valley Mercury News and the Sacramento Bee:

Murder-suicide at meeting of Sacramento model airplane buffs

By Bill Lindelof and Kim Minugh

Sacramento Bee

mercurynews.com

Posted:   02/22/2012 10:26:08 AM PST

Two men were killed Tuesday night in a murder-suicide in the parking lot of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District headquarters, Sacramento police officials report.
The Sacramento County Coroner's Office on Wednesday morning identified the dead as Robert Gully, 73, of West Sacramento and Jerome Votaw, 62, of Sacramento.
Police spokesman Andrew Pettit said the men were not SMUD employees but were among a group of people using the facilities for a meeting. Police believe that the men were part of a group of model airplane enthusiasts.
Pettit provided these details about the fatal incident:
Police received a call at 7:18 p.m. about a verbal altercation among two men and a woman in the parking lot outside SMUD's West Building.
Gully pulled out a handgun and shot Votaw at least once in the upper body.
The woman ran away toward the lobby, and the gunman shot multiple rounds at her.
She reached the lobby to take cover while the gunman continued to shoot at her, shattering glass in the lobby.
An acquaintance of the shooter came out of the building and tried to talk to him. As they were talking in the parking lot, police officers arrived and Gully shot himself.
Both Gully and Votaw were pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was not injured.
After the shooting, police talked to "a handful" of witnesses in the lobby, including a security guard.
Pettit declined to discuss the subject of the dispute pending an investigation by homicide detectives, but said they are investigating the possibility of a love triangle.

He said no one else was injured. -

Another Mass Shooting

We have too many guns; our gun culture is toxic and destructive, not the noble and heroic fantasy of the gun lunatics who are delusional in ignoring the reality of too many guns in this country and too many shootings.  We could reduce these occurrences, if not eliminate them entirely, if we choose to do so. It works consistently everywhere it has been attempted to reduce gun violence by reducing the number of guns in circulation.

But gun nuts put their fantasy fetish objects and their silly daydreams of how powerful and heroic they are over the plain and obvious reality of gun violence in this country. It hurts people far more often than it saves anyone, and when it is used to save, there are so very often better means to accomplish the same end.

THIS is the essence of our gun culture; people armed to the teeth doing what they think is right instead of relying on law enforcement and courts to more sanely, more peacefully, and less emotionally resolve conflicts.  I have no doubt every domestic abuser believes he is right, every person who wrongly shoots someone believes they were doing something important and necessary.  Guns in the hands of people kill people, and without guns in their hands, fewer people succeed at killing other people.

From NBC.com and the wire services by way of MSNBC.com:

2 dead, 3 wounded during fire, shooting at Los Angeles home

Patrick T. Fallon / AP

Firefighters battled a fire in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon at a house where two people were shot and killed and three were wounded.

A gunman and one of his victims were found dead inside the smoldering remains of a Los Angeles house on Thursday. Three other gunshot victims were rescued from the burning home earlier that afternoon by police and firefighters, authorities said.
The bodies of the gunman and victim were found after the fire was out and authorities were able to search the house, a 1917 single-story rambler in LA's East Hollywood neighborhood, the Associated Press reported.
The three other victims – two 38-year-old women and a 34-year-old man – had been shot by the time police and firefighters arrived. They were transported in serious condition to an undisclosed hospital and were expected to survive.
Read more at NBCLosAngeles.com
The incident began shortly before 1 p.m. when emergency personnel responded to the home. Firefighters did not enter the home because they worried the gunman was still at large, fire Capt. Jaime Moore told the AP.
Authorities said the shooting was called "domestically motivated" and said the gunman had a relationship with one of the surviving victims, the AP reported.
Authorities cordoned off the block and nearby residents were evacuated, said Los Angeles Police Department Commander Andrew Smith. Some neighbors were concerned that gusty winds could spread the flames in the dense East Hollywood neighborhood.
It took about 150 firefighters and two and a half hours to fight the blaze, according to the Los Angeles Times. When the fire was out, cadaver dogs combed the scene for other possible bodies.
Neighbor Angelica De Paz, speaking in Spanish, told the AP that she was about to run errands when she saw a man kick in the front door of the house where the incident took place. The man was in his 20s or 30s, she said, and he wore a black shirt and blue jeans.
About five minutes later, De Paz said, she received a call from a neighbor who said the house was on fire.
"I thought it was a joke," De Paz said.
Another neighbor, Darwin Urbina, told the AP that he saw a man of the same description sitting on a curb outside the house shortly before he heard shots.
"He had this intent look," Urbina said. "He just stared at me for a while."
Urbina, who has lived in the neighborhood for a decade, described it as marked by gangs and drugs.

Mike Meadows / AP

Firefighters battle a blaze at a Los Angeles home on Thursday afternoon. A 34-year-old man and two 38-year-old women were shot; police removed them from the home and sent them to the hospital. They were in serious condition but were expected to survive, officials said.

Pennsylvaia Mass Shooting

So far we appear to be hearing the elderly gentleman's side of this story.  While I emphatically agree that it is a terrible thing for this man to have been knocked down while enjoying his trail ride, I have to wonder if a fatality was really necessary in this situation.

Cops: Man, 65, kills teen who knocks him off bicycle

Cyclist is released by police, who say two teenagers assaulted him

msnbc.com
updated 1/26/2012 3:19:04 AM ET

A 65-year-old man who was knocked off his bicycle by three teenagers on a Pennsylvania trail shot two of them, killing one, police said according to reports.

The Reading Eagle newspaper said the wounded teen, 16, was taken to hospital and the third, aged 15, was taken in for questioning and was later committed to a youth center.

The paper said the mother of the slain boy, 16, asked officials not to release his name until she had been able to tell other members of the family what happened.

The incident happened on the Thun Trail near a bridge over the Schuylkill River, between Reading and West Reading just after noon Wednesday.

"There was one juvenile who was shot and is deceased [and] another juvenile who was shot and is in surgery," Police Chief Jed Habecker said, according to a report by the WFMZ-TV station.

According to police, the 65-year-old was riding his bicycle when the teens knocked him to the ground, the station said.

Police said two teens then assaulted the man, who drew his gun and shot them.

The man was released by police after they consulted with District Attorney John Adams late Wednesday, WFMZ reported.

Another Mass Shooting, this one in New Mexico

Some of our gun nuts don't believe we should have any firearms restrictions.

Clearly we do need restrictions, and better enforcement to prevent prohibited individuals from getting armed, as shown by this example from the current news cycle.  We have too many guns, they are too easily available, and we should end our gun culture that glorifies violence and lethal weapons.

Because, clearly, while there is undoubtedly good in all human beings, it is not always the part of an individual human being that is in control of a dangerous lethal weapon.

Another Faux Nuissance report from the Murdoch Propaganda machine, by way of aol.com news:

Manhunt under way for landlord who allegedly killed tenants over rent money

A nationwide manhunt was under way Wednesday after cops said that a New Mexico landlord shot dead two of his tenants following an argument over rent money.

An arrest warrant for Arthur "Arturo" Anaya of Santa Fe was issued on two counts of murder after Theresa Vigil, 51, and her daughter's boyfriend, 16-year-old Austin Urban, were shot dead Monday, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

The two victims lived in a mobile home on Anaya's land in Santa Fe, along with Vigil's 17-year-old daughter Natalie, according to the newspaper.

Anaya, 54, is accused of arguing with Vigil on the phone about rent she owed before walking to the mobile home armed with a handgun, the arrest warrant states.

He then allegedly punched Vigil and her daughter in the face, before shooting Austin in the mouth. He then shot Vigil in the forehead, according to the police document.

After the shooting, Anaya reportedly told Natalie to put the bodies of her mom and boyfriend in the trunk of her car and threatened to shoot her when she argued that they were still alive.

Natalie eventually persuaded Anaya to let her take her mother to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her boyfriend was reportedly left at the scene, and Anaya fled.

Anaya, who previously was convicted of numerous crimes, including assault, false imprisonment and armed robbery, is described as having graying hair and brown eyes and is around 5-foot-6. 

It was not known if he remained in the Santa Fe area.

"He is considered to be armed and dangerous and violent, according to his prior criminal history," a statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department said.

Newscore contributed to this report. 

Blow Out the Candles, Blow Away the Guests

Another mass shooting.  We miss some of these, but even so, we are averaging one or two a week, or more.
Enough violence, enough mass shootings, enough guns.

From the HuffPo and the AP.

And here is a relatively recent murder suicide from 'bama involving gun violence

This is from a few months ago, but it isn't that old.  I post it here to raise awareness of the frequency with which these occur.

From MSNBC.com and 13.com:

UPDATE: Victims named in apparent murder-suicide involving cop

By: Shannon Delcambre , Hilary Golston | Alabama's13.com
Published: September 07, 2011

BIRMINGHAM - The Irondale Police Department reports a Birmingham police detective apparently shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself.
The corner's office says 41-year-old "Rodney Jerome Wilson" shot his 23-year old wife, "Uteva Monique Wilson" at their Irondale home this morning.
It happened about 3:00 a.m. CT Wednesday at the Enclave at Mountain Brook apartments. Irondale Police arrived in the 3,000 block of Sharpsburg Circle.
The IPD says the Birmingham officer worked as a burglary detective, and allegedly shot and killed his wife.
The Birmingham officer then called his dispatchers who in turn, called Irondale Police to say there had been an officer involved shooting.
Two children, a little boy and a little girl were at home during the shooting, but police report they stayed in their rooms.
Birmingham Police called Irondale Police to respond, and when they arrived, they found the Birmingham Officer dead from a gunshot wound.
The owner of a store near where Det. Wilson lived reported seeing the couple. Eric Walker says it appeared Wilson was chivalrous towards his wife and the couple didn’t appear to have trouble.
"He'd come in every morning before going to work. He'd come and get a Welch’s grape juice, sometimes he'd get a coffee,” Walker told Alabama 13’s Hilary Golston. “He seemed to me to be a mild mannered man.”
A nearby day care facility also confirmed to Golston that the facility took care of two small children. A woman at the daycare said Wilson did most of the talking when they came to pick up the kids and he paid. Besides that, she didn’t see any visible problems between the two.
Neighbors did tell us, off camera, that they had witnessed the couple having marital problems in the past.
Wilson had been with Birmingham Police for 10.5 years.

Hold people accountable for this kind of gun violence AFTER they're dead? Yeah, right.

That's too little, too damned late for all the people whose rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness are damaged by the people using guns, with access to guns, with too easy availability of guns.  It is way too damned late and it's way too damned little.  It is way too damned little weight that is given to the rights of the victims, and way too much weight given to the people with these guns to have them.  Holding them accountable after they've done the damage is NOT an acceptable or remotely reasonable response.

Murder Suicide , this one in Fresno

Another Mass Shooting, another Murder Suicide. 

The much vaunted constructive uses of guns for self-defense? Not so much.

From the HuffPo:

4 Dead In Murder-suicide; 5th Person Hurt In Fresno, Calif.

FRESNO, Calif. -- Two adults and two children were killed in an apparent murder-suicide Sunday at an apartment building in California's Central Valley, while a fifth person was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.
Police were called to investigate a disturbance at the Fresno home shortly before 7 a.m. They found a man outside the apartment suffering from a stab wound, Fresno Police Lt. Mark Salazar said.
The man told officers his "wife" was inside and causing a disturbance; authorities later determined the woman was his live-in girlfriend, Salazar said.
Police then heard a gunshot and rushed inside. They found a woman believed to be in her 20s with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a man in his 20s or 30s dead of a gunshot wound, he said.
Two children – an 18-month-old and a 3-year-old – also died from gunshot wounds. The children were the dead woman's children, and all five people involved were Hispanic, Salazar said. No names were released.
"We have not done an autopsy yet and we're continuing the investigation, but we believe it was a murder-suicide," Salazar said. "We cannot confirm the order of events, and we don't know what led up to the shooting."
Police also were still investigating the circumstances around the man suffering from a stab wound, Capt. Dennis Bridges told The Fresno Bee. Bridges did not know if there was a history of domestic violence calls or other disturbances at the apartment.
The man suffering from the stab wound was taken to a local hospital, where he was reported to be in critical condition.
A neighbor, Eric Gonzalez, described the residents of the apartment as a "normal" family.

"I never saw them fighting. They would come out with the baby carriage, and the man was taking care of his children," he told an Associated Press reporter outside the apartment complex.
Gonzalez said he did not hear any fighting or gunshots before the incident.

New Orleans Mass Shooting, Complicated with Grenades

Just to point out, this wouldn't have even made the radar of national news if it hadn't been for the novelty of ALSO involving grenades in addition to being a mass shooting and the wounding of law enforcement.

We have a right to be free from fear of gun violence.  We have a right in order to reasonably bring that about, to have fewer guns with more restrictive ownership and transfer regulation.

We do not have life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness when we have to worry about people with guns shooting us.  This is true of domestic violence, this is true of crime, this is true of people who are otherwise law abiding but go off their nut committing crimes of passion, like the many - MANY - murder suicides we have seen, or just plain dumb-ass careless accidents, like the school children in Texas who were shot, or the woman walking her dogs, or the the couple of cases of hunters shot BY their dogs. 

In contrast to the bad result of people having firearms, we see relatively few constructive uses of firearms for the primary reason cited of self-defense, and many of those defensive uses could equally be accomplished with non-lethal means like pepper spray, or tasers and stun guns.

Our law enforcement officers should be safer in pursuit of their duty than they are. As I noted earlier, in all of 2011, there were NO fatal shootings of law enforcement officers in the entire UK, with a total population of 63 million people.  The entire country had a handful of murder suicides, and only one that I could find that involved firearms in all of 2011, compared to multiple occurrences every week here in the U.S., mostly involving firearms.  The number of suicides in the UK, in comparison is approximately half that of the suicide rate of the U.S,, where more than half of all suicides involve firearms.  Per the National Institute of Mental Health just having firearms in the home is a risk factor for suicides.  The use of firearms in crimes are relatively rare in comparison to the U.S., proving the argument that criminals will continue to have lots of guns is false.

Our gun culture is part of our violence problem.  Our gun culture is not making us safer or more free; it is making our country more dangerous, and in doing that it is making us less free, it is making us less civil and less civilized. 

Or, we could continue to have more of this, with or without grenades (From the New Orleans Times Picayune:

Gunmen shoot 5 inside home in eastern New Orleans; kill 3

Published: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 10:18 AM     Updated: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 8:30 PM

By Danny Monteverde, The Times-Picayune

Chaos broke out in eastern New Orleans today when gunmen killed three people and injured two others inside a red-brick ranch house in a quiet residential neighborhood. The violence continued when a gunfight broke out between police and the suspects after a car chase. Cops killed one of the suspects and shot two others.

Enlarge Michael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune Moments after being shot by police, a murder suspect is checked for signs of life by a paramedic with New Orleans EMS as a female suspect lies on the ground at Press Drive and Chef Menteur Highway on Thursday, January 12, 2012. The trio are suspects in the shooting on Devine Avenue that left five people shot, three fatally. 3 killed, 2 injured in eastern New Orleans gallery (16 photos)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Police were called to 7427 Devine Ave. about 9:30 a.m., where they found a man and a woman dead inside the home, and two other women and a man with gunshot wounds, according to Officer Garry Flot, a department spokesman.
The three survivors were transported to a hospital, where one man later died, according to the Orleans Parish coroner's office.
A description of the gunmen, who allegedly escaped in a red Pontiac, was broadcast immediately, Flot said.
Police spotted the vehicle and a chase ensued. It ended when the car crashed into a sign in front of a Goodyear tire shop at the intersection of Chef Menteur Highway and Press Drive, according to Deputy Superintendent Kirk Bouyelas.
After the crash, a man got out of the vehicle and fired at the officers. The officers returned fire, killing him and injuring a man and woman who were also in the car.
The injured occupants of the car were taken to a hospital, Bouyelas said. They will be booked with the attempted murder of a policeman and the murders in the east, Bouyelas said. One policeman was also taken to a hospital suffering from what Bouyelas described as a "graze wound" to his leg.

5 shot, 3 fatally in eastern New Orleans; 1 suspect dies in police shootout Chaos broke out in eastern New Orleans today when gunmen killed three people and injured two others. A gunfight broke out between police and the suspects after a car chase. Cops killed one of the suspects and shot two others. Watch video

Bouyelas could not say how many shots were fired. However, nearly three dozen evidence cones were placed at the scene. One couple, who did not want to be identified, were in a Walgreens across the street from the tire shop when they heard "a bunch of pops outside." They came outside and saw the dead suspect and police.

OR, we could tighten up our regulation on guns, and have fewer of them, particularly in the hands of criminals, dangerously mentally ill people, and drug users.

Update on the Recent North Carolina Mass Shooting

One more gun death in the 2012 gun violence tally.


From MSNBC.com:

Man dies a day after killing 3 co-workers at NC lumber company

By msnbc.com staff and news services

 

STAR, N.C. -- The man suspected of fatally shooting three co-workers and wounding a fourth at a North Carolina lumber company has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Ronald Dean Davis, 50, of Star, N.C., died Saturday morning at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, a day after he shot himself in the head, Montgomery County Sheriff Dempsey Owens said in a news release.
Authorities said Davis walked into McBride Lumber Company on Friday morning and opened fire, killing three and critically wounding one.
He then went home and shot himself. Officers found him slumped on his couch.
Co-workers at McBride Lumber described Davis as disgruntled and mentioned possible harassment by the victims, but the sheriff said the investigation into a motive continues, the Montgomery Herald reported.
He said Davis targeted his victims at the company, where 16 people were working when the shooting occurred.
The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this story.

Another Mass Shooting, Surprise! (Not) It's a Murder / Suicide!

Who let this guy have a gun?

How many murder suicides, how many law enforcement killings, how many individual shootings have we had so far this year already?  How many threats with guns, how many carjackings, how many robberies, all with guns that were legal at some point in time, and which became crime guns.

They weren't all stolen; I doubt most of them were.

And how very few firearm self defense stories have we had so far that were justified killings?

I've seen one so far this year.  ONE.

From MSNBC.com:  Gunman kills 3, wounds 1 at NC lumber company

By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

STAR, N.C. -- A man described by witnesses as a disgruntled worker opened fire Friday at a central North Carolina lumber company, killing three people and injuring one before shooting himself, local media reported.
Montgomery County Sheriff Dempsey Owens told WXII 12 that deputies were called to the McBride Lumber Company just after 6 a.m.
He said deputies found four people shot inside the business, three of whom died. One worker was airlifted to a hospital.
The suspect, who fled the scene, was identified by workers at the firm, allowing deputies to track him to his house, WFMY-TV reported.
Owens told WXII that the suspect had shot himself and was airlifted to a hospital. His condition was not immediately known.
WRAL.com identified the suspect as Ronald Dean Davis, 50.
Witnesses reported that Davis was a disgruntled employee, the sheriff told WXII.

• Read local coverage from WXII

Owens said the the shooter left a note, but did not give the details of its contents, according to WFMY.
A man who answered the phone at the company confirmed that there was a shooting but would not give details, according to NBC News.
McBride Lumber Company is a second-generation family-owned business that was started in the 1950s, according to its website. The company specializes in the manufacture of custom pallets for a variety of businesses, including furniture, automotive, masonry and textile.
This is a developing news story. Check back for more details.
NBC News, NBC affiliate WXII 12 and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

And I wouldn't be surprised if this gunman was absolutely convinced that he needed that gun and that he was doing the right thing with it, that he had a moral imperative to act as he did.

One of the many problems with having so many firearms in our violent, gun culture society is that we have to trust the judgment of those with guns, when clearly, as is evident from all the murder/suicides every week, and the other gun violence which continues to put us statistically far higher than other similar countries without all these guns,  there are a lot of people who do not make good decisions.  Those guns result in innocent people having NO choice, NO safety from the nut with a gun, NO FREEDOM.

NO BASIC HUMAN RIGHT, because that right is taken from them by a person - usually, but not always, male - who has convinced himself he needs to have a gun and be able to use it when he thinks it is appropriate.

Given the clearly demonstrated evidence that there are too many people who make bad choices with their firearms, either through these incidents, or accidents, or careless trading, selling, or giving of their firearms to lawfully prohibited people, this quantity of guns as they are currently held in our population is clearly a bad idea, an idea which robs other people of THEIR rights to LIFE, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and FREEDOM FROM FEAR.

This gun culture, as it is now, was never envisioned by our founding fathers, or the philosophical sources that formed their thinking.  They would not approve it, condone it in the name of some 'right', or continue with it as it is now.  They engaged in philosophical exercises, but they had their feet firmly in the real world, not the abstract.

They weren't stupid.  They didn't accept results like this.  They relied on objective evidence, and adapted, grew, progressed and evolved in their thinking.

All of us are a mix of good and evil; it is foll to expect that good will always be in control of the decision making processes of someone with a gun when so often those thought processes are flawed, and when too often it is not good that wins the internal debate of the gunman over the decision to harm themselves and others.

To make any assumption that is inconsistent with those facts, the objective evidence, would not be philosophical.  It would simply be stupid, and irrational, and impaired by sever cognitive bias.

And Here is Yet Another Mass Shooting

More gun violence, which consistently tracks with gun availability.  It is a reasonable expectation that sooner or later people will be tired of these mass shootings.

It does raise the important question though.....which legal gun owner screwed up in order for a firearm to end up in the hands of a convicted murderer THIS TIME?

From MSNBC.com and the news services:

Report: Convicted murderer kills 3 relatives, self

Gunman cared for terminally ill wife and 'was under a lot of pressure,' his brother tells newspaper

LOGAN, Ohio — A convicted murderer shot and killed his wife's two sisters and his son before turning the gun on himself, according to a report. 
Deputies were called to a house about 5 miles north of Logan at about 5:30 p.m. Monday for a possible hostage situation, according to the Hocking County Sheriff's Office. They stormed the house at about 9 p.m.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that Keith Gilkey of Hickman, Ky., confirmed that his 63-year-old brother Paul was the shooter. Keith Gilkey said Paul was stressed over caring for his terminally ill wife. Keith Gilkey said his brother killed his two sisters-in-law and his son and then killed himself.
Keith Gilkey told the newspaper that his brother "was under a lot of pressure."
Citing state records, the Dispatch reported that Paul Gilkey was convicted of murder in 1974. It added that he was released from prison in 1988.
Cancer Authorities wouldn't confirm the names of those dead. However, Keith Gilkey identified the one of victims as Paul's 38-year-old son Leroy Gilkey.
The newspaper said the wife's son from another marriage escaped. The wife, who has cancer, remained in the home and wasn't shot. Speaking to the Dispatch, Keith Gilkey identified her as Darlene, 59.
Logan is about 50 miles southeast of Columbus.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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.