The Oregon School Shooter's Mom, Laura Harper - Shades of the Lanza Family

NBC

His mother, Laurel Harper wrote about her passion for firearms in online postings to Yahoo! Answers three years ago. "I keep all my mags full. I keep two full mags in my Glock case. And the ARs & AKs all have loaded mags," she wrote, referring to magazines of ammunition, a Glock handgun and military-style rifles. 

"No one will be 'dropping' by my house uninvited without acknowledgement," the post went on to say. Another post criticizes another person over poor judgement using "airsoft" pellet guns, and emphasizes gun safety. 


Harper did not return phone calls and emails from NBC News. The email address used in some of the postings appears to be linked to her. 

In another post nine years ago about autism, Laurel Harper said: "My son has Asperger's. He's no babbling idiot nor is his life worthless. He's very intelligent and is working on a career in film making." 

A note was found at the scene of the rampage in which Christopher Harper-Mercer said he was "in a bad way" and was depressed, law enforcement officials said. His mother told investigators that he struggled with mental health issues, The Associated Press reported.

Florida Man Shoots Two Intruders - The Surviving Burglar Charged with Murder

Guns dot com

A Florida man returning to his Lantana home last week opened fire on two intruders he found inside, killing one and seriously injuring the other. Now the surviving suspect is charged with murder for the death of his accomplice.

Juan Pablo Flores, 27, came home around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 13 and noticed there were lights on inside the house when there should not have been, the Palm Beach Post reported. So Flores, who was armed, told his girlfriend to stay in the car as he walked toward the home. Once inside, he discovered his two dogs had been killed.

Flores then came face to face with Tavarress Alexander Wilson and Obrian Simms, who were in the middle of burglarizing his home. According to the homeowner, one of the suspects aimed an assault rifle at him, but Flores fired first, striking both suspects. Flores then ran out the front door and later told police he could hear shots being fired as he ran.

Wilson, who previously served six years in prison for armed robbery and carjacking, now faces charges for second-degree murder for his part in Simms’ death and is being held without bond. In Florida, as in most states, a suspect can be charged with murder if the death of an accomplice occurs while the suspects are involved in the commission of a felony, regardless of how the suspect is killed.

California Man Arrested for a Killing that Someone Else Did

Local news reports

A 28-year-old Redding man was arrested early Sunday in the shooting death of his friend, even though he didn't fire a gun.

The victim was shot and killed early Sunday morning when his friend stirred a confrontation while looking for his ex-girlfriend in Shasta Lake, Shasta County sheriff's officials said.

But authorities make no secret they believe it was that friend, William Roy Thietje, who caused the death — not the shooter.

Thietje, 28, was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and felony assault after he allegedly rammed his van into another parked car in a fit of anger while looking for an ex-girlfriend. That action, deputies said, prompted a homeowner in the area to shoot at the van to stop Thietje from hitting a nearby pedestrian.

"The actions by William Thietje caused the death of his friend," according to a sheriff's office news release.

I find it hard to believe that a gun owner who intervenes by "shooting at the van" is considered within his rights while the driver of that van is blamed for the killing the gun owner did.

I'm always suspicious when gun owners shoot at vehicles to stop them from running people over. That's the kind of thing Bruce Willis does in the movies. In real life, it amounts to out-of-control behavior motivated by rage or outrage.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

An upstanding authority on guns and gun safety becomes a murderer

Murderer, and gun authority, Richard Erick Venola

If someone is an authority on all matters related to guns, like this editor and writer, wouldn't you expect that they would live up to higher standards?  Another "law abiding" gun owner who now isn't.  Now he's a drunken murderer.


From an article:

Former ‘Guns & Ammo’ editor charged in Arizona slaying

The former editor of Guns & Ammo magazine was accused of murdering a friend with a gun and ammo in Golden Valley, Arizona on Wednesday. 

Mohave County sheriff’s charged 53-year-old Richard Erick Venola with second-degree murder for the killing 39-year-old James Patrick O’Neill, who was found dead at the scene. 

Sheriff department spokeswoman Trish Carter told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Venola shot O’Neill in the chest with a “high-caliber” rifle and at least three weapons were removed from the scene. O’Neill was visiting the former Guns & Ammo editor’s house at the time. 

Detective Larry Matthews wrote in his report that Venola seemed to be intoxicated by the time he talked to officers. Neighbors told deputies that the the suspect was having “heavy words” with O’Neill. 

“Mr. Venola came over to the neighbors carrying a rifle and stated he just killed a man,” according to the report. “Mr. Venola acknowledged he killed the man, but didn’t say why.” 

According to the Guns & Ammo website, Venola became the 12th editor of the magazine in 2007. He had served as the associate editor of RifleShooter magazine since 2004 after being honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1996. 

After President Barack Obama took office in 2009, Venola used his position as editor to warn readers that they should join his “largest business competitor,” the National Rifle Association (NRA), or “those in the new administration who drool at the chance of neutering the Second Amendment will become emboldened.” 

Guns & Ammo spokeswoman Amy Sorrells told the Journal-Review that the former editor continued contribute as a writer.

There's also a lovely video there of Mr. Venola shooting up an iPad because, well, just to be destructive with his gunz.  Lovely.

Did you catch that bit about his paranoia about joining the NRA out of fear of a Barack Obama anti-gun conspiracy?  

Well, apparently this murderer "neutered" his own Second Amendment rights without needing a "drooling" government to do it for him.




ADDENDUM:  HERE is an article he wrote for Guns & Ammo, wherein he echoes the NRA conspiracy-theorists in claiming that government concern about U.S. guns being illegally trafficked to Mexico is an overblown liberal government conspiracy to disarm gun owners:

But the Department of Justice doesn't care about this. They want to take Mexico's chronic (no pun) strife and make it the excuse to disarm YOU, the law abiding American Citizen, by doing a little end-run around the Constitution. ....

If Mexico is so upset about American guns, why don't they do something about it? Because that's not the problem. The only problem is the one being cooked up by anti-gun partisans and thier fellow travelers in the left-wing mainstream media: those who have reccieved thier marching orders from the new administration and are in full blown frenzy. The message that they're speading is that because Mexico can't keep its own house in order, we should give up the only right that keeps that sort of disorder and tyrrany at bay here in the United States. 

What a gunloon!

Trigger-Happy Cops and Felony Murder

The Chicago Tribune reports

(Tatioun Williams)

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder after his 15-year-old companion pointed a gun at Chicago police and was shot and killed by one of the officers, authorities said.


Brandon Ross, 16, of the 6800 block of South Jeffery Boulevard, was charged as an adult with felony murder and armed robbery, according to state’s attorney spokesman Andy Conklin. Ross was expected to appear at a bond hearing at noon.


The teens made off with an iPod, credit cards and a car key, the victim said.


The two sergeants, responding to the robbery, were flagged down by a witness a block away, near 69th Street and Bennett Avenue, who pointed them in the direction of the teens, authorities said.


One of the teens turned and pointed a gun at the sergeants, and one of them opened fire, striking the teen in the back.

"IN THE BACK," did you hear that part?  Does that make sense to you, I mean without stretching it to fit a pre-conceived story? It should be a given that if you kill someone by shooting them in the back they were not posing a lethal threat, they were running away.  What is so hard about that?

"They did an excellent job," said the robbery victim, who asked not be identified. "If they respond as speedy as they did yesterday, that could cut down on criminals getting away."

Yes, for stealing an i-pod, the murdering cops did an excellent job, at least according to this outstanding citizen. I'm sure he approves of charging the other juvenile delinquent with the murder. That makes perfect sense, don't you think.  Two kids steal an i-pod, the cop kills one of them and the other one is charged with the murder.

What's your opinion of this sick and twisted travesty of justice?  Please leave a comment.

Felony Murder Trial in the Oklahoma Pharmacy Case

NewsOK has the report of the felony murder trial associated with the Oklahoma pharmacist's supposed DGU.

The recordings show a masked robber, Jevontai Ingram, then 14, pointing a gun at two female employees while an accomplice, Antwun “Speedy” Parker, pulls on a mask.

The recordings then show pharmacist Jerome Jay Ersland shoot Parker in the head and chase Ingram out of the store.

The pharmacist then comes back inside the store, gets a second gun and shoots Parker, who had fallen, five more times. Doctors determined the last shots were the fatal ones. Parker was 16.

The pharmacist, Jerome Jay Ersland, is going on trial next month. The guys charged in this case with felony murder are the accomplices who supposedly planned the robbery. But, the incredible thing is, the only death that took place is the one dealt out by Ersland, not by the robbers.

What's your opinion? Do you think the concept of "felony murder" is a good one? And should it apply regardless of how someone ends up dead?

Doesn't it seem that, if Ersland murdered one of the robbers, which seems pretty clear, then the dead robber and his friends should not be blamed for that murder. That one is on Ersland, period.

Let's fact it, this is Oklahoma and anything is possible. I'll say it right now. if these guys are convicted of felony murder and Ersland gets off, I'm going to submit Oklahoma for The Crown. How's that sound?

Please leave a comment.

Philly Cops Denied Vengeance

Philly.com reports on the sentencing of two so-called cop-killers.

LIFE. LIFE.

Those sentences yesterday were automatically handed to two convicted cop-killers/bank robbers after a Philadelphia jury failed to reach unanimous decisions on whether to send them to death row.

Eric Deshann Floyd, 35, and Levon T. Warner, 40, showed no emotion when a visibly upset Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes announced the formal sentences.

The case is a bit bizarre. First of all, you've got that strange heightened culpability because the dead guy was a police officer. I object to that, or at least I find it weird. Secondly you've got the sentencing judge verbally denigrating the defendants, calling them names and the like. It seems to me the judge should maintain better composure.

But, the most interesting thing is that these two guys didn't kill the cop. Their accomplice did that and he was shot dead at the scene. This is one of those felony murder cases like Lillo's.

The Sopranos actor, who probably didn't have quite the criminal career as Floyd and Warner, got the minimum, or close to it. These Philadelphia bad boys got right up close to the max.

What's your opinion? What can account for the disparity in sentencing? Do you think Floyd and Warner got a fair shake? Did Lillo?

Please leave a comment.

Probation for Killing ex-Officer

The Houston Chronicle reports on the sentencing of the wheelman in a drive-by shooting that left an ex-officer dead.

A Houston judge on Friday sentenced the wheelman in a drive-by shooting that killed a retired police officer to 10 years of probation after a deal was struck with prosecutors for his cooperation.

State District Judge Susan Brown could have sentenced Raziel Jesus Munoz, 23, to a maximum of 15 years in prison after he agreed to testify against two co-defendants in the shooting that killed 78-year-old Velia “Belle” Ortega, who had been the Houston Police Department's first Hispanic female officer.

Instead, Brown sentenced Munoz to 10 years of deferred adjudication on a charge of felony murder, which means he would not have a conviction on his record if he completes probation.

At first it seemed quite incongruous that in Texas such a light sentence could be issued for such a serious crime. What do you think? Was the prosecution's case too weak to make convictions without Munoz' cooperation? Is anything Munoz says to be considered credible since he's gaining so much by saying it?

I love to read into these things, so tell me how this works for you. First of all, the victim was Hispanic and in Texas everyone knows they don't count quite as much as your regular white folks. Secondly, everyone involved in this messy case knows the chances of Munoz completing his probation without any additional criminal arrests are about zero. The results being, he'll be doing life along with his buddies sooner or later anyway.

The problems are two. Raziel Jesus Munoz should probably be taken off the streets now and not later after someone else dies. And, when he does eventually go to prison, it will really be a death sentence for having ratted on his partners.

What's your opinion? Do you think I'm reading too much into the case? How do you see it?

Please leave a comment.

Daniel Coleman - Not Guilty of Felony Murder

The Miami Herald reposts on the acquittal of Daniel Coleman.

Miami-Dade jurors on Friday night acquitted an accused gas station thief facing a murder rap after his pal was shot to death in 2006 by a county cop in Northwest Miami-Dade.

Daniel Coleman, 45, had been charged with second-degree felony murder and burglary to an unoccupied structure.

''He is a free man,'' said defense attorney Jonathan Meltz.

Prosecutors maintained Coleman and Walter Herbert White, 48, nearly ran their van over a Miami-Dade officer after stealing snacks from the Shell station at Northwest 79th Street and 22nd Avenue in November 2006.

The officer fired at the van, fatally striking White, the driver. Under state law, someone who commits certain felonies -- in this case, burglary to an unoccupied structure -- can be charged with murder if someone dies during the crime.

How does this story impact on our discussions about Tony Curtis Phillips? Does it mean that when it comes to a jury of his peers, chances are he'll get off too? Does it mean that in some cases juries don't think punishing a criminal to the full extent of the law is necessary?

I have to admit, I found this a surprising verdict. How about you?

One thing I noticed is similar in both cases, the fatal shooting was supposed to have been in response to the vehicle nearly running over the shooter. That lights up the sceptical part of my brain; it sounds too convenient. I suspect, granted with no evidence to go on, that both shootings were excessive actions and both shooters claimed the part about the vehicle trying to run them down to justify. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.