6 dead, 2 wounded in Wash. state shooting spree

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Yahoo / AP

ALGER, Wash. - A man fatally shot a sheriff's deputy responding to a call Tuesday in northwestern Washington state, then led authorities on a car chase and killed five other people before turning himself in, officials said. Two others were wounded.
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A state trooper was among those injured in Skagit County, north of Seattle, authorities said. The dead were found at multiple scenes, state trooper Keith Leary said at a news conference.

Among the dead were the deputy and another person killed at the same location; two construction workers who were found shot nearby; a person killed at another location; and a motorist fatally shot on Interstate 5.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_re_us/shooting_rampage

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Why do people do these things??

[katandmoon]

8. One big reason is the ease with which they can obtain guns

[Pavulon]

36. i had easy access to guns and grenades

machine guns, explosives, all kinds of stuff. I dont recall killing anyone. Funny how that works.

[benEzra]

41. 80 million other people own guns *right now* (including our family), and don't do stuff like that.

There is more at work here.

FWIW, while I strongly disagree with Gavin de Becker on the gun issue, I think he has a lot of good things to say in The Gift of Fear about what makes spree killers tick. Contrary to popular myth, people almost never "just snap".

[2PeiMom]

11. For the same reason an AK gov. likes to shoot defenseless wolves from an airplane.

[Hawkowl]

18. BINGO!

We have a winner. Some people just like killing and inflicting pain and suffering.

[EFerrari]

39. Because we pretend that mental illness is a random problem

that can't be helped.

[countryjake]

49. There's the BINGO!

This kid was on and off of crank for years and the officer who he shot had helped him since our MICA closed down last year. It's looking like he grabbed a knife, mad at a neighbor, in front of her, she draws her weapon on him, he started stabbing, she tried to stop him and he grabbed her gun. The kid didn't have access to a gun, didn't have any vehicle, he didn't have access to a damn thing, except his own turmoil in his head.

[progressivebydesign]

2. I'm just heartsick. He drove by my sis's house during the spree.

How could someone do that?? My sympathies are with the families right now.

[KT2000]

3. OMG - this guy went nuts

all these innocent people.
this is so sad.

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. His mom said

He was menally ill for a long time, and she couldn't get any help for him.

Tragic!

[Stern21]

5. Another senseless tragedy.

Why did this guy have access to firearms?

[Lautremont]

6. Because (someone here will no doubt tell you)

it would be unconstitutional if he didn't.

[Suji to Seoul]

9. Three letters: N...R...A!!!

[hogwyld]

21. Three more G......U.....N.....

When is this country going to wise up and get these death machines out of our nation?

[bossy22]

34. the same day

we toss out our constitution

[Pavulon]

38. BOOZE!!!

Please ban beer and evil spirits. More people die from dwi death and the best way to fix that is to ban alcohol.

I mean that will work, just like the drug war. Resounding success. And fuck the constitution, lets dump it too.

[eagertolearn]

10. And why did he not have access to mental health care? n/t

[ManiacJoe]

13. Because someone did not do his job.

Or so it would appear based on the reports of a "lengthy criminal record".

[slackmaster]

17. He didn't have _legal_ access to firearms

His prior convictions, present community supervision status, and substance abuse issues all disqualified him from getting any kind of modern firearm.

[hogwyld]

19. Unfettered gun ownership in this country

sure didn't make it difficult for him to acquire them though. Heaven forbid we enact restrictions in the land of shootin' stuff... And before you bring up the "law abiding" crap, I'm sure somewhere, that gun was owned by a "law abiding" citizen.

[slackmaster]

24. Heaven forbid we enforce the laws we already have, or provide mental health care for people

I'm sure somewhere, that gun was owned by a "law abiding" citizen.

Once upon a time.

Heaven forbid we enact restrictions in the land of shootin' stuff...

Any time you want to suggest some "restrictions" that don't infringe on peoples' rights and are politically feasible, please post them.

[saigon68]

28. Your wasting your time slack

They won't listen to you

[hogwyld]

29. Unfortunately

All those dead people CAN'T listen. I hope the legislatures of the states will do the correct thing and ban the damn things already.

[milou]

31. And while we're at it, lets ban another unnecessary killer!

Alcohol kills far more people than guns through accidents, ODs, liver disease, etc. Banning worked great in the 20s.

http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou090308_tnt_fatal_crash_newlyweds.3cceac0f.html

When we stop this "murder drink"!!!!! It's about time we brought temperance back, can I count on your support in this righteous battle?

[Winterblues]

33. How about tobacco instead

Multiply all gun related deaths and all alcohol related deaths and you may come up with a months worht of tobacco related deaths.. More people die from tobacco every three days than 9-11 caused and they keep on dying day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade.. Yet it is defended constantly here on a Liberal forum..:crazy:

[hogwyld]

40. Have you been to California lately?

It's almost impossible to smoke in public. One town in the bay area even banned smoking anywhere including your home. So, all we have to do is pass these ordinances, and tax the bejesus out of firearms and especially ammunition and reloading supplies.

[bossy22]

42. sorry

the constitution sort of stands in the way of that....hate to break it to you

[slackmaster]

32. I've been fighting the "Democrats want to take your guns" meme for years and years

All it takes is one stupid, thoughtless post like Hogwyld's to wipe out hours of work.

[countryjake]

51. You can say that again!

And that would be years of work, for me.

Up here, people would be plumb nuts to live in these woods without some sort of firearm.

It's not confirmed yet, but last night's press conference said that they finally located the deputy's service weapon and there had been canine units all along the freeway since it happened, so this leads me to believe it was her gun he used to shoot all those people with. I could be wrong, but he definitely began his attack with a knife, cause one victim died that way.

[merwin]

7. Alger is the next town from where I live. Very sad.

[raccoon]

15. Alger is the name of the town. As in Horatio Alger?

How ironic.

[Greyhound]

12. Another tragedy brought to you by those fine people in the for-profit health-care

insurance industry.

:wtf:

Is wrong with us?

[hogwyld]

22. Brought to you by the FOR.PROFIT.GUN.INDUSTRY

Sure our health system sucks, but let's not forget the horrors brought upon us by the GOP supporting NRA, the firearms industry as a whole, and the media for perpetuating the myth of the wild west gunman.

[progressivebydesign]

23. no shit. the NRA acts like we're wrong for not accepting the gun culture.

When many cultures get by just fine without guns available to anyone, regardless of their mental state. That's how they do this.. they act like WE'RE awful for not having millions of guns out there. No other country has the carnage we do, and the gun violence. And yet, the pro-lifers support Palin. Pro-life only seems to protect unborn cells, not actual living breathing humans.

[nomorenomore08]

30. "No other country has the carnage we do, and the gun violence."

I hope you meant no developed country, because the murder rate in Colombia, South Africa, Russia, etc., makes this country look downright peaceful.

[bossy22]

35. alot of other countries do

go to nationmaster and see the difference between gun violence of the worst country and compare it to the USA....we are only a fraction of what they have

[brentspeak]

14. And the all-too-easy availability of firearms spreads mass death yet again

The 2nd Amendment never advocated that a gun's chain-of-ownership be so laxly-accounted-for that eventually it ends up in the hands of psychos and criminals.

[slackmaster]

16. In this case, it appears that mental illness and substance abuse were the root causes

The man's mother described her son as "desperately mentally ill" and said the sheriff's deputy he's accused of killing had tried to help the family for years.

State Department of Corrections officials identified the gunman in Tuesday's deadly spree as Isaac Zamora, 28, who had just served a six-month jail sentence for drug possession in Skagit County, in northwest Washington.

[hogwyld]

20. And the availabilty of guns exacerbated

the carnage. If this guy "snapped" with a knife, the death count would probably have been much lower or non existent.

[WriteDown]

27. And how will you curtail illegal guns?

Many illegal automatics on the street are shipped in illegally from Asia. Banning firearms will have zero effect.

[depakid]

44. That's the bottom line

[DrCory]

45. Not Necessarily...

"If this guy "snapped" with a knife, the death count would probably have been much lower or non existent."


"Knife man kills five Shanghai police officers

Reuters
Tuesday, 1 July 2008

A man went on a rampage in a police station in Shanghai today, stabbing five officers to death and wounding another five before he was stopped, local media reported..."


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/knife-man-kills-five-shanghai-police-officers-858001.html

[countryjake]

46. Evidently, "this guy" did snap with a knife, it looks as tho deputy's gun...

was the weapon he shot 10 people with.

Sorry to cramp your theory.

[slackmaster]

48. The obvious solution is to ban ALL guns including ones used by the police

:dunce:

[countryjake]

50. Yup!

:spank:

[Redstone]

25. Hey, this is America. Everybody gets to have a gun if they want to, and don't you ever

forget that!

After all, what would America be like if that guy couldn't have gotten the gun he wanted? It'd be Black Helicopters and Storm Troopers left and right, I tell ya!

Redstone

[bossy22]

37. as long as they arent

a convicted killer, mentally ill, or a fugitive from justice

it seems like this guy was in violation of the GCA of 1968....

[WriteDown]

26. What would people suggest....

we do for someone like this?

"She told The Seattle Times that her son had lived in the woods off and on for years, was unaware of his mental illness and resisted all efforts to get him to accept treatment. The nature of his illness was not immediately clear."

[countryjake]

47. Not to mention the ten-bed psychological wing of his county hosp...

was just closed last month, due to funding. And the county MICA treatment center was shut down early last year. There is no help whatsoever for these people.

He was trembling like a cornered rabbit at his arraignment.

[FVZA_Colonel]

43. It's been all over the tv stations and the papers here in Seattle.

It's god-damn insane.