Posted on 10/11/2002 9:57:56 PM PDT by aj1
Ballistics tests linked the slaying Friday of a Philadelphia man near Fredericksburg, Va., to the sniper who has terrorized the Washington area by killing at least seven other people in barely more than a week, law enforcement sources told local news outlets. The latest slaying was the sniper’s most brazen yet, claiming its victim as a state trooper stood across the street.
A foregone conclusion...
When is the media and LE going to use the T word. What more do they need.........
hate to tell you but this has affected the whole country....
I will go to my grave saying that I feel safer around men that hunt and know how to use guns....
Spotsylvania County is gun totin' country. Manassas is a bastion of good ol' boy types who favor guns, too. Virginia allows concealed carry permits. So there's two murders and one wounding in places that permit the people to carry much more than binoculars, and it didn't do any good at all. I'm not saying anything against those who are pro-gun (I am neutral, for the most part, on the gun issue), but I really don't think that a well-armed citizenry would be able to do a whole lot in these particular instances. Considering a (presumably armed) state trooper wasn't able to do anything this a.m., and the fact that there's a likelihood that 25-50% of the people around in the Fredericksburg and Manassas areas at the time of the shootings were carrying concealed weapons...
Well, I just don't think that everyone having guns would do a whole lot of good in this case. May well help in other situations, but I don't believe it would in the sniper cases.
Fox 5 News, on their post-ballgame news tonight, said that the bullet fragments recovered from this morning's shooting had come from the same weapon. They may have been misspeaking out of ignorance, saying that it was from the same weapon rather than saying it's simply the same type of ammo, I dunno. For previous shootings, media have reported that the same type of ammo was used or merely that the cases were linked based on ballistics evidence, but tonight they specifically said that the bullet fragments had come from the same weapon.
Nowhere close to out of the woods yet. The media is a jumble, the police seem incompetent, and the guy/guys will continue killing until there's a huge break in the case. I think there is a bit of unreleased evidence, but I don't think any of it is a show-stopper. Just my theory. Until this guy is caught or killed, I won't be breathing much easier, regardless of how many people are in on the killings.
Sigh.
I grew up in the rural south and am accustomed to being around people who are armed at all times. It sure doesn't bother me. I'm not against people arming themselves in the least. Me, I don't think I'd want a handgun for myself, but I don't have any issues whatsoever with people who are comfy with the notion of carrying a weapon on their persons, or keeping weapons in their homes or cars, doing so.
What I meant to say, and I phrased it badly because I'm dead on my feet tired, is that I believe that in the sniper cases, you could have every person within 400 yards of the shootings carrying weapons and that it probably wouldn't do any good. Decent snipers - and this guy goes well beyond decent - shoot once, shoot to kill and are very hard to find. I think there are sufficient people carrying concealed weapons in the areas of the Virginia shootings that if an armed citizen were going to do any good against the sniper, s/he already would have. Even the state trooper wasn't able to get the sniper, and he surely had a gun.
I think that concealed carry permits and the willingness of the people to use that right may successfully deter certain types of crime, robberies and the like, but I really don't think there's much an armed private citizen can do to the sniper. At least not until he gets greedier and sloppier. As long as he's firing a single shot and either leaving the scene or lying low, I don't think anyone's going to have a chance to get a shot at him.
I honestly wasn't trying to pick a fight with you or anyone here who is more actively pro-gun than I am. I just don't feel that an armed citizenry is particularly helpful under these circumstances. I do, however, reserve the right to be wrong. ; )
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