Posted on 12/06/2007 7:02:50 AM PST by CometBaby
As some of you know, I am from Omaha. Just my opinion, for what it’s worth, but I’m watching the reports on TV and Radio, both locally (here in Omaha) and nationally and I’m getting ticked off .. I have to speak out.
I've been listening to people who knew this kid, on a local radio station, talking about threats he has made. There was one classmate who claims he threatened to kill her and burn down her house. Then there are the friends from his clique who are defending him. One even supposedly threatened to kill another student who was talking about what a horrible person he was to do such a thing.
I am sick and tired of being told about how “shocked” the people who knew him were (that he would do such a thing). In spite of knowing he’d been in trouble with the law, was suicidal, depressed, emotionally disturbed, and had ideas of killing people.
The lady (he lived in her house) knew he had just dropped out of school, was emotionally unstable, diagnosed depressed, suicidal, just lost his girlfriend 2 weeks ago, just got fired from his pathetic job, that he felt he was nothing but a worthless piece of shit and didn't want to be a burden to anyone, anymore. This kid was probably exhibiting all of the classic signs of a time bomb, waiting to go off. And to top it off, he was supposedly playing with guns… the night before the killing spree!!
OF COURSE NOBODY EVER SAW IT COMING !!!!!
I can already feel the Brady minions coming out of the woodwork to grab up the SKS’s because nobody recognized this blatant danger to our community. And one other thing .. an SKS is NOT a “high powered” rifle!
Next, we are going to see signs all over the Malls saying not to bring in weapons. And how long before some nutcase announces that these poor victims deserved this, for wasting gas driving to the Mall (celebrating the HATED Christmas season, no less) in the first place! Who could have imagined it would ever come to this?
Makes you think it’s a real good idea to just shop online .. no hassles, no taxes and you don’t have to take your life into your hands! Thanks for letting me vent a bit.
That is bothering me a lot. I expect a lot more to come out about that. Reading here she was a nurse! Was there a father in that home? She seems to have thought she was doing a good thing by taking the kid in. I have seen that, too, and then things went bad.
My teenage son brought a gun home years ago now from a friend's house and his sisters narced him off (they did the right thing imo). I got the gun and took it back to the parents and gave my son a good tongue lashing for that. I don't believe anything ever came of it, but my fingerprints would have been on that gun. My big mistake was that I should have taken it to the police, maybe instinctively I was afraid my son would have gotten in trouble, probably could have, but I didn't think about it consciously then. I was angry that the father was so loose with his guns, letting a jr high kid get access to them. I was also angry that my son took up with a kid like that; he wasn't one of his regular friends.
How do you keep firearms away from kids? Realistically? My son had a Mormon friend who came from what I considered a good, responsible family, still do. The father was an avid hunter and had his guns displayed in a glass gun cabinet in the living room. Any of their kids or friends could have easily gotten those, fortunately didn't. I'm still not anti-gun, just want only emotionally stable, responsible people to have them.
Why don't they have metal detectors at the malls? They do last I knew at the main place I buy groceries and another supermarket in a fringe part of town, couldn't miss them, had to walk through a metal hoop every time you entered the store. I don't know how well they work, but that made me feel a little safer, although I don't spook that easily, and it could give you a false sense of security.
If some disturbed individual is determined enough, they are going to find a way to carry out their sick plans one way or another.
Friends have reported he was scoping out the Malls. He had been to several with the though of locating the best position to fire from. Apparently he decided on Von Maur in Westroads, because there was a rail where he could stand behind and it was near the elevator. Also, there was a very large open area where there would be plenty of people to shoot at.
In addition Westroads is the largest Mall in Nebraska, and in Omaha there would be a lot of local media and TV stations to cover it. He was looking for attention. This was all premeditated. All planned. It had nothing to do with any previous incident at Westroads. He picked Westroads because it served his purposes.
It's actually very easy. I would not allow a 19 year old, depressed, suicidal, mentally ill boy .. who had been convicted of a felony and known to make death threats, to bring an AK-47 into my house.
Is there something wrong with that logic? Just what is it about that statement, that you find so hard to believe? What would you have done?
I agree, that would be ideal. How does a free society go about doing that and remain free? I mean free, not the condition we're currently living in.
I'm at a loss.
“”Why don’t they have metal detectors at the malls? They do last I knew at the main place I buy groceries and another supermarket in a fringe part of town, couldn’t miss them, had to walk through a metal hoop every time you entered the store. I don’t know how well they work, but that made me feel a little safer, although I don’t spook that easily, and it could give you a false sense of security.””
How could you get the shopping carts past these devices w/o setting off the alarm every time one went by??
Thanks, didn't think of it that way. Stores at the malls have alarms for that, and now that you mention it, I *think* I have heard them going off in my supermarket. What triggers them? The shopping carts would be a big issue. Even though they are stored in the vestibule or outside, you have to grab one and go through into the store and wheel the cart out again.
I agree, that would be ideal. How does a free society go about doing that and remain free? I mean free, not the condition we're currently living in.
We have lost so many of our freedoms incrementally. How free are we when every day we have to worry about thugs (if we let ourselves)? Not just us, our loved ones. Now we have time bombs taking out innocent people in public places. I think it started about the 60's with that Texas Tower incident. I remember then talk about "copycats". These reports plant seeds in the minds of the unstable, a few of which will act out much later. Should we stop reporting them? I don't think so. I like to know the name and family background of the perp. Having said that, once it is known, start referring to "the killer" like one poster said. This kid's photo was splashed on the front page of our local paper website. Just what he wanted.
I can't just shake my head. We have got to find some answers. A start would be prosecuting adults who don't properly secure their firearms even if common sense tells us they will get one another way. I can't imagine a kid in my generation doing something like that, so I grew up with people just stashing them somewhere. Usually that was ok. Kids were told by their parents not to mess with them. Then my husband's 9-year-old cousin got shot and killed playing at some neighbor's. I was taught how to shoot from a young age, had my cap guns, clearly knew the difference, etc. I never knew where our family guns were stored as a child! Now even kids have foiled home invaders because they knew where the gun was and how to load and use it. Or at least tried. I don't recommend that either, but if push comes to shove, I would be glad if one of mine saved the rest of the family that way.
At least if a sicko kid gets a gun on the streets, parents/adults wouldn't be culpable, as I now believe they should if they are careless. I would cut a little slack for people who have to carry in their line of work, come home tired, and tragedy. But maybe habitually locking it up first thing, like a practice exercise, every time, would help prevent some of the latter.
I don't necessarily think a lot of security guards are necessarily that stable either, especially the younger ones, unless they pass a psychological test and have police accredited training.
Once you start brainstorming, you can come up with so many different scenarios, it does make it complicated.
I don't and I won't. Bad people and crazy people are out there. I am not one of them. I will carry and be prepared until the day I die.
And the day I die will be either by motorcycle or old age. I will not die at the hand of a bad or crazy person. I refuse to submit to them.
I believe you. You have made your point. I don’t know what I would have done.
That is hard to answer. Personally, no and it doesn't make me feel safer, maybe if I flew a lot which I don't, would hate that dang 2-hour early arrival at the airport and the sometimes indignities of that. But when I have to think about family members who work at the mall, work at convenience stores, fly frequently, I don't know yet because I haven't thought it through and hate to give an off-the-cuff answer.
I don't even like all the cameras, but I've grown so used to them, I never even think about it any more. How bad is that?
And the one time I needed them, by the time the police got on it, they had overwritten the tape which they did every two weeks. Ticked me off, not so much at the police because they had higher-priority crimes to deal with than my purse which was stolen due to my own carelessness, but I had good clues in fraudulent checks, the payee, because some kind soul found my checkbook with tissues still in, clearly two were not my handwriting. How dumb is that on the part of the culprit? Anyway, there were several places where you would put the same abbreviation as the payee; I happened to patronize one of them myself (a chain of gas stations locally). I almost pleaded for help to try to figure out at which one the check had been cashed to help the police. No one cared. Until the check was returned with a stop pay and I get a notification. I explained the situation, gave them the police report # to get me off the hook, and apologized, said I guessed they'd just have to write it off or maybe my banking ins covered it. That's when I found out they had overwritten the tape already.
But when there has been a serious crime, that is one of the ways the police solve it, seize the tape, may have to get a court order if not voluntarily surrendered, even from places where the crime didn't occur, trying to track the prior activities of the perp. I've got mixed feelings about the ethics of that, but naturally I'm glad if they get someone really bad off the streets (hah, not for long usually).
I got some of my things back including my driver's license which saved me that hassle. I asked couldn't they do a finger print check on that? The answer was no which I didn't understand.
I hate it all what has become of my country, hate those tags on clothing (never shoplifted in my life), all the encumbrances we are now subjected to because there are so many bad people out there. Growing up, I was FREE and SAFE from all of that. The WORST that happened was if I went into a store (usually upscale) just to look when I was a teenager, I knew I was being watched. I didn't like the feeling.
One funny thing happened though. I ran in my usual store and didn't want to bother to get a cart, always pick up a few more things than I'd planned, anyway, stuffed several cans of cat food in my coat pocket, finished my rounds, felt somebody "heavy" behind me, followed me up to the checkout, I plopped all the stuff on the conveyer, dug all the cans out of my pocket and added them, I never saw the guy, but felt him make a quick exit :-). So I have to be careful about that because I suppose they can get you before you get to the checkout if you do something suspicious like that.
When something really bad happened several years ago, my life was in jeopardy, that and my whole family. I had to stay in hotels and slept in my car for several nights running until they got enough evidence and found him. The FIRST thing I did was pick up the phone and call a neighbor across the street and ask if he still had his gun and could he please be ready to come help me out if this guy shows up because we all know that even with quick response time, it is never quick enough assuming some other things criminals could do I'd rather not mention.
Of late, I have felt a need to be able to own a gun. It curtails my freedom going out places I won't go alone now but would if I could carry. Also, I'd feel safer in my own home.
But who said life was fair?
That’ll have them shakin’ in their boots.
Jon Gutmacher’s book discusses it on pages 131 and 132. Armed trespass is a felony, but only if you were warned that you were trespassing and refused to leave. Since a mall or any business with an open door is inviting the public to come in, ideally to buy something, they have to tell you to get out before you can be a trespasser. There is a charge for the posession of the concealed weapon in spite of the sign, but several deputies in the area assure me that it is a civil offense - money but no criminal record.
That’s unless they actually tell you to leave and you refuse to do so within a reasonable time. Then you’re screwed.
It’s actually the NRA’s definition. Rimfire is rimfire, high power is everything else.
They’re ranting and raving at: http://www.topix.net/forum/city/omaha-ne/TPGG9CHKHM16HL4T5
“Armed trespass is a felony, but only if you were warned that you were trespassing and refused to leave. Since a mall or any business with an open door is inviting the public to come in, ideally to buy something, they have to tell you to get out before you can be a trespasser. There is a charge for the posession of the concealed weapon in spite of the sign, but several deputies in the area assure me that it is a civil offense - money but no criminal record.”
Thats pretty much what I’ve heard. However the few times I go to the malls around here I have not see a sign.
I disagree with the poster who said it’s not high powered. The 7.62 round is a big round. But it definitely isn’t an assault rifle. Did the one he used have a hi-cap mag?
“Realistically, what can be done?”
The only thing that can be done is for more people to love Jesus and fear God.
The sks and Ak-47 works until it’s completely destroyed.
“Your point is valid for all churches.”
Hold on a second. That guy would have been filled with 40 and 45 caliber lead in any Independent Baptist church in the country. One such church I went to took a CC class as a church activity.
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