They got the shooter here in KC.

[leftyladyfrommo]

Thank goodness. The guy was just cruising around shooting at people driving thru the Grandview Triangle. I think they have him for something like 20 incidents now.

So he's off the road and in jail.

And the anti-semitic shooter out at the Synagogue is in jail, too. He was a felon and apparently got his guns from a straw. Happens every day.

Maybe we can finally breathe for a while.

I'm afraid this may be our new reality. There was an article in the paper this morning on how afraid people are getting. No one knows who has a gun any more. No one knows if that kind of strange person walking down the street will just pull a gun and shoot. Not safe in public places. Not safe just driving down the freeway. Not safe walking out of your house to the car. Not safe jogging down the road. Not safe in your home. Your children are not safe in a neighbor's home. How do you know which houses have guns that the children can get ahold of. Police are so scared of getting shot that they are shooting first and asking questions later.

Not supposed to post about guns but this really is about the fear that we live with now. And how that fear is directly affecting our freedom to just live our lives.

[hlthe2b]

1. re: freeway shooter.... any discussion yet of motive or mental incapacity?

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. Not that I know of.

I don't think he really had any kind of record. His father lives in Illinois and the license plates on his car were from Illinois. He was changing plates on the different cars he used. Really nice looking young man.

Just out having fun terrorizing people, I guess. Unmarked cars followed him around for a week. He was doing all kinds of road rage sorts of stuff out there on the freeway - cutting people off, just being obnoxious.

[tblue37]

10. "Having fun" is apparently on the mark. Did you see his delighted smile in the picture

of him being taken to his arraignment?

[99Forever]

2. Thanks NRA and "responsible, law-abiding gun owners." n/t

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. I hope the Republican Convention doesn't come to KC.

We need the income and all but I wish they would just take their hate and love of money somewhere else. We don't need a bunch of teaparty people going on and on about state's rights and gun rights. Making hideous fun of women's issues.

We've had enough hate here to last us for a long, long time.

[xmas74]

9. I talk to someone from the area who is a Domme.

She says the GOP con will stink up the neighborhood but that she could certainly use the money. And she knows she'll make lots of money if we're chosen.

Me, I'll just stay as far out as I am during that time. I'll be sure to make any Costco runs about two weeks out.

[meadowlark5]

26. Don't worry. They'll come to Colorado. I'll bank on it

Now that Las Vegas was shot down by their conservative christian group owners, they'll choose Colorado so they can party with pot.

[FarCenter]

5. Manhunt is detailed as Grandview man is charged in area highway shootings

Like pieces of a puzzle, Kansas City police used tips about an erratic driver, a fingerprint from a plastic bag of shell casings and a bullet from a house that was shot last year to link Mohammed Whitaker, 27, to a series of recent highway shootings.

Jackson County prosecutors on Friday announced 18 felony charges against Whitaker involving nine separate shootings. Two of the charges relate to cases in which victims were wounded. In each case, police recovered, tested and matched spent .380-caliber bullets.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/04/18/4968116/man-27-charged-in-area-highway.html

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. Do these people not think about spending the rest of their lives in prison?

So many are so young. I guess it just seems exciting at the time. But then they get to sit in a prison cell for the next 20 or 30 years. I would think tht would be a deterrant but it doesn't seem to even occur to them.

[calimary]

11. Maybe they just assume they'll get away with it?

After all, they've got their guns. Or they'll go out in some stupid-ass idiotic "blaze of glory" or something and become some kind of bizarro folk hero?

Beats me. I don't get it. Doesn't make sense. But what these folks like and regard as somehow "patriotic" doesn't make sense to me either. Same thing with their love of guns. Makes no sense to me. Guess I'm just not wired that way.

[pipoman]

6. Glad they got him.

Laws should be based on statistics, people's opinions are usually based on anecdotes.

[Archae]

8. The guy was on a power trip.

He loved the thrill of being "in control" when he shot at other cars.

[calimary]

12. Perhaps so.

I once produced a report called "Guns in L.A." in one of my radio jobs. One of the people I interviewed was this guy who ran a shooting range out in the San Fernando Valley. He showed me his gun and declared "what this is - is an 'attitude adjustment device.'" As in - owning it could and would control and change another person's attitude.

Being in control. Very likely IT, exactly. And I'm guessing that maybe if one is a paranoiac or conspiracy nut, the perception that one is up against some big megalithic enemy thing that has at its desposal all the biggest and baddest guns and ammo devised by the human mind, having even some of it yourself might give you a sense of taking back some of that control. I guess. I'm just not wired that way, so I'm just guessing, and I'm certainly no certified psychologist or anything. But it seems like a reasonable explanation to me. I do feel that, these days, we're being held hostage in this country by small bands of paranoiacs and other assorted loose cannons - unfortunately WITH loose cannons. I don't feel one bit safe in the knowledge that people around me might be carrying. It doesn't make me feel one bit safe, or safer! Just one hot-head with a bone to pick or some crazy imagined score to settle is all it would take. It does NOT make me feel safe - AT ALL. It makes me feel like I'm living in the frickin' OK Corral.

[warrprayer]

13. kick

[Thor_MN]

14. So why the apparent difference in coverage between this and the DC Sniper?

I've barely heard of the "KC shootings" while the "DC Sniper" was in heavy rotation on all the news shows.

Is it that I haven't been paying attention or is there much less coverage?

If so, is it that we have become blasé to random shootings? Is it that no one was killed? Is it due to DC vs. KC?

[leftyladyfrommo]

20. The DC snipers were killing people.

Fortunately this guy got caught before he got that far. 3 people were injured but not severely - probably just pure dumb luck.

It was a huge story here in KC. And having it all happen at the same time that the shooter killed 3 people out in Overland Park at the Jewish Community Center made everyone here really take notice.

In both situations victims were simply chosen at random.

[Thor_MN]

23. I'm sure it was big locally, but the national news yawned on it.

My question is about the national news.

[NutmegYankee]

31. If it bleeds it leads.

This guy missed too much to take coverage off of plane crashes. The DC sniper killed 5 people on one day. That gets attention.

[NYC_SKP]

15. The media is making you fearful. It's actually safer to be in public than it's been in a long time.

Sigh.

One gets tired of pointing this out, but this stuff makes the news, and the news loves to hype it and make everything scarier than it is.




No one knows who has a gun any more.
No one knows if that kind of strange person walking down the street will just pull a gun and shoot.
Not safe in public places.
Not safe just driving down the freeway.
Not safe walking out of your house to the car.
Not safe jogging down the road.
Not safe in your home.
Your children are not safe in a neighbor's home.
How do you know which houses have guns that the children can get ahold of.
Police are so scared of getting shot that they are shooting first and asking questions later.

I don't believe there's any evidence that supports any of your fears, that thing are worse than ever. All of these things have either always been true or they have been worse in the past.

Also, we continue to pass regulations that help get guns off the streets and out of the hands of the wrong people, it will take time to get it right.

BTW, I'm glad they caught this guy.

[marions ghost]

16. Statistics don't matter

in people's perceptions. There is so much wanton gun violence in America that it does affect people's perceptions about their personal safety. We are all looking over our shoulders except the naive and very stupid. That's how this paralyzes society.

We all know of incidents in our own communities and it is a constant. This is what is making this society even more sick and paranoid.

Some buy guns and feel "safer" but others who don't want guns just suffer it.

We are all scared, that's the bottom line.

A national disgrace. One among many, but a big one. A failure.

[leftyladyfrommo]

21. Well shit. Going to Walmart isn't even safe.

Or the public library. Or the grocery store. Or McDonalds

It's not that it happens often. I think our last bad shooting incidence was a shooter at a mall out in south KC. That was a few year's ago.

Most of the real violence in KC is in I think it's a 34 square mile area running from just south of the River clear out to 85th. And most of that violence is gang and drug related. So easy to just ignore it and say that it doesn't effect me because I don't live in that area. But thousands of innocent people do live in that area and they are afraid to leave their homes after dark.

But these shootings were way outside the "danger zone" in KC. These happened out in suburban areas where there is normally very little crime.

I can't remember a time when so many shootings happen in purely public places. Where someone grabs his guns and ammo and just goes on a shooting spree in a store or an office or some fast food place. Or the attacks in schools.

The statistics may be looing better overall but it's not great out here on the streets.

[marions ghost]

36. I never feel safe in public

and I don't think I'm alone in saying that.

How about the increasing number of school and hospital lockdowns--they're fun.

Right, the people who say, "it's not so bad"--they don't consider the real cost to communities and the stress and suffering of the people involved. Gun nuts are people who don't care--either about the carnage in general or the stress effects.

[butterfly77]

27. I don't care how many stastistics they write..

its not safer and everyone knows it and feels it. I don't need them to tell me anything they lie anyway...

[NutmegYankee]

30. So you reject the math and science?

The math says it's down and scientific studies also show that violent crime is down. In fact this has been the topic of much study as classically crime should increase given economic hardship and the high inequality of our time. As for the "they lie anyway", the rampant spread of mistrust in government is a main driver of global warming hoax and anti-vaccine movements. It's a cancer on our society.

Why so fearful?

[butterfly77]

33. Bullshit..

where are you living? Must be happyland.

[marions ghost]

34. ^^^

yeah I don't live in that happyland either.

[NutmegYankee]

38. Now that's a very convincing reply. Not.

Seriously, why are you so afraid?

[etherealtruth]

17. The I-96 corridor shooter (Michigan) was apprehended and convicted

In 2012 we experienced the same thing ... another psycho with a gun shot at motorists and others along a major freeway cooridor in Southeastern Michigan

A man who shot at two-dozen vehicles along a southeastern Michigan highway corridor has been sentenced to 16 to 40 years on a terrorism conviction.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/convicted-i-96-shooter-raulie-casteel-sentenced-to-16-to-40-years-in-prison-for-terrorism

Sick effer's

[KoKo]

18. Do you have a link? Was anyone killed or injured? First I've heard of it...

and couldn't understand what it was about.

[leftyladyfrommo]

22. 3 people were injured over a two week period.

See links posted above by other people. 20 different shooting episodes.

[FairWinds]

19. You can choose to live in whatever reality you want, I guess . .

but if your fear is not based on conditions in the world around you,
i.e., "statistics", people might question your connection to reality.
Fear is paralyzing, and if you choose to live in fear, you are
choosing paralysis.
This is NOT to say that we are not faced with huge problems,
but we cannot understand, or deal with them without
STATISTICS !!

[JJChambers]

24. Awesome police work!

[leftyladyfrommo]

25. It really was, wasn't it.

We have a really good police chief right now.

[MuseRider]

28. Having a cousins dinner tonight so I will get the inside scoop

from the guy that chased down the shooter at the Jewish Community Center. He is married to my husbands cousin. Will be interesting to find out what he saw and heard. Well, maybe interesting is not the correct word. Perhaps sad and sobering and scary, yea I think those are better considering.

[MisterP]

29. countries living under the gun aren't happy Old West towns: they're called police states (even if

the armed guys en pointe aren't in uniform and just girding for the Great Race War or Second Revolution)

[The Straight Story]

32. When I was a kid we feared strangers

They either wanted to kill us, rape us, rob us, kidnap us, etc. We had talks (I was on school patrol - back then us kids helped others cross the streets and such and not the adults. This was back in elementary school.)

We didn't sit around fretting about the methods they might use (as I have noted elsewhere most of us grew up with our parents having guns in the home). We didn't blame tv, guns, etc (although some tried to blame everything from d&d to music) we just knew that there were some people who were, for lack of a better word, evil.

It doesn't matter how many laws you make, what you ban, etc. If you don't address the issues revolving around the people who do these things you are just blowing smoke and blaming things which are not causes but methods.

Far too many feel they will be all safe and secure if we don't take water onto airplanes or walk our family to the gates (cause, you know, we are all potential killers and terrorists and it does not matter one whit if you own a gun or not, you could be the next terrorist).

If you look at the countries with the highest gun rates all but the US have lower death rates by gun and many countries low down on that list have really high death rates. And those countries with the highest murder rates? Mostly poor, in turmoil, etc.

So if you are looking for causes look at something other than what people use (and as I have shown many times before, less than one percent of people who own guns use them to harm others - so if it was guns than why aren't the other ninety-nine percent doing the same thing?)

[AngryAmish]

35. Probably a gun humping teabagger.

[NYC_SKP]

37. You mean like a NRA lovin' white Christian racist type?

[leftyladyfrommo]

41. His name is Mohamed.

His religion has never been mentioned. But the big Mosque out in the same part of town was very quick to put out a statement of solidarity with the Synagogue and the community.

Nobody wants this sort of thing going on.

[NYC_SKP]

44. Some would have us think that all gunhumpers are of a particular demographic.

You and I know that violence knows no demographic bounds.

Sad, that's what this is.

[leftyladyfrommo]

45. I haven't seen anything so far on this guy's motivation.

I also haven't seen anything about the people in the cars he shot at. I don't know if they were just any ole body out there or if they were white or whatever.

[Skittles]

39. NRA wet dream: everyone living in fear, everyone armed

gun humping paranoid assholes

[NYC_SKP]

40. Good point. I don't know why the media is helping the NRA by fearmongering.

Well I do, but the assist is unintentional.

I have no use for guns and feel safer these days than in years past, but then it helps to use a "filter" with what the news is selling on any given day.

[leftyladyfrommo]

42. Honestly, I don't think guns make anyone safer.

I think some people may feel safer but it is an illusion. Owning a gun just makes it a lot more likely that you or a family member will get shot in your own home. Or a neighbor will get shot when someone mistakes them for a prowler.

[NYC_SKP]

43. I wouldn't go so far as to say that, not at all.

I'm sure the NRA wants to promote that idea for their manufacturing sponsors.

I just think that many of the laws passed over the last 20-30 years have had a positive impact, things are safer than before.

But at the same time, the Internet has been able to project an impression of horrible danger all around us, while statistics prove we are seeing less crime than before.

So, when I see an OP like this that seems to be a result of the media, I shake my head, people should be more careful consumers of media, be skeptical, check other sources, critical thinking strategies like that.

If they would, they might not feel so unsafe.

OTOH, some neighborhoods in some cities have gone downhill, so YMMV.