Police: Suspected theater shooter brought gun to movie fearing mass shooting (Renton, WA)

[Mrs. Overall]

Source: KOMO News

RENTON, Wash. (KOMO) -- A 29-year-old man suspected of shooting a woman inside a Renton theater Thursday night told detectives he brought the gun to the movie fearing a mass shooting.

The incident happened at The Landing in Renton during a showing of the film "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi." It is the action-packed movie of the terrorist raid on the U.S. Embassy. About 15 minutes into the movie, a gun went off and a 40-year-old Michelle Mallari had been shot through the back of her chair.

"I believe the lady in front of us that got shot was actually talking to her husband or significant other and that's when we heard the loud pop," said one witness, who did not want to be identified. He was sitting 3 or 4 rows behind the man when the gun went off. "It must have been a light bulb or the projector lens or something that loud, but I mean I've owned guns and that's definitely a gunshot for me," the witness added.

As others in the theater finally realized what happened, the suspected shooter made his way out a nearby exit, tossing a gun clip into the trash. "We saw the lady, she was laying on the bench with a shot in her upper chest," a witness said. Mallari was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in serious condition. But she has since been upgraded to satisfactory condition Friday night and is out of intensive care, a hospital spokesperson said.

Investigators believe the shooter may have been intoxicated at the time.

Read more: http://komonews.com/news/local/police-suspected-theater-shooter-brought-gun-to-movie-fearing-mass-shooting

[bemildred]

1. Time to become a recluse, the loons are running things now. nt

[passiveporcupine]

32. Statistically that's a bit extreme

But man, I'm with you. These stories are just freaking me out. What the hell is wrong with this country? Drugs and booze and guns don't mix, yet we seem to be unable to do anything about it.

[bemildred]

35. It's called a behavioral sink.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink

The place is badly run and things are breaking down, people are getting a bit more stressed out and nuts all the time, and the media is working its ass off to keep them spooked and ignorant so they stay that way. Instead of a functioning society where people work together and help one another its every man for himself and fuck you Jack I've got mine. So people freak out and do all sorts of stupid and dangerous things.

We used to have plenty of room, the crazies could just wander off, and they did. Now there is no place to go.

The erosion of our civil society that resulted from the Conservative Revolution (is that an oxymoron or what?) has had consequences.

[Locrian]

43. interesting - theres' also this

http://csgv.org/blog/2015/psychology-gun-ownership/

Holding a gun can make you paranoid. In 2012, James Brockmole, an associate professor of psychology at Notre Dame, found that “Wielding a gun increases a person’s bias to see guns in the hands of others.” Participants holding a toy gun during an experiment were more likely than participants holding a neutral object, like a ball, to think that people on a computer screen in front of them were also holding a gun. Participants were shown images of people that changed throughout the experience: sometimes the people in the image would be wearing ski masks and sometimes the computer would change the race of the people. Participants holding guns were “more likely to classify objects held by others as guns and, as a result, to engage in threat-induced behavior.”

Couple that with intoxication, and a violent "scary" movie and you get a guy fondling his "security blanket".

[bemildred]

45. Yes, we vastly overestimate our own abilities and self-control, we do.

And booze, however pleasant it can be, makes you a fool (it can be very pleasant to be a fool) which accounts for its popularity among seducers and con men.

[bemildred]

46. It's funny you mention that, I've owned a couple guns at different times, shot them a few times.

Generally it bothers me to have them around because they are dangerous and you have to think about them, they are an additional and very serious responsibility that can fuck you up for good in an instant. It's like keeping a pet weasel or racoon. You have to like trouble to do it.

So generally I don't keep them around and when I see them around I go somewheres else, though I make exceptions for some people who are not amusing themselves with the guns.

[Locrian]

47. I think that's the "healthy" view

The other issue I believe is if you carry them etc enough they lose some of that significance (danger feeling). That's when people start leaving them lying around or forget them in bathrooms (what are they doing handling them in a bathroom?!)

[bemildred]

48. Indeed.

Not toys. Not to play with. Not a fashion accessory. Not a lifestyle choice.

I am reminded of all those people who maim their children by letting them ride ATVs and motorcycles "for fun".

[tanyev]

2. Yep. Here in open carry Texas, I'm starting to get much more worried about DAWGS*

than I am bad guys with guns.




*Dumb Asses With Guns

[Eugene]

3. Responsible gun ownership?

If only there was a good guy with a gun...

[phantom power]

4. exactly the kind of fuck-up predicted by everybody not invested in defending America's gun cult

[christx30]

8. Totally agree.

People can't even drive without doing stupid and wreckless things. DUI, texting, signaling left when you are turning right. What happens when everyone has a tool that primarily designed to destroy bodily organs? Especially since a lot of idiots think of them as toys. They get them, learn how to shoot them, but the don't learn RESPECT for them.

[hollowdweller]

31. One of the reasons I don't carry a gun.

I know so many people who carry a gun. They are always on me as to why I don't get my concealed carry license.

#1 90% of the places I go I feel safe.

#2 I don't carry a watch because I lose them. I frequently forget where I put my glasses. I drop stuff out of my pockets sometime.
I certainly wouldn't want to shoot or carry one when I was intoxicated especially.

I've owned guns since I was 13 and just don't feel the need.

[Locrian]

44. same here

I'm amazed at a lot of the younger crowd who think it's perfectly reasonable - sorta like a cell phone

I can't imagine wanting the state of mind to have to have a 24/7 "on guard" type of mentality and paranoia.

[Aristus]

5. If you're looking around the theater, and you can't spot the gun-crazed idiot,

then you're the gun-crazed idiot...

[Carolina]

6. I am so disgusted

by the myth of good guys with guns! My friends and I love to take in a new movie and then do dinner out... our favorite girls' night out activity

But now these nuts have ruined it. Theaters make me nervous and sad to say, I do my own type of profiling. I watch and avoid sitting anywhere near lone white males. I scope out the exits and transfer phone, keys and ID from purse to pocket in case I have to leave in haste and chaos.

So much for personal freedom in the USA!

[a la izquierda]

7. Oh for fuck's sake.

This is why sane people think it's a terrible idea for everyone to be armed.

[rocktivity]

9. (Pre-click prediction) He went to see the Benghazi movie, right?

Well, it's comforting to know that he wouldn't go to just ANY movie prepared to shoot anybody.

Besides, if he feared a mass shooting, why didn't he stay home? Considering the reviews it's received, the movie should be a torrent file or in some convenience store bargain bin by St. Patrick's Day.


rocktivity

[Le Taz Hot]

10. So, you fear there might be a mass shooting

at a particular location and you go to the location. Stupid and armed. Just what this country needs.

[packman]

11. No- you're missing the point

He's a PATRIOT

I posted about this nut several days ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027554014

[Le Taz Hot]

12. Aren't they all?

[ck4829]

13. And drunk, because that will REALLY help you help your awareness of potential threats

[uppityperson]

25. Stupid, drunk and armed. But he's a GGWAG (tm)

Good guy with a gun

[valerief]

14. If only she'd had a gun so she could shoot him back. That way they'd both be protected.

Ammosexual logic.

[xocet]

28. BUT she would have had to have been intoxicated, too, so that she would have known when to shoot...

...first - thereby, preemptively defending herself against a 'drunken good guy with a gun.'

The proper timing is always the difficult part.

After all, how does one reliably predict when a drunk is going to draw, fumble and fire unless one too assumes that state of mind?

[valerief]

37. You don't need to be drunk--just an ammosexual moron. nt

[xocet]

40. But then how do you know when to shoot first in self-defense? Wait, you have a point. n/t

[SoapBox]

15. Oh good gawd...

A delusional and paranoid nut with a gun.

America is a mess.

[marble falls]

16. But, but, but - a good guy with a gun, remember?

[Kip Humphrey]

17. Time to boycott all theaters that do nothing to deny guns from being carried in.

Posting signs prohibiting guns and installing metal detectors are now required before I will attend a movie theater.

[DirkGently]

18. An armed society

... is a society in which drunken members of said society shoot innocent members of that society in movie theaters while fumbling with their popcorn?

Sounds great.

[SwankyXomb]

19. It's a gun scum world

We just get shot in it.

[Helen Borg]

20. Wow, a case of shoot and run.

[lark]

21. Fear, it's the RW right to kill.

Yeah, he was so afraid he got drunk, then tried playing with his loaded and unlocked gun and that didn't go well, gee what a surprise. He needs to be in jail for years for involuntary manslaughter and reckless disregard for public safety for playing with a gun in public while intoxicated. Yeah, this fucker was afraid and now an innocent women is dead and her husband and family grief stricken because he was a total RW idiot.

[GReedDiamond]

26. The woman shot by the paranoid dipshit...

...is not dead. From the linked article: Meanwhile, family members of Mallari say she has improved quickly and has been able to speak with her family, but still has a long recovery ahead.

[Fumesucker]

41. Attempted involuntary manslaughter then...

[GReedDiamond]

42. Whatever the max sentence is, according to the "Book"...

...throw it at him.

[Wuddles440]

22. Intoxication and firearms....

are always a bad mix, but this dickweed was probably fondling his "piece" when it accidentally discharged. Also, the article fails to mention if he was wearing a white (good guy) or black hat (bad guy). This could be critical in determining the severity of charges that he faces and whether Fox News gives him favorable coverage (he appears to be a white, non-muslim guy so that's certainly working in his favor).

[LiberalElite]

23. These people have to get a grip -

as for me, I don't own a gun and am tired of thinking I should start practicing dropping to the ground and playing dead because of people who do.

[Turbineguy]

24. I would think that

people who own and run movie theaters would be getting nervous about declining attendance over incidents like this.

[MariaThinks]

27. there it is - the outcome of the stupid 'good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns' argument

having people with guns increases the odds of accidents happening. For the scientifically challenged there is a principle called entropy. Or a simple example, areas with lots of cars have higher auto insurance because there are more car accidents.

I don't expect gun lovers to understand this logic. but duh.

[SheilaT]

29. But guns make us safer, right?

I still favor total confiscation.

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. Pew pew

East Gunistan.

[rurallib]

33. well he was right - there was a shooting in the theater he was at

man, talk about your self-fulfilling prophecies.
Is there anything the victim can sue this idiot for?

[CanonRay]

34. This case exemplifies the whole problem with too many guns

Half (and I'm being very conservative) don't know that the f they are doing with them. Point A; Why does he have one in the chamber at all. Point B: Why the hell is he fiddling with the damn thing in a crowd. In the dark yet.

These idiots think they know how to handle a firearm,and as my favorite Twain saying goes, it's what you think you know, but don't, that is dangerous.

[radhika]

36. Give credit where due - the guy was prophetic

There was indeed an active shooter in that theater.

He's lucky another 'prophet' was there to gun him down when the bullets started flying.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

38. He was fucking drunk.

I know a few concealed carriers. They do not get drunk while carrying their gun and they do not remove it from the holster when out in public. If that was really his concern, he would not have had anything to drink that would impair his ability to defend himself and others. This is bullshit and he needs to spend some time in prison for his stupid negligent behavior.

[CarrieLynne]

39. i live in renton :(

the Landing is a nice shopping area - hate to see this

i guess we need to be scared of scared americans more than terrorism....