Gunman shoots three Jeep plant workers, then kills self

[truthpusher]

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2863187

Gunman shoots three Jeep plant workers, then kills self

TOLEDO, Ohio -- An employee of a Jeep production plant shot three workers with a double-barrel shotgun, then shot and killed himself on Wednesday, police said.

The shooting happened in the plant's body shop office about 8:45 p.m, police Chief Mike Navarre said.

One victim was shot in the chest and was in critical condition. Two others were less seriously injured, including one worker who was shot in the arm.

Navarre did not release the victims' names or conditions. The unidentified gunman shot himself in the head, he said.

The gunman had been disciplined recently, Navarre said, but would not elaborate.

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2863187

[Lefty48197]

1. This is so sad...

I wish there were an effective way to keep guns out of the hands of nuts like this.

[Blue_Tires]

2. very sad

i just don't know what goes through the mind of a person who walks into work, starts killing random co-workers, and kills himself...No matter what his problems were, this act was NOT going to solve them.

[truthpusher]

3. between this and the train thing in California...

...it was a big day for this sort of thing?

[SodoffBush]

4. Another day in the life of America

where you can lose yours if the guy next to you is having a bad one.

*poof*

You're gone. Everything you've strived for, gone, because of America's love affair with the gun.

[Voltaire99]

6. Yes, and not only guns...

...perhaps also because of our love affair with the buck.

The grueling ethos of economic darwinism doesn't exactly build into Americans respect for, let alone love for, others. Quite the contrary: it strips them of the shared communal identity that can curtail violence, while building in them mutual enmity that is of far more use for commercial exploitation than it is for human decency.

Cf. an excellent discussion thereof in Harper's Magazine by Francine Prose, concerning "reality TV" as a GOP cultural project, published circa mid-2004.

[Blue Diadem]

5. The man shot in the chest has died.

We were glued to the TV watching the updates. The wires on the shooter ended up being what helped him conceal and carry in the shotgun. The newslink doesn't mention that he also had a stuffed animal tied around his neck.

The other victims were shot in the arm and in the face.

[Senior citizen]

7. Having survived a bad workplace

stories like this always interest me. I survived, but my spirit did not. I suffered several years of clinical depression. I've never completely recovered and probably never will.

I can't say that I'm glad I didn't go postal, take a few people out and then kill myself. And I can't say that I'm surprised when somebody else does. I respect their choice.

The next time you join management or peers in "getting" somebody at the workplace, I hope you'll remember that some people WILL fight back.

For me, having been homeless and unemployed for most of my life, having a job--a livelihood--was inseparable from having a life. I endured a coordinated campaign to "get" me, three illegal firings (I was rehired the first two times), a long court case which I lost, even though my employer admitted under oath that my work was "flawless and excellent," and allegations that I was "violent" even though I'd never threatened anyone. I think my perjurious accusers knew that in similar circumstances, they'd be violent, so they assumed that I might be also. The only thing I'm grateful for is that I'm not like them.

Coincidentally, I'm reading a book published in 1993, called, "Big White Lie," by Michael Levine. He was working for the DEA. His bosses sabotaged his cases, let murderers and some of the biggest dope dealers in the world (protected CIA assets) go free, and pursued an internal investigation of him for years for such things as playing his radio too loudly. At one point he came very close to taking a couple of them out. I can't help but empathize.

[LeftyMom]

8. I'm glad you made it through that

My step-father went through a similar situation in terms of being illegally fired and then rehired several times. He was injured at work in front of witnesses using equipment OSHA had told his employer to replace and was fired for "faking" the injury, which was obvious to the layman on x-ray and couldn't be found on older x-rays. He was fired and rehired several times during his convalescence, and the eventual settlement for the injury wasn't much after lawyer's fees. The stress of the injury and the financial strain was too much for my mother and step-father's marriage. After they broke up he was fired again. He killed himself. :(

These things aren't supposed to happen at a union job to someone who's worked at the same place for nearly thirty years. The way we treat workers in this country is really wrong.

[Senior citizen]

9. The AFL-CIO understand the problem

and is trying to fight back, but unions have been seriously weakened in this country.

I'm sorry to hear about your step-father. It reminded me that several people where I worked had heart attacks and died the same year they were scheduled to retire. It was obvious that when someone came up for retirement, management pressure on them would increase until the stress became intolerable.

Now, had your step-father gone postal, shot a few people and killed himself, you can be sure that he would have been characterized as "a lone nut," a "disgruntled employee," etc. What it really boils down to is that either they kill you, or you take a few with you and kill yourself. Either way you're dead, but I suspect that it is really the former alternative that gets you to heaven with a smile on your face and a gracious welcome from Saint Peter, not the latter.

Workman's Comp was never supposed to be an adversarial process, but it definitely is these days, and fatal workplace "accidents" often occur to potential whistleblowers.