2013 America (and Friends!) Gun Violence Thread No Plows Allowed!

[Waraji]

Thread Bump.

This just happened early this morning, I would say about a mile from where I'm living now.

http://news.yahoo.com/gunman-among-7...095137897.html

HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) — A gunman holding hostages inside a South Florida apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said.

Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez told The Associated Press that police got a call around 6:30 p.m. Friday that shots had been fired in a building with dozens of apartments in Hialeah, a few miles north of Miami.

Rodriguez said that when police arrived, they discovered an active shooter situation: "He's inside the building, moving from floor to floor. Eventually he barricades himself in an apartment."

A crisis team was able to briefly establish communication with the man. Rodriguez said negotiators and a SWAT team tried talking with him from the other side of the door of an apartment unit where he was holding two hostages.

But Rodriguez said the talks eventually "just fell apart." Officers stormed the building, fatally shooting the gunman in an exchange of gunfire.

"They made the decision to go in there and save and rescue the hostages," Rodriguez said. Both hostages survived. Rodriguez said he didn't have any information on how long negotiations lasted.

He said police discovered two people, a male and female, shot to death in the hallway in front of one unit. Three more, a male and two females, were found shot and killed in another apartment on a different floor. Another man who was walking his children into an apartment across the street also was killed. Rodriguez said it wasn't immediately clear whether the gunman took aim at him from an upper-level balcony or if he was hit by a stray bullet.

Zulima Niebles said police told her that three of her family members were among the victims. She said her sister Merly Sophia Niebles, her sister's husband, and her sister's daughter Priscila Perez, 16, were all shot and killed.

Zulima Niebles' husband, Agustin Hernandez, was moving the family's things out of the apartment building and into his car Saturday. Among them were several photos, one showing the teen girl smiling in a red graduation gown, another of his sister-in-law in a white dress, wearing pearls.

Marcela Chavarri, director of the American Christian School, said Priscila Perez, 16, was about to enter her senior year at the school.

"She was a lovely girl," Chavarri said through tears. "She was always happy and helping her classmates."

Officials were not identifying the gunman or victims. Rodriguez said police were still investigating.

Neighbor Fabian Valdes, who lives across the street from the site of the standoff, said he heard shots fired and then looked out his window and saw a man lying on the floor, outside the front lobby. He was on his back and had his arms and legs outstretched.

Valdes said he was in shock. "It's something you never expect," he said.

In Hialeah — a suburb of about 230,000 residents, about three-quarters of whom are Cuban or Cuban-American — the entrance to the quiet neighborhood lined with apartment buildings was blocked off early Saturday.

The standoff occurred in an aging beige five-story building with an open terrace in the middle. The apartment where neighbors said the shooting started was charred, the door and ceiling immediately outside burned black.

Miriam Valdes, 70, said she lives on the top floor — one floor above where the shooting began. She said she heard gunfire and later saw smoke entering her apartment.

She described running in fear to the unit across the hall, where she stayed holed up as officers negotiated with the gunman.

From the apartment, Valdes said she could hear about eight officers talking with the gunman.

She said she heard the officers tell him to "let these people out."

"We're going to help you," she said they told him.

She said the gunman first asked for his girlfriend and then his mother but refused to cooperate.

Ester Lazcano said she lives two doors down from where the shooting began and was in the shower when she heard the first shots. Then there were many more.

"I felt the shots," she said.

Neighbors said the gunman lived in the building with his mother, but police wouldn't confirm that information.

Rodriguez said police were still investigating identities of victims and the gunman, as well as a possible motive.

"Investigators are talking with families of the victims, neighbors, people that were present when all this began," he said. "That way we can start to piece together this huge puzzle that we're working with."

Image of Gunman

Spoiler: show

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/hTC...70670002a2.jpg

Man, when people snap in this city it's always big. Last time, couple years ago, some dude walked into a locally owned restaurant and shot up the place killing himself inside among other people. Was right in front of my old High School.

[wipers]

George Zimmerman strikes again !!

[kuronosan]

Incoming meme.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

Incoming meme.

You can't zim zam the flim flam.

[AidenCarby]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/05/us/pen...ing/index.html

(CNN) -- Two people were killed and four were wounded in a shooting at a town supervisor's meeting in eastern Pennsylvania, a county official reported Monday.

[The Stig]

I guess this is the gun news thread so ... : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23691146

A gun instructor in the US state of Ohio has accidentally shot a student in the arm in a class for people seeking permits to carry a concealed firearm.

Terry Dunlap, 73, was demonstrating a .38-calibre pistol when it went off and struck Michael Piemonte, 26.

He and his wife were taking the day-long class in order to carry guns for their own safety, he told local media.

All 50 states allow residents to obtain a concealed firearm permit, though training and other requirements differ.

Last month, the state of Illinois became the last to do so, in response to a court order.

The Fairfield County, Ohio, sheriff's office listed the Saturday shooting in the town of Lancaster as accidental, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

"It took me a couple of seconds to realise that I had been shot," Mr Piemonte told CNN.

Mr Piemonte was treated in hospital and released that night.

Mr Dunlap has not spoken publicly about the incident.

Ohio residents seeking a concealed weapon permit must take an approved safety course or show "evidence of imminent danger", pass a criminal background check, and meet other requirements.

[Outlaw]

A college baseball player jogging on the streets of Oklahoma was shot to death by three teenagers, one of whom told police they were “bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody,” authorities said.

The ballplayer, Christopher Lane, was visiting the town of Duncan, where his girlfriend lives, the police chief told The Associated Press. He passed a home where the teens were staying and was gunned down at random, the chief said.

“They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: ‘There’s our target,’” the chief, Danny Ford, told the AP. “The boy who has talked to us said, ‘We were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.’”

Lane, 22, is from Australia but was in Oklahoma playing baseball. He was a rising senior at East Central University in Ada, Okla., a catcher who started 14 games and hit .250 for the Tigers this season, according to the school’s athletics website.

Ford told the AP that prosecutors were expected to file first-degree murder charges Tuesday against the three teens, aged 15, 16 and 17. They were to appear in court, and it was not clear whether they would be charged as adults.

Witnesses told Australian television that Lane staggered and collapsed on the road after he was shot in the back with a .22-caliber revolver on Friday afternoon.

Lane’s father, Peter, said that the killing was “heartless, and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity.”

“The fact that something that shouldn’t have happened has happened — it’s the fact that somebody we all love so much is not going to come home,” he said from Australia in video aired by KFOR, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City.

The girlfriend, Sarah Harper, visited the street where Lane was gunned down. A memorial with flowers had sprung up.

“I don’t really care what happens to them,” she said of the accused in an interview with 9 News of Australia. “I feel like if they don’t get what they deserve now and in the present, they will eternally. They’re just evil people.”

Jennifer Luna, who identified herself as the mother of one of the teens being held in the killing, said her son should be punished if he was involved.

In a tearful interview with reporters, she addressed the parents of the dead ballplayer: “I wouldn’t want to be in that position that they’re in right now. I’m always on my kids. I always tell them: If I lost y’all, I wouldn’t be able to live.”

The autopsy on Lane was pending, the AP reported. A call to the district attorney’s office in Duncan from NBC News on Tuesday was not answered.

The three teens are being held in individual cells at the Stephens County jail, Sheriff Wayne McKinney told NBC News.

He said that there has been an escalation in major crimes committed by people under 18 in recent years in Stephens County, a rural ranching and farming community about an hour and a half outside Oklahoma City.

Also in the jail are a teen accused of murdering his 16-year-old girlfriend and a man just over 18 accused of killing a store attendant, he said.

“That is alarming that we’re seeing those type of crimes,” he said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think it’s unique. It’s something we’re starting to see nationwide.”

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...-cops-say?lite

[Kuya]

Welp

[AoE]

WHERE WAS ZIMMERMAN?!

[BaneTheBrawler]

none of them had skittles and iced tea, so he thought they werent a threat

[Talint]

Clerk Thwarts Gunman, 20, at Atlanta-Area School

Remember: The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Wait. What?

[Nephlite]

Clerk Thwarts Gunman, 20, at Atlanta-Area School

Remember: The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Wait. What?

Some of the reports that came out about this showed the woman was able to quickly establish rapport with the suspect and used her brain to talk him down. Prime example of a hero right there. Some of her workplace violence training kicked in and she executed a flawless mediation with the guy. I wonder if she'll try to teach other people some of this stuff. Plus the way she kept her cool and didn't freak out is amazing. Usually when stuff like this happens, the victims will immediately panic and send the suspect in to a frenzy. Takes a huge set of gonads to do what she did.

[Jaybar]

You think most gun-owners have the intellect or the savvy to talk down gunmen?

[test123]

[Blubbartron]

video

Dude hurts his point by yelling like an angry racist buffoon. He's not wrong, he's just not terribly effective at getting the message out that racism, sexism, etc aren't only capable of hurting the "traditional" victims. Black people can be racist, women can be sexist, etc etc.

[archibaldcrane]

Usually when stuff like this happens, the victims will immediately panic and send the suspect in to a frenzy. Takes a huge set of gonads to do what she did.

Not super related, but on keeping your cool - years ago when I worked on Extreme Makeover, I was living in a hotel for a few months. I had the door to my room propped open in case any of the people recovering from surgery for the show needed to pop in (I was a "handler"). I was playing FFXI and heard the door open and close (couldn't see it where I was sitting), turned around and this huge dude in a windbreaker and sweatpants was in the middle of my hotel room, with one hand in his pocket. For a second I thought he was a prospective new makeover candidate (they were doing casting on another floor) and I asked if he was here for casting.

He replied:

Do you like daddies?

Terror gripped me then. Dude was way bigger than me (this was before I even lifted bro), between me and the door, may have a weapon in his pocket, and is clearly fucking insane.

I was counting on the insane part - that he wasn't sure if he was there to hurt me or not, and I cheerily replied "Do I like daddies? OOOOhhhh, I think you came into the wrong room!" Got up, walked happily past him to head to the door. As I walked past him, he jerked his hand out of his pocket (which I visibly flinched to and just barely kept my shit together) and talked my way down the hallway to the door saying "Yeah it's ok I think you were just looking for another room!" over my shoulder as my back was to him. I get to the door, reach for the handle and realize he fucking locked it behind him. So now, he's right behind me, I have to look at what I'm doing to unlock and unlatch the door, praying he doesn't knock me out and hobo gay-rape me, and I finally opened the door with a smile and ushered him out.

And then slammed it behind him, locked that shit and called the front desk to get security up there ASAP.

Fuck West Hollywood.

[ronin sparthos]

Black people can be racist? Who knew.

The distinction is that structural racism doesn't indiscriminately target whites so while the kid from Australia being killed for the lulz is unfortunate, it has nothing to do with the argument that brown people are discriminated against by an ingrained systemic set of values regardless of innocence or guilt. Society dictates that if you see a black man, he's automatically a criminal.

Is the same true of whites? Do we as a culture immediately draw a conclusion that a white guy walking up the street is automatically a criminal? Therein like the rub.

[BaneTheBrawler]

that depends, does he have slicked back hair and a toothpick in his mouth?

[Talint]

Man, who closed the Zimmerman thread?

Zimmerman gun shops on ‘grip and grin’ tour of tactical weapons factory

[Xantavia]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/us/kin...ool/?hpt=us_c2

(CNN) -- A gun accidentally went off inside a kindergartner's backpack at a school in Memphis, the Shelby County Board of Education said Thursday, but no one was injured.

In a statement, the board said the child had brought a firearm to school and it discharged while students were waiting for the opening bell in the cafeteria.

School staff took possession of the backpack and local law enforcement responded. The situation is under investigation and classes continued as scheduled.

When and how do parents educate children about guns?

"There is no evidence at this time of harmful intent; however, weapons of any kind are prohibited on campuses, and this student will be disciplined in accordance with the state's zero tolerance policy," the board's statement said. "The safety of our students and staff is of the utmost importance. Staff is trained to handle emergency situations, and all students were kept safe and calm while this matter was handled."

If the kindergartner is found guilty of an offense, he faces a 180-day suspension.

They need to start charging the parents when young kids get access to firearms like this.