Californian Gunman Targets Elementary School

[Stan]

surprised there wasn't a topic about this considering gun control is constantly a hot topic and the fact this involves shooting in to a school. Sounds like there it could have been worse and we could have had another Sandy Hook incident on our hands had the shooter not been stopped.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41991397

Quote

 

A gunman who killed four people on Tuesday in rural California fired into an elementary school but was stopped from entering by teachers, police say.

Staff at Rancho Tehama Reserve School went into lockdown, securing school doors after hearing nearby gunshots.

Authorities praised the teachers' actions as "monumental" in saving "countless" lives.

Police confirmed one child was shot at the school after the gunman fired into it. Others were hurt by broken glass.

Police later confronted the gunman in a stolen vehicle, shooting and killing him. He was named locally as 43-year-old Kevin Neal.

It is believed the shooting spree began after a domestic row with the gunman's neighbours in Rancho Tehama, a rural community about 120 miles (195km) from Sacramento, on Tuesday morning.

Police said they believed he went on a "bizarre and murderous rampage" after the dispute escalated and he killed a neighbour.

Officials confirmed the gunman had "prior contacts with law enforcement".

The Tehama district attorney told the Sacramento Bee he was being prosecuted on charges relating to a stabbing and assault in January in an incident involving two of his neighbours.

He had also reportedly been the subject of a domestic violence call the day on the eve of the gun spree.

A semi-automatic rifle and two handguns were recovered from one of the crime scenes, police said. At least 10 people were injured in the shootings at multiple locations.

Police said he chose most of the victims at random, and reportedly shot into the school but became frustrated after the teachers' locked the doors and left after six minutes.

It is believed the school was alerted after a mother was shot at in her car while driving her children to school. She was reportedly seriously wounded but not killed.

The child who was shot has undergone surgery after being struck in the leg and chest, reports say. Other children at the school were reportedly injured by broken glass, and some were evacuated from the school and transported to hospital by helicopter.

"This individual shooter was bent on engaging and killing people at random. I have to say this incident, as tragic and as bad as it is, could have been so much worse," Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said.

The Redding Record Searchlight newspaper spoke to a man who said he was a neighbour of the gunman.

Brian Flint said his neighbour "has been shooting a lot of bullets lately, hundreds of rounds, large magazines".

"We made it aware [to police] that this guy is crazy and he's been threatening us," he told the newspaper.

The Associated Press spoke to a woman who identified herself as Neal's mother, who said he had told her: "I'm on a cliff and there's nowhere to go."

She said Neal was in a long-running dispute with neighbours who he believed were cooking methamphetamine.

She added that Neal, who was raised in North Carolina, had been working as a cannabis farmer and had recently married his longtime girlfriend.

His sister, Sheridan Orr, told the Associated Press that she believed her brother was addicted to drugs, and had struggled with mental illness and a violent temper.

"We're stunned and we're appalled that this is a person who has no business with firearms whatsoever," Ms Orr said.

She added that she hopes this attack will "make people realise there must be some gates on people like this from getting guns".

"This is the same story we're hearing more and more."

Police have refused to officially confirm the gunman's identity until all his next-of-kin are notified.

California Governor Jerry Brown issued a statement saying he and his wife were "saddened to hear about today's violence in Tehama County.

"We offer our condolences to the families who lost loved ones and unite with all Californians in grief."

Vice President Mike Pence wrote on Twitter: "Saddened to hear of the shooting in N. California, the loss of life & injuries, including innocent children.

"We commend the effort of courageous law enforcement. We'll continue to monitor the situation & provide federal support, as we pray for comfort & healing for all impacted."

 

Maybe cos the guy's name wasn't Abu Kevin Mohammed it's not getting much attention  

[Batard]

It’s not terrrosim if it’s domestic #whiteprivliege 

When oh when is America going to get serious about gun control. 

[RandoEFC+]

I saw a Daily Mash article the other week about the gun problem. It said:

 

"There's nothing we can do to stop this" says only country in the world suffering this problem.

 

Pretty much sums it up. I'm actually bored to fuck of debating gun laws in America. The bottom line is that it was one of the stupidest things in the history of Man to put it into the constitution that anyone can buy anf own a gun and expect things to work out okay.

Now it's a lose lose situation. If they restrict gun ownership then law abiding citizens will hand their guns back while people who want to shoot up a supermarket will get their hands on guns anyway.

[Dr. Gonzo]

https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1819576527

American gun laws are stupid and this will continue to happen as long as these lax gun laws exist. 13,577 gun deaths in the US alone as of me posting this. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/ - check there to see the table on the left and see if it's gone up at any point in the day. There've already been a couple more deaths today.

 

[Spike]

2 hours ago, Batard said:

It’s not terrrosim if it’s domestic #whiteprivliege 

When oh when is America going to get serious about gun control. 

Well if you really wanna be pedantic it has to have a political motive to be terrorism... For instance, I believe Antifa (mainly rich white kids from the suburbs) has been labeled a terrorist group or at the very least a gang. It isnt just white priveledge either, think about all the black men blowing eachother away with small arms, they are the forgotten story.

The NRA is serious about gun control/safety or at least were in the past (admittedly many of them are nuts but safe nuts, haha) but that is the issue; organisations like the NRA want their cake and to eat it too but anti-gun lobbyists want NO guns so there will never be a compromise. Nothing will ever change because one side is horrified of guns and the other is horrified by complete disarment. I think the anti-gun lobyists are pushong the NRA further away from a compromise every year...

[Batard]

29 minutes ago, Spike said:

Well if you really wanna be pedantic it has to have a political motive to be terrorism... For instance, I believe Antifa (mainly rich white kids from the suburbs) has been labeled a terrorist group or at the very least a gang. It isnt just white priveledge either, think about all the black men blowing eachother away with small arms, they are the forgotten story.

The NRA is serious about gun control/safety or at least were in the past (admittedly many of them are nuts but safe nuts, haha) but that is the issue; organisations like the NRA want their cake and to eat it too but anti-gun lobbyists want NO guns so there will never be a compromise. Nothing will ever change because one side is horrified of guns and the other is horrified by complete disarment. I think the anti-gun lobyists are pushong the NRA further away from a compromise every year...

I was being flippant but I do agree. My ex was pro guns on the basis of that it wouldn’t eliminate all gun crime if you had them. Ergo it meant you were safer with them. She justified this position by saying drugs were illegal in the UK but you could still get drugs meaning drugs may as well be legalized. Which is another topic of conversation entirely. 

[Spike]

1 minute ago, Batard said:

I was being flippant but I do agree. My ex was pro guns on the basis of that it wouldn’t eliminate all gun crime if you had them. Ergo it meant you were safer with them. She justified this position by saying drugs were illegal in the UK but you could still get drugs meaning drugs may as well be legalized. Which is another topic of conversation entirely. 

Personally, I'm of the belief that until the USA gets the illegal gun ownership issue under control, any sort of legal gun control will ultimately be meaningless. The shear amount of illegal guns is astonishing, and I'd wager strict gun control laws would bring an economic black market bubble for the gun trade. The USA is damned if it does, damned if it doesn't.

[The Artful Dodger]

It's a boring debate now, it's not going to change. The stories are only noteworthy for locals, we don't need to hear about these daily shootings.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

It's a boring debate now, it's not going to change. The stories are only noteworthy for locals, we don't need to hear about these daily shootings.

This.

May as well cover shootings in Venezuela too. Its hardly news anymore.

[SirBalon]

54 minutes ago, Blue said:

This.

May as well cover shootings in Venezuela too. Its hardly news anymore.

Yeah...  Venezuela is a first world country...  Let me correct myself.  Venezuela is in the same category the USA hold themselves as.

[Tommy]

Shootings are always fucked up. But an elementary school? That's a special kind of fucked up. 

[Stan]

8 minutes ago, Tsubasa said:

Shootings are always fucked up. But an elementary school? That's a special kind of fucked up. 

but let's not care about it any more because it's too much of a regular occurrence. 

[Fairy In Boots]

8 hours ago, Stan said:

but let's not care about it any more because it's too much of a regular occurrence. 

It’s desensitised to the horror of it, eventually the shock factor lessens and it doesn’t feel as raw. The same has happened with terrorism although Spike is right it’s not terrorism unless there’s some kind of political motive, then it’s just murder. 

[The Artful Dodger]

9 hours ago, Stan said:

but let's not care about it any more because it's too much of a regular occurrence. 

Why don’t you post about the daily shootings in South America then, if you ‘care’ so much. It’s irrelevant news, bad stuff happens in the world, it’s sad...we don’t need to hear about every one.

[Stan]

I wouldn't say it's irrelevant that kids get shot up by a gunman. There's a different between caring about it and seeing whether it's irrelevant or not. 

[bozziovai]

41 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Why don’t you post about the daily shootings in South America then, if you ‘care’ so much. It’s irrelevant news, bad stuff happens in the world, it’s sad...we don’t need to hear about every one.

as brutal as it sounds, but i agree with you.

anywhere in the world, there's violence and crime even more gruesome than this shooting but nobody cared to share them or talk to them BUT .............. if a crime happens in america, suddenly, the world cares .... 

[Honey Honey]

This story didn't actually materialise as major news. 

US shootings which kill less than around 15 people no longer have a very long impact in the media, an industry controlled by the need for views. The views are shrinking.

If anything it is a damming indictment of the richest nation there is that children being shot at is as predictable as the politicides in the most impoverished places in the world.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Stan said:

I wouldn't say it's irrelevant that kids get shot up by a gunman. There's a different between caring about it and seeing whether it's irrelevant or not. 

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that it happens all the bloody time in the USA. Its become such a regular occurence, why not cover the shootings in South America too? Its not "news" anymore. Its what I've tried to keep on a low a long time to avoid controversy but I'm glad I'm no longer the only one who thinks this.

Lets the USA keep their news to themselves unless its something that can affect the world as a whole. This is not, its a domestic problem and a very regular one that doesn't need to be covered every single time. Unfortunately people are too busy arse kissing the Americans that they'll keep talking about it as if its the only country that matters.

In other words, its not irrelevant but rather just boring to hear over and over again. Violence exists everywhere.

[Dr. Gonzo]

39 minutes ago, Blue said:

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that it happens all the bloody time in the USA. Its become such a regular occurence, why not cover the shootings in South America too? Its not "news" anymore. Its what I've tried to keep on a low a long time to avoid controversy but I'm glad I'm no longer the only one who thinks this.

Lets the USA keep their news to themselves unless its something that can affect the world as a whole. This is not, its a domestic problem and a very regular one that doesn't need to be covered every single time. Unfortunately people are too busy arse kissing the Americans that they'll keep talking about it as if its the only country that matters.

In other words, its not irrelevant but rather just boring to hear over and over again. Violence exists everywhere.

Yeah, and as long as America sits on the issue of gun violence it's not going to change. There will be gun crime in the United States, basically every single day. Because there's so many guns, they're easy to get legally in one state and bring it over to another state, and apparently it violates the human rights of Americans to not let it be as easy to buy a gun.

In all honesty, covering the shootings in South America would be more interesting because a lot of it is related to the drug trade. And the drug trade is a global issue that impacts pretty much everywhere. Which is a bit different than the repeating story of a country that's got lax gun laws having gun violence all the time. "But Dr. Gonzo, some of America's gun crime involves the drug trade too..." Yeah - that's true - but that shit is never the gun crime in the US that we hear about in the international media.

I think the most interesting thing about the USA and guns is the NRA's profound influence. First off, it's a huge lobbying group that unites single issue voters (who's single issue is, for some reason, guns) to get politicians to refuse to enact new gun regulations to prevent things like people who are on the no-fly list from being able to purchase a gun, or requiring people buying guns at gun-shows to undergo background checks they're usually required to under state law (which is a weird loophole that for some reason exists). And then the other part of them is marketing weird shit to their members. They've got one ad that came out recently that's total fearmongering: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/06/29/the-nra-recruitment-video-that-is-even-upsetting-gun-owners/ 

But if the most interesting thing about gun violence in a country is how fucking strange their political system is... that sort of transcends the issue of the repeated people getting shot.

 

 

[Carnivore Chris]

On 16/11/2017 at 5:24 PM, Blue said:

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that it happens all the bloody time in the USA. Its become such a regular occurence, why not cover the shootings in South America too? Its not "news" anymore. Its what I've tried to keep on a low a long time to avoid controversy but I'm glad I'm no longer the only one who thinks this.

Lets the USA keep their news to themselves unless its something that can affect the world as a whole. This is not, its a domestic problem and a very regular one that doesn't need to be covered every single time. Unfortunately people are too busy arse kissing the Americans that they'll keep talking about it as if its the only country that matters.

In other words, its not irrelevant but rather just boring to hear over and over again. Violence exists everywhere.

They don't even speak about our own murders in the UK if it's gang related/drug related.

Same with the murders in the US. There are still far more gun deaths every year via gang violence than from these massacre style shootings.

 

By the way, this one should be documented(wherever it occurs), as it's innocent kids he was targetting. This shit is the lowest of the low. You can't get any worse.