Combat Weapons For All?

Surely there is a way to prevent someone known to the FBI as a terrorist sympathizer from buying assault weapons solely built to murder as many humans as possible.

Video by the company that made the Orlando shooter’s weapon.

Mother Jones: The killer “legally purchased the weapon, similar to an AR-15, on June 4 in Port St. Lucie, Florida, near where he lived. (He legally purchased a Glock 17 handgun the following day, which he also carried during the attack.)”

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

73 thoughts on “Combat Weapons For All?”

  3. Bisexual Man Gets Prison For Hate Crime Murder Of Gay NYC Man He Taunted
    AP staff

    A Manhattan jury had convicted Elliot Morales in the May 2013 shooting of Mark Carson in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, a center of American gay life for decades.
    Prosecutors said Morales had issues with his own sexuality and was jealous that Carson and his roommate were openly gay. He yelled anti-gay slurs at the men before shooting Carson in the face at close range.
    Arrested moments later, Morales began laughing and admitted killing Carson as officers held him down.
    “Diagnosis dead, doctor,” he is heard shouting on an officer’s video.
    At the sentencing, Judge A. Kirke Bartley talked about the Orlando shooting, where 49 people were killed, which he said was a parallel to Morales’ crime. “That parallel is revealed in hate, self-loathing, fear and death,” he said.
    He characterized Morales as “a monster,” and said, “Yours is a legacy of death and fear, nothing more, nothing less.”

  4. Indiana Man Charged After Guns Found Before Gay Pride Event
    Amanda Lee Myers and Tom Davies

    On Tuesday, the sheriff’s office in Clark County, Indiana, said Howell also is the subject of a sexual assault investigation. The incident occurred on May 31, about two weeks before Howell’s arrest in California.
    Bobby Boyd, a Kentucky attorney who represented Howell in a local case, did not return a message seeking comment.
    In October, Howell was accused twice within four days of pulling a gun and making threats. The first incident involved Howell’s then-boyfriend and the second a neighbor.
    Both men told The Associated Press that Howell was hot-headed.
    “He’s got a lot of anger problems,” said Richard Hambrick, Howell’s ex-boyfriend.
    Grace Logsdon, Howell’s former roommate, said Howell owned five guns and had a bad temper. During one trip to a gun range, she said Howell told her: “‘I wish I could kill a lot of people.’

  5. bring back the assault weapons ban.

    I think the Dems are fired up  this is a chance to win back the senate and make the house competitive

    the goops are in real trouble…couldn’t happen to a better bunch

  6. Did anyone notice how after those zoo security workers in Cincinnati killed that ape, Obama refused call it “Gorilla Warfare” or call those people “Radical Gorilla Fighters”? Have I captured the silliness going on right now with “Radical Islam” cries from the right?

  7. Sacramento pastor: Orlando mass shooting victims “deserve what they got”

    Baptist Pastor Roger Jimenez then asked his congregation if they’re “sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today”
    BRENDAN GAUTHIER
    A YouTube video of Jimenez’s Sunday sermon was since removed for violating the platform’s hate speech guidelines.
    In it, Jimenez reportedly asks his sermon, “Are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?” according to Houston, Texas, ABC affiliate KXTV.
    “I think that’s great,” he said of the shooting. “I think that helps society. I think Orlando, Florida, is a little safer tonight. The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die. The tragedy is I’m kind of upset he didn’t finish the job – because these people are predators. They are abusers.”

    “I wish the government would round them all up, put them up against a firing wall, put the firing squad in front of them and blow their brains out,” he added, referring to LGBT people.
    Read the full report, courtesy of KXTV.

  9. This country didn’t do anything after children were gunned down in a school…  or people in a church.  IMO, this incident won’t make a difference either….     as long as the Senate and Congress are controlled by Republicans.

    I agree with Hillary’s statement…  (paraphrasing)…  “it’s at the point where we can’t bring a full bottle of shampoo on a plane, but someone being investigated by the FBI as a suspected terrorist can buy an automatic assault weapon…  it’s absurd!”

  10. I added to post above a video by the company that made the Orlando killer’s weapon — advertised as a combat weapon.

    Justin Peters, SLATE: “while these weapons can indeed be used for hunting — in a pinch, you can also use a pickup truck as a golf cart — no one actually needs a device that fires 45 rounds per minute to put down a deer.”

    For a little over $1,500 they’re available online.

  11. Jace

    “Nothing becomes a man so much as the manner of his leaving. Bernie missed the boat.”

    At the least, Bernie should have thanked the hostess

  12. RR, they make that weapon in Newington, New Hampshire — Sig Sauer Inc.

    This thing obviously should not be sold to a civilian market, and the company should voluntarily stop. How far is Newington from you, RR? Let’s go protest!

  14. If there weren’t ‘beware of gators’ signs posted around those Disney beaches, then management should be sued for every penny they have.

  16. FLATUS, I’ve been there — alligators not mentioned but “No Swimming” signs posted everywhere. They’ve never allowed swimming in the Seven Seas Lagoon, usually quite vigilant about running folks out of the water if they get in.

  17. I have weapons–four of them. My three pistols are in three different, thoughtfully chosen, locations. My shotgun, what some would call a combat weapon, is in a fourth location. I feel no need to fondle or admire them. I have them for one reason–protection of myself and others.

    I don’t need to fire them for fun or practice; one doesn’t forget how to be an ‘expert’ marksman.

  18. CNN: There are “No Swimming” signs at the lagoon, and no one else was in the water at the time of the attack besides the child. Declan Salcido, who’s on vacation with relatives from San Jose, California, said the “No Swimming” signs are visible “from any vantage point.” The lagoon is not for recreational swimming.

  19. Feds going after the wife

    NBC: Gunman’s Wife Gave No Warning to Cops Before Attack, Sources Say

  20. Craig

    We have lots of gators around here. Dog owners are very careful not to allow their pets to frolic near the water’s edge because they know that gators will sometimes lurk near the shoreline waiting for a mammal to approach within their range. Depending on the nature of their habitat, they will eagerly emerge from the water to grab a slow mover.

    Signs here warn people to be cautious–gators are powerful, highly focused predators.

  22. Knowing that the murderer had been investigated in the past and that he remained free and that he was abusive, she was probably scared to death that he would discover that she was an informant.

  23. I think my heart is permanently broken from seeing so much hate being sanctioned by people in pulpits & podiums in this country.

     

  24. Flatus, I was raised learning how to fear and avoid gators, know their habitats, etc. Tourists and un-schooled locals just don’t get the danger, and in this case, sadly, “No Swimming signs” weren’t enough. Gators love dogs, often mistake small children for them.

    That Disney lagoon is connected to a chain of lakes with 150 miles of shoreline (where our home is). Out on the lakes at night we trained flashlights on the shore and counted the red eyes of gators, there were dozens plus in some spots. (That was my Dad’s effective technique for ensuring I’d be afraid of them and learn where they hang out — very creepy sight.)

    Out fishing one time I got too close to a nest and mama almost rammed my boat before I got out of there (life lesson: Never piss off a gator mama).

    It is unusual for a gator to wander into such a populated area as Disney’s lagoon, with lots of boat traffic — but obviously not impossible.

    Disney will have to pay something, probably, but Florida is a comparative fault state, meaning that a jury award or settlement will likely by reduced by a percentage attributed to the contributory negligence of the parents.

  27. One common sense (to me) proposal is to ban removable magazines for all civilian firearms, and to limit the cartridge capacity. By limiting the number of times a person can shoot without reloading, and substantially slowing down the reload time, it would reduce (not eliminate) the amount of carnage that could be inflicted, or at least give the victims, as well as law enforcement, some reaction time.

    This would have no substantial impact on hunting. (Any hunter that fires off more than one or two rounds is not much of a hunter). It would not substantially impact plunkers or target shooters, many fine target rifles are single-shot.

    It would not substantially impact self-defense. Really, how many rounds are you going to get off, or if defending your home do you really anticipate getting in a firefight?

    It would take away some of the apparent joy some recreational shooters get from spraying cactus and watermelons with 30 rounds at a time, but that seems a small compromise that is not inconsistent with the second amendment and court decisions saying reasonable restrictions are permissible.

    Finally, I admit it is not a complete ban of firearms, or even a ‘style’ of firearm. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

  29. I thought the police couldn’t pursue a charge if she knew about the attack but was not an accessory.  Knowledge alone is not enough to charge

  30. Amid all the hate speech from pulpits, podiums etc., there’s this, a conservative Republican who gets it. Thought it worthy of posting in full.

    Utah Lt. Governor Spencer Cox addressed a vigil held Monday night in Salt Lake City to honor the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Orlando:

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Thank you for being here tonight on this very solemn and somber occasion. I begin with an admission and an apology. First, I recognize fully that I am a balding, youngish, middle-aged straight, white, male, Republican, politician… with all of the expectations and privileges that come with those labels. I am probably not who you expected to hear from today.

    I’m here because, yesterday morning, 49 Americans were brutally murdered. And it made me sad. And it made me angry. And it made me confused. I’m here because those 49 people were gay. I’m here because it shouldn’t matter. But I’m here because it does. I am not here to tell you that I know exactly what you are going through. I am not here to tell you that I feel your pain. I don’t pretend to know the depths of what you are feeling right now. But I do know what it feels like to be scared. And I do know what it feels like to be sad. And I do know what it feels like to be rejected. And, more importantly, I know what it feels like to be loved.

    I grew up in a small town and went to a small rural high school. There were some kids in my class that were different. Sometimes I wasn’t kind to them. I didn’t know it at the time, but I know now that they were gay. I will forever regret not treating them with the kindness, dignity and respect — the love — that they deserved. For that, I sincerely and humbly apologize.

    Over the intervening years, my heart has changed. It has changed because of you. It has changed because I have gotten to know many of you. You have been patient with me. You helped me learn the right letters of the alphabet in the right order even though you keep adding new ones. You have been kind to me. Jim Dabakis even told me I dressed nice once, even though I know he was lying. You have treated me with the kindness, dignity, and respect — the love — that I very often did NOT deserve. And it has made me love you.

    But now we are here. We are here because 49 beautiful, amazing people are gone. These are not just statistics. These were individuals. These are human beings. They each have a story. They each had dreams, goals, talents, friends, family. They are you and they are me. And one night they went out to relax, to laugh, to connect, to forget, to remember. And in a few minutes of chaos and terror, they were gone.

    I believe that we can all agree we have come a long way as a society when it comes to our acceptance and understanding of the LGBTQ community (did I get that right?). However, there has been something about this tragedy that has very much troubled me. I believe that there is a question, two questions actually, that each of us needs to ask ourselves in our heart of hearts. And I am speaking now to the straight community. How did you feel when you heard that 49 people had been gunned down by a self-proclaimed terrorist? That’s the easy question. Here is the hard one: Did that feeling change when you found out the shooting was at a gay bar at 2 a.m. in the morning? If that feeling changed, then we are doing something wrong.

    So now we find ourselves at a crossroads. A crossroads of hate and terror. How do we respond? How do you respond? Do we lash out with anger, hate and mistrust. Or do we, as Lincoln begged, appeal to the “better angels of our nature?”

    Usually when tragedy occurs, we see our nation come together. I was saddened, yesterday to see far too many retreating to their over-worn policy corners and demagoguery. Let me be clear, there are no simple policy answers to this tragedy. Beware of anyone who tells you that they have the easy solution. It doesn’t exist. And I can assure you this — that calling people idiots, communists, fascists or bigots on Facebook is not going to change any hearts or minds. Today we need fewer Republicans and fewer Democrats. Today we need more Americans.

    But just because an easy solution doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. The greatest generations in the history of the world were never innately great. They became great because of how they responded in the face of evil. Their humanity is measured by their response to hate and terror.

    I truly believe that this is the defining issue of our generation. Can we be brave? Can we be strong? Can we be kind and, perhaps, even happy, in the face of atrocious acts of hate and terrorism? Do we find a way to unite? Or do these atrocities further corrode and divide our torn nation? Can we, the citizens of the great state of Utah, lead the nation with love in the face of adversity? Can WE become a greatest generation?

    I promise we can. But I also promise it will never happen if we leave it to the politicians. Ultimately, there is only one way for us to come together. It must happen at a personal level. We must learn to truly love one another.

    The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: “You will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another.”

    Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.”

    Now, you know a little something about hate. And you know a little something about persecution. But you also know something about loving, blessing and doing good. What our country needs more than ever is less politics and more kindness. If nothing else, as we can see here tonight, this tragedy has the potential to bring us closer than ever before.

    And so may we leave today, with a resolve to be a little kinder. May we try to listen more and talk less. May we forgive someone that has wronged us. And perhaps, most importantly, try to love someone that is different than us. For my straight friends, might I suggest starting with someone who is gay.

    I leave you with the words of Lyndon B. Johnson. They were spoken at another very sad time in our history, the death of President John F. Kennedy. He said this:

    “Our enemies have always made the same mistake. In my lifetime — in depression and in war — they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it will again. For this is what America is all about.”

    On behalf of the 3 million people of the state of Utah, We Are Orlando. We love you. And I love you.

    —  Utah Lt. Governor Spencer Cox

  31. I do have to admit that my proposal has a huge economic cost: almost every firearm now sold has a removable magazine. And, of course, if it only applies to new-manufacture and purchase, it would take decades for the mix to be substantially changed.

  33. KGC, it’s called “misprision of felony” — failure to report — a very old common law concept many states abolished, but it’s still a crime in federal courts. My guess is they can also catch her in a lie to federal investigators, definitely prosecutable (that’s how they got Martha Stewart).

  35. Some lawyers I knew had a misprision case, I never did. Misprision used to frequently run aground on the ruling that a wife can’t be compelled to testify against her spouse. The question was, is the misprision law equivalent to compulsion, forcing testimony against the spouse ?

    I don’t know how all that got resolved, if it ever did.

  36. Local reaction to Bernie’s loss in DC can be gauged by how it was reported in today’s The State newspaper: A two paragraph AP report on page seven.

  37. Who knows ? Ten years from now, we may revisit Plessy v Ferguson & Brown v Board of Education in a different context. Transgender kids who are forced to use separate bathrooms and locker rooms may sue and gain access to the appropriate gender facilities under the doctrine that separate is not equal.

  39. cajunjoe,

    your proposal strikes me as a good one. No sane person could say that it in any way infringes on the 2nd amendment. Would be a good place to start.

    Glad to see you in these parts again.

  41. “No sane person could say that it in any way infringes on the 2nd amendment.” – The Distinguished Member from AZ.

    But, we’re talking about Congress and the Supreme Court, not sane people.

  42. HOUSEKEEPING: have gotten a couple of reports in the past week about error messages when posting comments. So irregular and temporary that I am having trouble isolating the cause, could be traffic-related but so far does not seem serious enough to ramp up our bandwidth cost. As always please let me know when you have problems and include the device, operating system, browser that you are using: help@craigcrawford.com

     

  44. Craig…  Newington,NH is northwest of Portsmouth.  It’s about a 2hr drive from my neck of the woods.  I’d rather campaign for getting Democrats elected and then demand from them sensible gun laws…  Cajunjoe’s suggestion is a nice start.

    I’m with Xrep when it comes to Sanders.  But his latest demands on the Democratic Party take the cake…  someone needs to tell him he left the damn thing out in the rain and he’ll never have the recipe again.

  45. I prefer to use excise taxes and annual license taxes on the class of weapons, clips, canisters, etc. Taxing doesn’t infringe on purchasing, keeping, and bearing. 

  46. XR

    As long as it was restricted to a class of weapons that are simply modifications of military weapons.  There should be requirements for locks of various kinds that would keep a child from blowing away a parent.

    Another one of the problems with being elderly:  I can remember when the majority of people who had a gun had it to go hunting.  The most dangerous illegal weapon in general use was a switchblade (Doesn’t Westside STory seem quaint?).  Then the NRA and the right wing found out how much money was available from the gun manufacturers.

  47. for those (like scalia did) who harken back to originalism [wiki: a principle of interpretation that views the Constitution’s meaning as fixed as of the time of enactment] perhaps restricting gun ownership right to the long arms, muskets, pistols of the founding fathers would be acceptable.

  48. If you are LGBT this week is one of many feelings.  June is Pride Month, a month long celebration of happiness for most, in your face for others, meeting other people, and generally a period to celebrate our little march to equality.  We have had  some fine successes, marriage, backfilled by hate, don’t you dare pee in North Carolina.  But, overall we have a touch of equality that we did not have five years ago.

    The slaughter of so many LGBT people in Orlando has put us on edge.  Any gathering with a Pride Flag will be cautious and on the lookout.  When will the copycat hit?  We are very familiar with being the objects of hate, derision and attack.  The attacks on gays and transpeople are brutal and bloody.  Often a gun is not used, a brick, fire extinguisher, cans of fruit have all been used to kill a transgender person.

    Just as the innocents of the grade school and community college were murdered with combat weapons, so were the young people in Orlando.  The Republicans are working hard to keep afloat.  But, and this is a big but, with Trump as the Republican head, those in the Congress are starting to look at ways to keep their seats.  Voting to restrict assault and combat weapons out of the hands of the public is very possible.  Or at least a bill to do so will be tossed in the hopper.

    I understand the feelings of some of those people.  Restrictions on magazines are not well thought of for me, maybe others, but not me.  I shoot at the range, and will burn off almost a thousand rounds through several guns.  A magazine which holds nineteen rounds is better than a nine round magazine. 

  50. does my 2nd amendment right to bear arms include bearing bombs, bazookas, flame throwers, missile launchers and the like?

    if those can be regulated so could lesser armament…. where does the nra stand on that?

  52. If you are on Twitter, get in on the rant of @corbinreiff.  He’s a Veteran who normally just blogs about music and has now hit his limit of Donald TrumP

     

  53. My Dad just reminded me of a Seminole Indian who worked for him on his road crews years ago in the Everglades (also a professional gator wrestler for tourists) who offered this advice about unlocking their jaws: Pound their snout repeatedly with your fist and they will briefly let go. Try to pry open their jaws and they will just clamp down harder.

  55. BTW, the link is to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s latest post on Trump, ISIS and assualt weapons.

  56. Of course the horror of losing a friend or loved one is unimaginable.   Then you consider the real why behind everything:  200,000 people to this planet every day

  59. I’m fondly recalling those days as a mid-teen when I played joints whose patrons ran the gamut of human sexuality. I’ll be forever indebted to the people in those dingy little dives amongst whom I moved in that pivotal time.

    ive always gone back to see their descendants when I can.   I’m glad to now see that they no longer feel  bound to only “be” in out of the way corners and shadowy places.

    Y’all remember what it was like in the fifties and sixties, I’m sure.

  60. patd,

     

    The problem with those lines is they get drawn case by case. I think (think) AR-15s and the like would be permissibly limited since they have been before.

     

    I heard a bit of drumpf’s rally while I was out at lunch – god save us if we ever see the bozo in the white house.  He has at least backed of teh”afghan” angle – now it’s that his ideas aren’t from here.  Hes’ still doing his take the 2nd amendment away shit. He shoudl be ashamed.  Crooked Hillary? BS.  Lyin’ Donald!

  61. I always figure……..ANYBODY who applauds Mustang Sally and Otis Redding is ok with me.

    i don’t want to think about the little shooter asshole.   I want to think about Pulse becoming a real and true PULSE of a movement.

     

  62. Pretty ironic the name, come to think of it.

    trump?  The GOP figured, hell, any one of their stable of candidates would send the average voter screaming to vote democrat ( even THEY can’t trust another republican president right now) but then they got the gift of the ages……Trump.      Hahahahahahahahah

     

    what a fairy tale.

  63. Their main struggle with Trump is:  How do we maintain the fiction all the way thru No-fucking-vember.

    hahaha. A pox upon them.

  64. Jamie, the media in the late 40s and early 50s was obsessed with zip guns, a finger remover disguised as a primitive single shot pistol. Switchblades were safer.

    Pat, as long as they are single shot or double barrel, black powder, flintlocks, snaphaunces, wheelocks, or matchlocks, they should be okay if rifled.

    Also, outlaw Minie balls

  65. Just to refresh my very dim memory I googled “House of Ivy” and found this:

    House of IvyBy the late 1950’s, despite continuing hostility and harassment by the LAPD, a number of gay establishments had sprung up: the House of Ivy, Maxwell’s, The Black Cat, and the “356” bar downtown. Most gay bars had existed outside Los Angeles city limits where county sheriffs were traditionally far more tolerant.–The House of Ivy on Cahuenga was very popular in the ’50’s and ’60’s…There was also the Lafayette, which was just across the way from it. And then there was the Open Door, which was on the corner of Selma and Ivar in Hollywood…I also remember the Cherokee House in Hollywood…and Chee Chee’s on Figueroa…There were some others too like the Carousel, in Venice. That was one of the toughest….In the ’30’s and ’40’s it was considered quite chic to drop in at an after-hours “speakeasy” known as Brothers, in the Central Avenue area, near the Hotel Dunbar, where the city’s African-American nightlife flourished. 

  66. Open primaries? No, no and hell no

    Markos Daily Kos

    You want a say in who a party nominates, join it. If you are too cool to join it, then you are too cool to have a say. Simple. Period. End of story.
    Of course, Sanders’ list doesn’t include caucuses, which are an abomination of democracy and dramatically depressed turnout (and I wrote that piece before the Nebraska and Washington non-binding primaries, which had dramatically bigger turnout than the caucuses—even though they did not matter). I wonder why the guy who insisted on everyone voting would suddenly clamp down when discussing those undemocratic caucuses?
    Or how about giving Iowa and New Hampshire their unearned and unrepresentative early-state duopoly in the process? Why is he quiet about that?
    Or how about the unequal allocation of delegates? Sanders got more than 45.25 percent of the delegates even though he only got 43 percent of the popular vote. Why not fight for a delegate allocation system that matches the votes earned at the ballot box?
    It’s hard to take anyone seriously when their prescription to fix a broken primary process is focused nearly exclusively on the things that hurt him, and completely glosses over and ignores the fucked up things that helped him.

  67. Yay Democrats go filibuster —

    I see no civilian use for  automatic weapons

  68. “As long as it was restricted to a class of weapons that are simply modifications of military weapons.”

    – Jamie

    The military M-16 is a civilian AR-15 modified to provide fully automatic firing. Iow, the civilian AR-15 came first, and the military version is the modification.

  70. Nukes don’t kill people, people kill people. Support the 2d Amendment right to keep and bear thermonuclear weapons. The Founding Fathers would have wanted us each to carry an H-Bomb, just in case a tyrant showed up pushing Social Security, Huckleberry Finn, Public Education, or Public Safety.

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