Lawyer Live-Tweets Delaware Courthouse Shooting, Draws Ire by Daring to Speak Ill of Guns

Posted on February 11, 2013 by wellsdc

(WARNING: I’m going to say some not-nice things about guns in this post. If this bothers you, please click this link.)

A gunman entered a courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware at about 8:00 a.m. local time this morning and shot at least four people, killing two, before police killed him. One of the deceased, according to CNN, might be his “estranged wife,” but nothing is certain, since this occurred less than two hours ago as I am typing this. I wish that I could add surprise to my disgust, but someone deciding to resolve things with their estranged spouse via bullets is not an original solution. My main impetus for buying a handgun in 2008, in my lawyering days, was out of a sense of discomfort around certain opposing parties in a few lawsuits.

What is still relatively novel is the phenomenon of live-tweeted tragedies. Anyone who has lived through a traumatic event knows that thoughts come in random and unpredictable ways. Anyone who makes frequent use of Twitter knows that people can now share those thoughts in as long as it takes to type 140 characters or less into a handy smartphone. They also know that a quick thought sent into the Twitterverse may be subject to extensive deconstruction by people who have the luxury of not being in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, and who will presume to know better than that person how they should have responded.

That brings me to my point. I have never met Jennifer S. Lubinski, nor have I ever been to Wilmington, Delaware. We are privy to her thoughts on the experience, though, thanks to social media.

A woman was shot right in front of my partner.He hid behind our boxes of exhibits on handcart.He says woman will not make it.

— Jennifer S. Lubinski (@jslubinski) February 11, 2013

I just witnessed my first shooting.DE chancery court lobby.Multiple down.Police here.Where’s the #NRA asI’m hiding in parking lot? — Jennifer S. Lubinski (@jslubinski) February 11, 2013

I guess mentioning the NRA was her big mistake. As we all know, guns don’t kill people. That guy could have just as easily walked into that courthouse with a knife, baseball bat, or extremely taut rubber band and killed the same number of people, because shutuplibertySecondAmendmentFREEDOM. One might be tempted to call that hyperbole, but minor challenges to the sanctity of guns tend to bring out the sputtering and syntactically challenged among us. I really see no point in blocking out the names on these gems, especially since I am mostly going off of the tweets that Ms. Lubinski herself retweeted, or that were made in direct reply to her. Continue reading →

Making it a Little Harder for Crazy People to Do Crazy Things

Posted on December 26, 2012 by wellsdc

[I started writing this in July 2012, but never posted it. Events that have transpired since then make it necessary to leave a field blank, because my comment may apply to multiple events.]

The tragedy in _________________ was not the result of secularism, the lack of Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, same-sex marriage, or the wrath of any angry deity.

The truth is, we do not know exactly what happened, and we may never know why. The shooter [might not even know why/is dead]. All we know is that a dangerous individual, sporting military-grade weaponry, killed a lot of people and wounded many more.

For all we know, he was determined to hurt and kill people no matter what. Of course we will never be able to stop all armed assholes, but is it so unreasonable to make it more difficult to obtain weaponry that would allow them to fire dozens of rounds per minute?

Even More Public Servants that We Need to Arm

Posted on December 24, 2012 by wellsdc

From CNN (via Crooks and Liars):

A man convicted of killing his grandmother decades ago ambushed firefighters on Monday, fatally shooting two of them as they arrived to battle a blaze in upstate New York, police said.

Two other firefighters were wounded in the attack in the Rochester-area town of Webster. A police officer from the nearby town of Greece suffered minor shrapnel wounds when his vehicle was hit by gunfire.

Investigators believe the suspect, [name redacted by me because fuck him] set the original fire, then likely set himself up on a berm with a clear view of the scene and started shooting.

“It appears that it was a trap,” Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said. “There was a car and a house that were involved in flames, probably set by [some asshole with a gun], who laid in wait in armament and then shot the first responders.”

The asshole who shall remain unnamed by me also managed to destroy much of his neighborhood by keeping other responders away, before apparently offing himself.

For several hours Monday, the threat of gunfire stopped firefighters from battling the blaze and forced police SWAT teams to evacuate 33 people in the neighborhood of small waterfront homes.

Eventually, seven houses were “totally destroyed” by the fire. Although the fires were under control as of 2:30 p.m. ET, by then authorities still hadn’t been able to get in any of the homes. Pickering said it’s possible more victims could be inside.

“I’m hoping that everyone was able to escape from the inferno,” he said. “Those houses were close together.”

All of this happened on Christmas Eve, and all because a convicted killer with some pretty serious mental health issues got his hands on some guns, and then decided to kill firemen.

I don’t much care right now about the shithead who did this. Two people are dead, on Christmas fucking Eve. Via the Associated Press:

– Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, had been named Firefighter of the Year just two weeks ago, and he led the fire department’s Explorer program for young people interested in becoming firefighters. He had recently taken vacation time to help recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported. He also was the public information officer for the Webster Police Department. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son, who also worked with the fire department

– Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, was a 911 dispatcher for Monroe County. He also was a member of the Explorers group that Chiapperini advised, had worked at a fast-food restaurant and had been a member of the fire department for about a year. One of three brothers, he was studying at Monroe County Community College. On his Facebook page, he said he could speak Polish and German.

I’m politicizing the shit out of this. To those who don’t think we should politicize incidents of gun violence, are firefighters any more worthy of your attention than kindergarteners?

I assume someone will make the disappointingly obvious and bad suggestion that we should just arm the firefighters. Many in this nation may not think firefighters should have collective bargaining rights, but we could at least give them guns. We could also post armed guards at fires.

We could also try to address mental health while working to keep the more insanely non-recreational guns under control, and by that I mean talking about mental health as more than just a way to try to

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Another Shooting

Posted on August 15, 2012 by wellsdc

Some guy walked into the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Family Research Council this morning and shot a security guard in the arm. He reportedly said something about the FRC first, although the FBI has not said exactly what. Reports indicate that the alleged shooter volunteered for a LGBT community center, and he was in possession of “Chick-fil-A materials.” The security guard, Leo Johnson, managed to disarm and subdue the shooter, and is expected to recover fully from his injury. Bravo to him for controlling the situation without escalating, and for generally being a badass. As of right now (8:00 p.m. CDT), law enforcement says that the shooter’s motives remain unclear.

LGBT organizations moved quickly to condemn the shooting:

We were saddened to hear news of the shooting this morning at the offices of the Family Research Council. Our hearts go out to the shooting victim, his family, and his co-workers.

The motivation and circumstances behind today’s tragedy are still unknown, but regardless of what emerges as the reason for this shooting, we utterly reject and condemn such violence. We wish for a swift and complete recovery for the victim of this terrible incident.

Atheist organizations did likewise:

While we disagree with the Family Research Council on nearly every issue, the debate surrounding the role of religion in the public sphere should be fought with reason and logic, not guns. We absolutely condemn this sort of senseless violence.

It really should go without saying that shooting sprees and attempted shooting sprees are never, ever, ever, EVER, EVER justified. Somehow that message does not get through. A common refrain after most shootings is that it was unpredictable, or that the shooter was mentally ill, or that we can’t possibly know the motivations behind it. Here, the alleged shooter went after a decidedly right-wing target, a rather rare (though not at all unprecedented) occurrence. The Family Research Council really does not support LGBT rights. So, of course, people on the right now blame LGBT-supportive groups for the shooting. While many on the right were focused on the injured guard and were actually allowing the investigation to proceed, not everyone was so patient:

“Today’s attack is the clearest sign we’ve seen that labeling pro-marriage groups as ‘hateful’ must end,” Brian Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, said in a statement.

That’s not going to happen. See, I happen to agree that people jumped the gun after the shootings in Tucson last year, even if many Republicans’ rhetoric made the argument plausible. If it was wrong to jump to conclusions then, it’s wrong now. Furthermore, the FRC is hateful, unless you believe that the precious religious fee-fees of one particular subset of the Christian faith are more important than the basic ability of LGBT individuals to live their own lives as their hearts and consciences dictate. I have neither the ability nor the desire to give the FRC the benefit of the doubt on its stances, and I can easily condemn the shooting without giving one iota of credence to their regressive, Bronze Age superstitions. (Note that I am disdainful of their policy positions. I have no hatred towards the actual people, but I do think they are wrong. Unlike sexual orientation, political opinions can change.)

And that’s really the thing: groups that stand in stark opposition to everything for which the FRC stands have unequivocally condemned today’s incident. I’m not aware of many other acts of violence of this type perpetrated against those who oppose LGBT rights, but here’s what I do know:

Approximately 1,296 hate crimes were perpetrated against LGBT individuals in 2007, including five murders, 242 aggravated assaults, and 448 simple assaults (via Human Rights Campaign, PDF file).
There were about 1,254 anti-LGBT hate crimes in 2009 (via CNN).
Between 2009 and 2010, the number of anti-LGBT hate crimes increased by thirteen percent, including twenty-seven murders (via USA Today). Based on CNN’s 2009 figures, that would be 1,417 incidents.

I am not suggesting that the FRC was behind any of these incidents, nor am I suggesting that the FRC’s rhetoric was what specifically inspired any of the assailants. There is similarly no reason to assume that today’s shooter was specifically motivated by any rhetoric of GLAAD, or the Southern Poverty Law Center, or any other group that advocates for the rights and basic humanity of LGBT individuals. Still, these LGBT rights groups have condemned today’s shootings. What has the FRC ever done for victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes? Not much. I don’t have statistics for 2008, but for 2007, 2009, and 2010, I count 3,967 statements of support to hate crime victims that the FRC owes, and then the FRC and its supporters can justifiably criticize its opponents’ rhetoric.

One final note: I assume Leo Johnson was armed, yet he managed to tackle the shooter, disarm him, and detain him until police arrived, apparently without ever using his own weapon. Again, bravo to him. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Cryptic Philosopher

IT'S A TRAP!!!

Tag Archives: shooting

Making it a Little Harder for Crazy People to Do Crazy Things

Even More Public Servants that We Need to Arm

Another Shooting