Reply #43: have you ever tried to report this kind of threat?

[amazona]

I have tried to report a nut with a gun who made threats. (In my case, sexually related, but in essence, the same thing -- the individual was threatening to kill people and waving around a gun because he was a psycho who hated the world.) The police just laugh. Apparently, thousands of people make these threats every day. The police do not waste their time arresting them until someone is actually hurt. I have been told this on several occasions by law officers. I feel sorry for the people working around this nut, as I have been in this kind of situation. You know your life is in danger but you have to earn a living and the law doesn't do anything about people making threats. In theory, making a violent threat is assault. In reality...it isn't enforced. And if it was, half the rednecks in the south would be in jail right now.

This isn't just a problem from days gone by. The man who walked into Casino Magic/Biloxi awhile back and shot the place up had threatened many people with his gun, even teen-agers. Yet the sheriff of the Alabama town where he lived saw the man waving the gun around but had not acted because he thought it was just talk. A few years back, a man in my neighborhood threatened to shoot his girlfriend. The girlfriend actually managed to get a court order for the man to be placed in the local mental institution to have his head examined. The local police did not fill the order. Three months passed, and the cops always had other priorities. The man then came to the woman's house, killed her, shot her mother, killed himself. Everyone knew this man was dangerous. There was a damned court order. But nothing was done.

All being aware of threats does is give you more time to be worried and miserable. :-(