Little girl dies in her home as 50 shots are discharged into the house

[Bluebear]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The chief of the St. Petersburg Police Department says he's outraged by the death of an 8-year-old girl gunned down after a barrage of bullets were fired into a home.

Paris Whitehead-Hamilton was sleeping early Sunday when someone fired more than 50 shots from a semiautomatic rifle. She was struck three times in the back after running from her bed to the living room.

At a news conference Tuesday, Chief Chuck Harmon said the shooting appears to stem from a feud that began a few weeks ago and escalated through the weekend. One of the men inside the home the night of crime was involved in a shooting the previous evening, and may have been one of the intended targets.

A teenager has been charged with Paris' death, and police are looking for at least three others.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/988826.html

[baldguy]

1. If only she had a weapon to shoot back with...

[county worker]

5. Please get it all out there so we can continue this stupid gun nut gun grabber war!

[baldguy]

9. You keep whining about "rights" that don't exist

and people like this child will keep dying.

[Midlodemocrat]

17. +1

[doctor jazz]

92. Fail to enforce existing laws and you can keep up your foul snarking

about the Bill of Rights which you obviously think ends after the First Amendment.
Bah.

[Missy Vixen]

110. +2

An eight-year-old is dead. Of course, her life doesn't matter, does it? :sarcasm:

Just one more life on the altar of those who believe EVERYONE should have access to a gun.

[hendo]

137. sounds like you have no problem using it as an anti-gun alter though. NT

[rl6214]

127. "Rights that don't exist"

Blah, blah, blah

Heard it all before, you want to be able to pick and choose which ones you like.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MineralMan]

44. Give it a rest, OK? A little kid was killed by someone with

a firearm. You're making no points with your snark.

[Toucano]

12. Well put. n-t

[librechik]

20. what, after getting 3 bullets in the back?

maybe she was running for her gun when she ran into the living room. NOT!

I hope you just forgot your sarcasm smiley.

[baldguy]

25. We don't have a :sarcasm: smily with tears gushing out of it.

The regular one would not be appropriate.

[librechik]

47. good point.

we need one of those. I've been needing it all day!

:cry:

[wartrace]

30. If only she hadn't been living in a home with criminals.....

Why was that house sprayed with bullets? I know it is more convenient to blame the gun involved BUT someone had to pull the trigger. Why did he/she pull the trigger? It seems to me they were trying to kill another criminal who was involved in a shooting the day before that was in the house.

Where were the responsible adults? Where was child protective services? Why was that child exposed to that danger?

[baldguy]

40. Her life is forfeit because one of her relatives *might* be a criminal?

:puke:

[NashVegas]

87. These Things Don't Happen In a Vacuum

Maybe they do once in a while, some random joy-riders. But not this time.

This little girl is dead because a) some asshole with a gun had a score to settle and b) someone in her own family put her life in jeopardy with their own actions. There's no getting around that.

At a news conference Tuesday, Chief Chuck Harmon said the shooting appears to stem from a feud that began a few weeks ago and escalated through the weekend. One of the men inside the home the night of crime was involved in a shooting the previous evening, and may have been one of the intended targets.

The article states it quite bluntly, no "alleged," no "suspected."

[angstlessk]

49. of fucking course it is the kids fault for living with criminals..

EVERY VICTIM OF GUN VIOLENCE IS THE REAL PERPETRATOR OF THIER OWN DEMISE...WE ALL KNOW THAT...THOSE POOR GUNS...BLAMED FOR SO MANY DEATHS...

[Renew Deal]

71. I don't know what side you're on, but I don't want to be on that side.

:wtf:

[SsevenN]

146. Ummm...Hello in there?

This is quite obviously gang-related. Someone in her immediate family was involved in a shooting the week before.
Where is the outrage at this guy for engaging in the kind of behavior that gets children killed?
Where is the bluster about disarming the people who are OBVIOUSLY already criminals, possessing their firearms illegally?
What the hell does her having/not having a gun have to do with anything?

Stop letting your hopolophobia get in the way of the what the problem is.

[Ron Green]

2. Florida again. Yikes.

[baldguy]

37. oops

[WorseBeforeBetter]

111. It's everywhere. NC, NY, PA and WA in what...

just the past month?

[benEzra]

129. And Germany. (n/t)

[Midlodemocrat]

3. Sigh. If only that child had been packing...

:sarcasm: obviously.

[cboy4]

4. What a surprise. Florida.

:sarcasm:

[SeattleGirl]

6. I think the gun owners all need a time out! I'm not anti-gun, but the

shit that has been going on over the past month left the "Insane" station some time back.

They need to take a time out, calm down, turn their brains back to Reasonable (or even Kind of Reasonable), and stop shooting the fuck out of anyone and everyone they think has caused them harm, or whatever it is they think.

[Bluebear]

10. ..."left the Insane Station some time back"

Excellent turn of phrase!

And accurate. This country seems to be going kerrrazy and it's getting deeply out of hand.

[Midlodemocrat]

19. You know what the worst part is?

To me, anyway and apart from this beautiful baby's death? That it seems to be related to money. Money. People are flipping out and killing each other and themselves over money.

Yes, I recognize that not having money is horrible, but worth dying over? Worth killing your family over? No.

[Fumesucker]

48. Self worth in America is directly tied to net worth..

Net worth gets to zero or negative, self worth does the same thing.

Just about the first question Americans ask each other upon meeting for the first time is "what do you do?", this is an attempt to peg your income and hence your social status more than anything else.

I've watched my brother suffer over the last couple of years as the contracting company he has owned for nearly thirty years has slowly collapsed and his income shrunk to a fraction of what it was. He was close to divorce when he found a job building movie sets recently, his attitude is now much better than it was just a few months ago and his marriage is on the mend.

My own thirty year marriage ended recently thanks mostly to financial difficulties and since I'm a shy person who now has virtually no money I expect to live the rest of my life without a companion, a prospect that is not particularly appealing to me.

[Midlodemocrat]

53. I'm so sorry, Fumesucker.

[Fumesucker]

66. Thanks...

I have my daughter, son in law and grandchildren around me and that helps a great deal, makes life tolerable.

But I'm used to having a life companion and now I don't. It's my cross to bear and I'm of English extraction and hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way, as Pink Floyd wrote a lifetime ago almost.

Reading about things like what happened to this poor little girl and her family just tears me apart, it did before my divorce but now I find myself much closer to tears almost all the time.

If I could have taken the bullet for this little girl I think I would have done so.

[Midlodemocrat]

84. I'm glad you didn't. I like reading your posts and I'm glad you're here.

I'm very sorry that your spouse didn't realize the treasure that you are and I wish you peace and comfort.

[ManiacJoe]

33. The gun owners are doing fine. On the other hand, the criminals...

[geckosfeet]

50. Seems to be a very fine these days.

[Barack_America]

7. Yay! Guns!

:eyes:

I'm seriously so sick of hearing stories like this. How much more tragedy do we have to endure before we start cracking down on this shit?

[Pavulon]

26. Lots

how do criminals mean jack shit to me. No more than a person who smashes their car into a person drunk is relevant to my consumption of alcohol responsibly.

What are you cracking down on?

[Barack_America]

34. Existing gun laws and harsh punishment for those who would violate them.

As it seems this teenager with a semi-automatic did.

[Missy Vixen]

112. Actually, the dead mean "jack shit" to you, too

Nice to know that an eight-year-old caught in the crossfire is nothing more than collateral damage to you and your little friends. :eyes;

[Pavulon]

133. You eye ball plucking vultures using every shooting to push a shit agenda

are getting really loud. Just like before the AWB, which did NOTHING to reduce crime, but hey it made some one feel warm and fuzzy. What do you PROPOSE?

That shit is done, you remember the outcome of that law. I REFUSE to piss away a powerful majority on a worthless issue. I refuse to support a worthless warm fuzzy for a law that shits on law abiding people and is ignored by criminals. Like DRUG laws.

FIX root cause, WHY people shoot people, and then this stops.

[xchrom]

8. so i take it dad had a gun --

still his child is dead.

[angstlessk]

13. dad, brother, roomer...someone in the house pissed someone else off..and since guns are SO MUCH FUCK

ING FUN...they went about shooting up the house..no matter who was fucking killed!

[xchrom]

15. indeed. nt

[recoveringrepublican]

22. No her dad is serving in Iraq at the moment. Mother died years ago. This story is local for me

and breaking my heart.

[stray cat]

27. I'm sorry - it is heartbreaking - her poor dad....

[Beaverhausen]

31. Oh my god that is awful.

How sad. Do you know who she was living with?

[recoveringrepublican]

43. Her aunt. 'They' (combination of news and officials) are saying this wasn't

gang related, but a "neighborhood dispute". The target was somebody else in the home, I have not read exactly who though. The little girl heard a commotion and ran to the window to see what was going on.

[wartrace]

14. Kids & criminals don't mix.

It's too bad this child didn't have a responsible adult in her life to keep her out of situations like this.

[angstlessk]

16. so now it is the kids fault for not having a responsible adult to raise her...sheesh...blame

anything but the fucking gun!!! sheesh!!!

[wartrace]

18. You really have to read my post again.

Or you need to work on your reading comprehension. Please highlight where I blamed the dead child.

[angstlessk]

35. the point is you will call on every social ill in the nation..but never gun ownership

as a problem...SORRY IT WAS A GUN THAT KILLED HER..NOT THE LACK OF ADULT PEOPLE IN THE HOME!

[Midlodemocrat]

38. +1

[Pavulon]

39. A person killed them, dynamite did not kill kids in sunday school

a person rigged the charges. Lets be clear, a person pulled the trigger.

[angstlessk]

42. how fucking easier it is to pull a trigger of a gun than to plant dynamite in a building???

sugar..do not even say if we do away with guns...criminals will carry sticks of dynamite...ARE YOU REALLY INSANE OR PLAY INSANE ON THE INTERNETS?

[Pavulon]

65. Not that hard actually, 2/3 gas, 1/3 oil, same outcome. Ban gas, no molotov crime.

grow up, criminal acts do not impact my legal right to own firearms any more than they do my consumption of alcohol.

TAPT is on youtube.

Criminals dont do ban, that is why you can buy weed and coke.

[ManiacJoe]

45. Incorrect.

It was a murderer who killed her. The tool he used to do it is all but irrelevant.

[angstlessk]

51. you really believe he would have walked into that house and stabbed the child to death?

you do not think the arbitrariness of the shooting FUCKING COUNTS?

[ManiacJoe]

75. Absolutely, it counts.

However, you are describing an attribute of the criminal, not the tool he used.

If he wanted to remain outside the house, he could also have used a large chainsaw. Could have driven a truck through the wall.

Had he chosen a contact weapon like a knife or club as you suggest, he presumably would have at least been forced to verify his target. Of course, he could have still verified his target while using the gun if he had so desired.

The problem is not the tool; the problem is the user.

[angstlessk]

104. ARE YOU SO IDIOTIC AS TO SAY SPRAYING A HOUSE WITH BULLETS IS THE SAME

AS STALKING THE INHABITANTS OF THE HOME???

[ManiacJoe]

113. No, I am not saying that.

However, both can be used to the same result.

[angstlessk]

115. you ARE the devil's advocate..because I cannot believe you believe what you say

just sayin!

[ManiacJoe]

118. Belief is not required for it to still be the truth.

The facts are the facts.

[hendo]

138. if guns did not exist he would have. NT

[AtheistCrusader]

148. On the contrary, it seemed fairly deliberate.

To stand there and discharge over 50 rounds into a house, seems pretty deliberate to me. The shooter intended for someone to die, and stood there firing a very loud rifle for an extended duration.

The circumstances are awful, and I feel very bad for the remaining family, but something very not-arbitrary happened here, I think. Hard to imagine this was some random thrill kill.

Not to say the victims did anything to bring it upon themselves, just that it doesn't seem very random.

[dustbunnie]

52. "Adults" don't engage in gang activity.

And strict gun laws don't really have an effect on gangs. Look up the stats in other countries such as Canada. Gangs use guns. When they can't get them, in a pinch occasionally they'll slice someone's head open with an axe, but getting their hands on guns isn't usually a prob.

[angstlessk]

54. HOW MANY FUCKING CHILDREN ARE KILLED IN CANADA..LETS BE FAIR..PER CAPITA

THEN AND IN THE USA...??? HUH?

[dustbunnie]

58. This all-caps business is lame. That's for starters.

Why don't you try google and see for yourself how gang-related gun murders keep increasing in Canada. If you think abolishing guns will remove the threat of people dying by them, you're mistaken.

[angstlessk]

61. honey, I do not care if every gang member in Canada kills every other gang

member in Canada...just don't kill the KIDS..the KIDS in America seem to be 'collateral' damage to the gangs here...what about Canada???

[dustbunnie]

64. Of course there's collateral damage.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of several. One where a young girl was killed in cross-fire while Christmas shopping in downtown Toronto, and another kid waiting in line outside a club in Montreal. I'm not going to google for you, but Canada is not immune, and the stats are growing.

[angstlessk]

67. hell american guns are everywhere...see mexico for how much damage they can

actually do to a country....but...the NRA makes so much money..and them gun manufacturers in China...they just love them some guns...

[dustbunnie]

72. I'm not in favor of dumbasses owning guns either.

And it's quite true that in Canada, if someone wants to kill another, chances are the average person will have to get their hands dirty by strangling, knifing, axing, running someone over with a car, etc... instead. But gangs have always had guns.

[Pavulon]

73. Yeah, that FN 240 golf I saw on the tee vee cam from a gun shop

that fucker came right from their own armory.

[ManiacJoe]

124. You need to read the LA Times articles

that tell where the guns in Mexico are really coming from. (Hint: it is not the US civilian sales.)

[wartrace]

80. Why did the criminal target HER home?

Are you claiming this is a random event? The home was just targeted because of the door knocker? Social ills ARE the cause. The criminal with a gun is just a symptom.

I didn't say "adult people" in the home, I said a responsible adult.

[Midlodemocrat]

21. It's all her fault, the little ne'er do well.

:sarcasm:

The shit I read here sometimes. I swear.

[wartrace]

32. Please point out WHERE I blame the child.

You can't. I blamed her PARENTS & THE CRIMINALS involved. I can't understand how anyone can misread my post so badly.

[dustbunnie]

55. No one had trouble reading. People purposely like to stir sh*t with others on the board.

[Midlodemocrat]

62. Wow. Awesome.

:rofl:

[Bluebear]

74. Jeepers, welcome to DU!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

139. You assume incorrectly that she cares about the truth.

[dustbunnie]

23. Whaa? The poster wasn't blaming the kid at all -

just stating a fact that it's a crying shame that child didn't have a better guardian or parent. I agree.

[Bluebear]

28. Well, dad is in Iraq and mom died years ago. :(

[wartrace]

36. Why wasn't she placed in a safe home while dad was away?

That is terrible, the father lost his wife & his child while serving his country.

[dustbunnie]

41. Yeah I read that. I'm sure he'll be devastated.

So the child was left with an aunt, and the relative responsible for drawing that terrible situation to the house. If only she had been with her parent instead.

[NashVegas]

90. It's Her Misfortune, Not Her Fault

[AtheistCrusader]

141. Sign me up for the Citizens Against Guns That Aim Themselves And Pull Thier Own Triggers brigade.

The person you responded to didn't blame the child. No one blames the child. Please read more carefully, and or stop trolling.

[recoveringrepublican]

24. She did, unfortunately GWB sent him over to Iraq to fight the war. Her mom died years ago. nt

[recoveringrepublican]

29. LIttle girl's family asks for retaliation to stop.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=103692&catid=8

[baldguy]

46. This needs to be shown.

She'll never grow up - BUT AT LEAST OUR GUNS ARE SAFE FROM THAT NAZI GUN-GRABBER OBAMA!

:cry:

OK, now i'm really crying.

[recoveringrepublican]

56. Police chief: cycle of retaliation led to girl's murder

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2009/04/st-petersburg-police-call-press-conference-to-discuss-paris-whiteheadhamilton-case.html


ST. PETERSBURG -- A fistfight weeks ago led to an attempted shooting Saturday night that touched off the massive display of firepower early Sunday morning that left an 8-year-old girl shot dead in the back, Police Chief Chuck Harmon said today.

.......

It started with a brawl between two men about six weeks ago, the chief said, that escalated the already long feud between rival groups from the Harbordale and Bethel Heights neighborhoods.

Gregory Wright, 22, got the best of 19-year-old Markeath Fielder, police said. So around 10:30 Saturday night, Wright told police Fielder ambushed him on a city street. Fielder pulled up alongside Wright and fired a handgun at him, missing him police said.

That led to Sunday night's retaliation shooting, police said. Fielder was a friend of the girl's family and often stayed at her Preston Avenue S home, police said. He was there that night when a group of heavily armed men opened fire on the home, police said, unleashing more than 50 rounds from semi-automatic AR-15 rifles.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

57. Please post these in the gun forum where they belong.

[TahitiNut]

60. Amen.

[Sebastian Doyle]

70. Yeah, please put anything remotely concerning gun violence in the gungeon

Never mind that there has been a dozen senseless killings already this week, and its only Tuesday. We MUST have a segregated forum where the NRA shills can spew freeper crap without being noticed, and getting their long overdue pizzas.

[Bluebear]

79. ***applause***

[Pavulon]

81. Maybe if we fix root cause..There will be much less of this.

The constitution is not freeper shit. You guys should go for the amend like the prohibition people. At least those wackos followed the rules. That worked really well.

You around in 95, I see no reason to piss away a useful position of power on a rat hole.

[Missy Vixen]

117. Bravo

>Never mind that there has been a dozen senseless killings already this week, and its only Tuesday. We MUST have a segregated forum where the NRA shills can spew freeper crap without being noticed, and getting their long overdue pizzas.<

Thank you so much.

I might add that they also delight in embroiling any of us who oppose their death toys into tangent side arguments which don't have the first damn thing to do with the subject at hand.

An eight-year-old is dead, the seventh child in less than a week to die at the hands of someone with a gun. :mad:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

135. According to the rules the gungeon is where these stories belong.

Feel free to take it up with the moderators. They have been very fair in my dealings with them.

David

[Hugabear]

143. And I bet you've been reporting all these stories to the mods like a good little German

Gotta make sure that the people who primarily stick to the GD boards don't see these stories, donchya?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

151. I'd like to answer your question but it's against the rules.

[Bluebear]

77. Sorry, I won't relegate the sorry story of a dead child to your gun board.

Now go find some Dirty Harry story where a burglar gets blown away to entertain yourself.

[Pavulon]

83. Lets start posting every OD and Fatal accident

sounds like a great idea. Maybe we can work on root cause for those too. Aren't drugs banned BTW?

[Bluebear]

86. Please, put me on ignore so you won't be irritated further reading about stories like this.

[Pavulon]

93. I love clubbing the baby seals that push gun bans

if they were around to remember 1995 I ask if they want to repeat that with a stupid gun ban that solves nothing, and why?

But hey lets make murder MORE illegal and maybe the criminals will stop.

Do you have suggestions for a new innovative gun law that could work? No.


I dont do ignore.

[Bluebear]

94. 'I dont do ignore.' - I do. :)

[Pavulon]

99. Preachers Usually Do..

I see you did not POST ONE SUGGESTION for a realistic modification to the existing laws covering weapons in the US.

[Hugabear]

144. Show me ONE story where someone killed multiple people in a mass drug attack

Can you?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

134. According to the rules the gungeon is where these stories belong.

Along with the stories of defensive use of firearms.

David

[baldguy]

88. Out of sight, out of mind?

If it sinks into the darkest depths of the gungeon, then no one will notice the violent insanity wrought by gun fanatics on our country and maybe - just maybe it'll be like it doesn't really happen?

[Bluebear]

91. What's sad is they don't pause 2 seconds to think about the dead kid before they fondle their gun.

No shock, no empathy, just a kneejerk "don't take my gun!!!!!1" response.

[Pavulon]

101. I am sure you cry for every DWI victim before taking a drink..

you guys are silly. I cant have a beer without thinking about every person killed by people who drink and drive. It torments me...

Grow up.

[Missy Vixen]

119. I don't drink and drive.

Do you?

[Pavulon]

132. Nope, but I dont shoot up houses either.

so if some asshole kills someone drunk that is not related to my legal and responsible consumption of alcohol. And if some asshole shoots someone that is not related to my legal and lawful ownership of firearms.

No matter how loud the howlers scream it from the tree tops.

[Junkdrawer]

59. 50 shots from a SEMI-automatic...

1.) How fast do semiautomatics shoot?

2.) I Googled instructions to mod a semiautomatic AK-47 to full with, get this, a twistie tie. And a gunsmith friend says all it takes for a permanent conversion is to file one pin (although he also says that such a conversion may melt the barrel.)

[Pavulon]

68. Wrong, wrong, and wrong

They shoot about as fast as you can pull the trigger.

Go give that a try and take it to a police station. It will not work AND you will do 10 years in federal pound me in the ass prison for your attempt.

You have lots of really bad information there.

[Junkdrawer]

82. It was an interesting Google. I found conversion instructions for sale on Amazon.com...

Couldn't believe it, but there it was...

[Pavulon]

85. you cand find hookers and weed (or an ass kicking robbery)

on craigslist. Good luck.

[Junkdrawer]

97. I don't own any guns, much less a semi-auto assault weapon....

But all this hoopla about how semi-auto AK-47s are COMPLETELY different from a REAL AK-47 seems more and more specious.

Seems to me that the streets are now flooded with truly dangerous weapons and many innocent police and civilians will die before that genie is put back into the bottle, if ever.

[Pavulon]

107. I dont own them either, but was an armorer, am (sort of) a machinist by trade

and can tell you it is easier to manufacture the colt weapon from scratch than to convert it. The replicas sold by colt will not take parts from the m4 or m16ax.

I am not qualified to give expert info on the ak or its modern variants. You see the AK47 is not longer used by the Russians. It has been phased out over decades. The modern rifle fires a round similar to 556 nato.

Filing sears does not work. That just renders a weapon useless.

An ak47 (or any rifle) can be made by hand by a man in Pakistan. It does not require a cnc mill. But if you have one you can bang them out very easily.

[Hugabear]

145. Point is that one of your beloved pet arguments has been shot to hell

That being that you can't take a semi-automatic weapon and turn it into a fully automatic one. Oh yeah, it's a CRIME to do that. So fucking what? So is shooting a bunch of people, but that doesn't seem to stop people from killing each other. Seems the bigger problem is easy access to these weapons, which really aren't that difficult to modify!

[X_Digger]

147. *snort*

Unless you mean 'conversion' by building the whole center section of a gun from scratch. And taking the doors from my pinto and putting them on a ferrari 'converts' my pinto to a sports car. Riiiiight.

[dashrif]

136. Look

around most people that buy that stuff get a knock on the door by the ATF. No reputable gunsmith would talk about making an ak47 type gun full auto he would be as full of shit as a Christmas goose, or looking to get the ATF of his ass by handing over a dope. see reputable again

[DevonRex]

78. Yep. The auto sear. That's it.

[Pavulon]

95. There is no DIAS for the replicas sold in the US

If you buy a DIAS or fabricate one you are a felon. Same as making a bomb. More time than rape or your first murder will get you.

But you can go rob a bank tomorrow, even though there is a ban for that too.

[doctor jazz]

100. Do you have even a tiny bit of regret for posting lies like that?

I'm recalling Joe McCarthy here...

[Junkdrawer]

120. Here's the Goggle. Have fun....

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=RfzbSbHCIoSdlQfZ1-XsDQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=ak+47+conversion+instructions&spell=1

[Pullo]

130. Do you have any data on converted AK's being recovered from crime scenes?

Before we invent boogie mans, I'd like to read how many AK's, or any otherwise semi-autos found to be converted to fully-automatic, are recovered by law enforcement each year. Please link to me some BATFE data or something indicating the illegal conversion of such semi-autos to full-auto is actually a problem that really exists. Are police actually recovering said converted AK's etc?

or are you just trying to create red herrings?

[X_Digger]

142. Thanks for making the point for us..

Perhaps you're not a machinist but when the instructions include 'make your own bolt per the following diagram' and 'a welder might be able to build up the cam and a machinist can mill it' you prove the point that these aren't something that can be done with a file in 10 minutes. These instructions are for building a full auto receiver, sear, and bolt- basically building the important parts of a gun from _scratch_. A qualified machinist could build _any_ gun from scratch, not just an ak-47.

If it were easy to do, it would be done- criminals don't obey firearms laws. Funny though, there have been exactly two full auto weapons used in crimes in the last 20 years (one by a cop) and only a handful of older rifles converted to full auto (the BATFE stopped importation / sale of guns that are 'easily convertible' years ago- those guns are treated as though they already are machineguns.)

[kestrel91316]

63. Well, I'm sure the shooters felt "safe" with their guns a'blazin'.

Who cares if some innocent bystander died? A man's gotta protect his shit.

[ManiacJoe]

98. If you had read the article

you would know that the shooter was not protecting anything.

[The Straight Story]

69. Call congress and tell them to make a law against shooting peoples' homes

Laws will make people stop doing things.

[TheWraith]

128. Exactly what I was thinking.

These people committed reckless endangerment, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, and murder. Does anyone really think this would have been prevented if, say, the guys involved had been limited to 10 round magazines instead of 20, or had been forced to use pistols instead?

[BlooInBloo]

76. One wonders how many little girls have to die to satisfy the bloodlust of gun nuts.

[ManiacJoe]

96. Zero.

The real question is, how many little girls have to die to satisfy the bloodlust of the criminals?

[angstlessk]

102. YOU REALLY BELIEVE HE WOULD HAVE STABBED THE KID IF HE DID NOT HAVE A GUN?

suger ..you need to understand that GUNS KILL MORE INDISCRIMINATELY THAN KNIVES EVER DID!!!

[ManiacJoe]

108. You need to work on your reading comprehension.

If he had not had the gun, he would have picked another object as a weapon. Assuming he actually had a specific target in mind (not a safe assumption), a contact weapon would have assisted him in by requiring that he get close enough to ID the people around him. However, if he did not care about who was his target, then yes he could have stabbed the child any way.

Killers usually do not care what weapon they use. If tool A is not available, tool B can be easily substituted. All that changes are the tactics used. It is illogical to blame the tool for the user's actions.

[angstlessk]

114. you are truly insane to believe the killer would have knifed all in the home

including a 10 year old..who he could have just pushed aside..to get to his desired victim...IS THAT YOU DR PHIL?

[ManiacJoe]

123. I made no such statement.

I just suggested that he was physically capable of stabbing all in the house if he had no intended target (ie, wanted to kill everyone).

If he wanted to kill a specific person only, then he could have chosen to prioritize that person. In that case, stabbing the child would have been bad tactics as it slows you down, sounds an warning to the others, and opens you to a counter-attack while you are distracted.

Or so I have been told... :evilgrin:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

140. You are insane if you think that someone who shot 50 rounds into an occupied house...

would have a problem blocking the doors and setting it on fire, making an explosive device and throwing it in the house. Do you honestly believe if he didn't have a firearm he would have just let it drop?

David

[one-eyed fat man]

149. 15 cents worth of gasoline........

a bottle and a book of matches.

12 year old girl burned alive

[L0oniX]

89. This is where I live. Don't wonder why I have a gun for self defense with this kinda shit happening.

[Faygo Kid]

103. All the best to you. My daughter lives in Lutz.

How terribly awful. Take care of yourself.

[angstlessk]

105. hope you don't have kids...good luck with guns...they are more likely to be used against you

than used to protect yourself...NRA notwithstanding!!!!

[ManiacJoe]

116. Not hardly.

"they are more likely to be used against you than used to protect yourself"

That is the common but wrong interpretation of the usually misquoted study.

[L0oniX]

125. Ignorance is bliss for some. I on the other hand have been instructed by a police officer ..

on gun safety and when to use one. I've also been through a CWP and self defense course. You think I am just gonna let someone break in to my house and shoot me? You gonna call the police if/when it happens to you? ...and wait for them to defend you? Good luck.

[Scout]

150. "instructed by a police officer"

that carries absolutely no weight with many on DU, especially some of those in the gungeon

:rofl:

[jmg257]

131. Used by who?

[Junkdrawer]

106. Hey, A few MORE guns and things should get real polite soon...

or so they say...

[L0oniX]

126. I am sure it will all work out well if the criminals have guns and we don't.

I am sure the police will stop anyone from shooting you since you can't defend yourself.

[tammywammy]

109. All started with a fist fight 5 weeks ago

Sad that these men allowed their petty feud to escalate to gun violence.

Since apparently these two neighborhoods have been feuding for at least the last 10 years, hopefully the police and community will work on outreach to get these men to move past it.

[angstlessk]

121. community get the men to move past murdering a 10 year old...I HOPE NOT!

he should be prosecuted and sent to prison..

[tammywammy]

122. Sorry, no that's not what I meant at all

I meant to get these two neighborhoods to stop warring with each other.

The men will be prosecuted and sent to prison and rightfully so.