Monday, January 11, 2010

St Looey Shooty Re-Dooey

Well, the New York Times actually had a halfway decent, halfway unbiased, sum up on that St Louis Shooting I referenced the other day. More details.

"He took with him one assault rifle, one shotgun and two handguns, the police said, after finding the second handgun on the scene, along with a fanny pack full of ammunition. A fifth gun was found near the guard shack in the parking lot, where Mr. Hendron first opened fire on his co-workers."


The scumbag murdered 3 people, injured 5 others, and then took the cowards way out. He'd have saved a lot of anguish if he had just re-ordered his activities, shooting himself in the head first, before going to work to cause mayhem. (...well, shooting himself first would have obviated the need and ability to do the rest... but that would have been a better outcome, no?)

He apparently perceived that his employer was doing him wrong. He felt cheated by them and was taking them to court to address these perceived wrongs. I guess he couldn't wait for the judicial process to complete. Ass.

Anyway, no mention on any .30 caliber handgun, which was my original interest... The probable mis-reporting I heard on ABCnews radio. I guess the "assault rifle" the Times misnamed could have been an AK clone. I can almost guarantee it wasn't an actual assault rifle (and able to shoot like a machine gun) or the paper would have noted the shooter had an NFA tax stamp. They DID mention he had a hunting license, as they said, "was married with a 20-year-old son and had a hunting license, according to public records." A crazed madman can be just as deadly with any old rifle, but an organization like the Times has to play along with the anti-gun tune and vilify Sport Utility Rifles whenever feasible. It's my quibble with the story. Never forget, a murderous punk killed those 3 people at that transformer fabrication plant, not an Assault Rifle or Assault Weapon or AK or EVIL black rifle or whatever you want to call it. You want less tragedy? Get the murderous punks off the streets, not the firearms.

But it also is apparent that this killer was just an ordinary guy the day before. No one had him pegged as a bad guy until this incident. To facilitate his impact it looks like he chose a shift change for his mayhem, where he'd have a lot of people around to shoot at. And he is reported to have fired, "well over 100 rounds throughout the complex." We are lucky there weren't many more victims. Apparently he just snapped. I'd call him a poor bastard and have a lot more sympathy for him if hadn't hurt anyone. I don't know why there is something in human nature that sometimes willfully conflates minor tragedies into major ones. It makes me not like people very much.

I've found no other, more detailed, follow up references. Yet.

1 comment:

Old NFO said...

Interesting that since he didn't have a CCW, they had to point out the hunting license ... And yeah, the reverse order WOULD have been preferred.