Lafayette Shooting

[carey]

2 hours from my home. 2 dead including the shooter and 7 people injured. Some critically.

[Superbone]

Something has got to be done!

[carey]

Yes but nothing ever will. Gun lobbyists are too well funded. It's like campaign finance reform. It will never happen because the very people with the power to reform those laws make way too much money with the status quo. Greed trumps all in America.

[Superbone]

Yes but nothing ever will. Gun lobbyists are too well funded. It's like campaign finance reform. It will never happen because the very people with the power to reform those laws make way too much money with the status quo. Greed trumps all in America.

Yep, I believe you are right.

[Indy]

But just think. If everyone had a firearm in the theater, this never would have happened...

[Superbone]

But just think. If everyone had a firearm in the theater, this never would have happened...

Uh... yeah.

[Indy]

More guns = more safety

[carey]

But just think. If everyone had a firearm in the theater, this never would have happened...

LA has the most lax gun laws of any state I believe. If there were a state other than TX where that scenario would have happened it would have been here. While I know you're being facetious, I can see our coward of a governor spouting this shit in about 24 hours. He's been an NRA lapdog since jump street.

[Indy]

But just think. If everyone had a firearm in the theater, this never would have happened...

LA has the most lax gun laws of any state I believe. If there were a state other than TX where that scenario would have happened it would have been here. While I know you're being facetious, I can see our coward of a governor spouting this shit in about 24 hours. He's been an NRA lapdog since jump street.

The problem is many, many people will spout that shit over and over again. And most of them believe it.

[Indy]

Mapped: The US states with the most gun owners—and most gun deaths

[carey]

There were already 2 murders in NOLA yesterday before the shooting in Lafayette happened. The city is dangerous. I live in the burbs about 10 miles from downtown thankfully, but we have had our share of random killings recently. A father & son died in their living room about 8 blocks from my house. 2 guys broke in and killed them because they were bored.

[Indy]

There were already 2 murders in NOLA yesterday before the shooting in Lafayette happened. The city is dangerous. I live in the burbs about 10 miles from downtown thankfully, but we have had our share of random killings recently. A father & son died in their living room about 8 blocks from my house. 2 guys broke in and killed them because they were bored.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think if I were ranking the states in order of my desire to live there, LA would be in that pack of bottom 5.

[carey]

There were already 2 murders in NOLA yesterday before the shooting in Lafayette happened. The city is dangerous. I live in the burbs about 10 miles from downtown thankfully, but we have had our share of random killings recently. A father & son died in their living room about 8 blocks from my house. 2 guys broke in and killed them because they were bored.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think if I were ranking the states in order of my desire to live there, LA would be in that pack of bottom 5.

Yea. It's a shame because New Orleans itself is an amazing city. There is real tangible culture here. An identity. Real community. Something a place like Phx just doesn't quite have. When I lived in Phx 90% of the people I met were from somewhere else. Here that's reversed. When you ask someone where they went to school they mean high school. It's just... different.

[Indy]

There were already 2 murders in NOLA yesterday before the shooting in Lafayette happened. The city is dangerous. I live in the burbs about 10 miles from downtown thankfully, but we have had our share of random killings recently. A father & son died in their living room about 8 blocks from my house. 2 guys broke in and killed them because they were bored.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think if I were ranking the states in order of my desire to live there, LA would be in that pack of bottom 5.

Yea. It's a shame because New Orleans itself is an amazing city. There is real tangible culture here. An identity. Real community. Something a place like Phx just doesn't quite have. When I lived in Phx 90% of the people I met were from somewhere else. Here that's reversed. When you ask someone where they went to school they mean high school. It's just... different.

Yeah, I totally get that. It bothers me here to see the lack of culture, but then I also think of that as it's own type of culture. If it weren't for my family ties, I don't think I would be here.

As for LA, I think the poverty level there is just too crazy for it to be a stable environment. I think they are last or next to last in that category.

[Ladmo]

"If everyone had a gun, we wouldn't have to worry about gun violence. This is why war zones are noted for their safety..."

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/louisia ... ed-hitler/

La. gunman was a Tea Partier who hated Obama, admired Hitler and wanted women to shut up in church

The gunman who killed two moviegoers and wounded nine others had a prolific online commenting history that revealed a fascination with censorship, Iran, and right-wing politics.

John Russell Houser, of Phenix City, Alabama, posted frequently across a variety of online forums — from political discussions to message boards for Oldsmobile enthusiasts — where he complained about “moral decay” and media brainwashing.

“America is so sick that I now believe it to be the enemy of the world,” he wrote under the name Rusty Houser in a December 2013 comment on Fellowship of the Minds. “I know next to nothing about Iran, but the little I do know tells me they are far higher morally than this financially failing filth farm.”

The 59-year-old Houser, who told acquaintances that voting was waste of time, was less active on Facebook and Twitter, although he left behind some clues about his beliefs on those social media networks.

“If you don’t think the internet is censored, try reading a newspaper from a country that hates liberals the way I do,” reads his second — and last — Twitter post, from June 2013. The first argues that “Westboro Baptist Church may be the last real church in America [members not brainwashed].”

His Facebook account shows just two likes — the “I hate liberals!” political organization, which uses an avatar that reads “Stand with Rand,” and the Crossroads Irish-American Festival.

Posts on his Facebook page reveals an interest in limiting women’s influence over the church, a hatred for American culture, and complaints about liberals “brainwashing” Americans into hating their own country.

“The bible doesn’t ask me to like what it says, only to obey it,” Houser wrote. “Death comes soon to the financially failing filth farm called the US.”

Houser was evicted last year from a rental property on 32nd Street, where his estranged wife owns a home that can be seen flying a Confederate flag on a Google maps search. It’s not clear whether he lived at the home when the photo was taken.

A criminal mischief complaint was filed against him after he destroyed some property at the home, but the Russell County sheriff said he was not sure whether an arrest warrant was issued.

Houser was turned down for a concealed carry permit in 2006 because of apparent mental health issues and a previous arrest in Columbus, Georgia, for arson.

A former attorney said Houser had tried to hire someone to burn down his law office in the early 1980s but later attempted to run for political office.

“He’s always been a little unbalanced, to say the least,” said former attorney John Swearingen.

Another acquaintance said Houser has an alcohol problem and had been acting increasingly unstable.

He was treated in 2008 and 2009 for mental health problems after his wife and other family members took out a temporary protective order against him for “extreme erratic behavior and has made ominous as well as disturbing statements.”

The filing shows Kellie Houser was so fearful of her husband, who “has a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder,” that she removed all the guns from their home.

The order was granted, according to court records, and she filed for divorce in March 2015.

Police said Houser had been staying at a Motel 6 in Lafayette, where an uncle who died about 35 years ago had lived, since early this month.

Houser indicated that he frequently spoke out about wasteful spending at Columbus City Council and Water Board meetings, and the city’s former mayor said he remembered him.

“He came to many City Council meetings and he was in tune with a lot of issues that were going on in the community,” said Superior Court Judge and former mayor Bobby Peters. “He was very outspoken, highly intelligent, really didn’t trust government and anything about government.”

“He always thought something was going on behind the scenes,” Peters continued. “He came across with a very conservative agenda.”

Peters said Houser was often dealing with personal legal troubles, and he said the man seemed to have difficulty finding a job he liked.

“He was always looking for his niche,” he said. “The thing he enjoyed the most, and he would tell you, is that he would like to almost cross-examine elected officials on talk shows and in council meetings.”

Houser signed up for an account with Tea Party Nation in June 2013, but he was not an active commenter.

Posts on other forums reveal Houser’s belief that the U.S. was racist against white people, sterilization should be mandatory for welfare recipients and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke was a more historically significant figure than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Hitler accomplished far more than any other through ‘pragmatically forming,'” Houser posted in January 2015.

He wrote something of a manifesto in March 2013, when he asked for help channeling his anger and frustration as a white Christian man living under President Barack Obama.

1 Recognize a lost cause.It is too late.The US is oozing the puss of foolishness and perversion.

2 Find a positive way to exert your energies.I recommend laughing as often as possible.Here is something that is truly funny: since I accepted this it came to me that the president is doing exactly what Tim McVeigh did,only the president is much more effective.The way I see it,the faster he wrecks this nation, which in no way resembles what it’s founders envisioned,the faster working people with morals may re-assume command.ie I was for his re-election. I like his spending habits.etc……Truth and death always go hand in hand, and in our brave moments we can laugh. Whatever truth requires, I will accept.

3 Encourage whatever takes us forward. Right now, down is forward.

4 For the few who will understand this, it is my hope that you will see to one preparation for the coming downfall, which will be worse than a Mad Max scenario. That preparation is not storing up canned goods, munitions,etc, but to gather what will be necessary to put in your families food to insure a painless and certain death should the need arise.,if there are no cell phones,no TV,no power,gas,no stores,no police,etc.

5 If you are male, fight until the end, and enjoy it.People are good at what they enjoy, and your Maker would want it that way.

Houser argued in a January 2014 forum post that the United States needed a right-wing party like Greece’s neo-Nazi “Golden Dawn” faction to restore its greatness.

“The financial failings of the US, and the bleak outlook, are known to the world,” Houser argued. “The average person in the US has not however figured out that the US is employing censorship of the internet. If you type in NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN IRAN, you will see about thirty such publications,none of which are published in their entirety, and none which your computer will translate.It might be permissible to put some political remark at the top of each page claiming bias, but to blackout all is nothing short of base censorship.”

He said the U.S. media censored evidence of its own censorship, which he believed only proved his point, and kept Americans from connecting with extremist groups.

Houser seems to have connected with one of those organizations when he registered in 2005 to attend David Duke’s EURO Conference in New Orleans.

“Type in WHITE POWER GROUPS and you get mag articles about their never ending claims of racism, and no information of how to find White power groups you might want to join,” Houser wrote. “I could go on for months. My point? Censorship coupled with brainwashing, is always present before the fall of a significant political entity. Put this together with our newly found financial reality, and you’ve got notice of things to come.”

Houser was a frequent guest on the “Rise & Shine” talk show on WLTZ-TV, whose host booked him many times in the 1990s because “he could make the phones ring” when paired against a Democratic guest.

“He was on from time to time because he was a very radical person with radical views,” said former host Calvin Floyd. “He was a Republican, and then I would have someone with a real strong Democrat view on.”

Floyd said he was not surprised when Houser, who argued against women in the workplace and advocated violence against abortion providers, was identified as the gunman.

“The association I had with him was for entertainment,” Floyd said. “He was very entertaining. He made for good TV and when it was over, you would leave shaking your head.”

The former host — who said Houser appeared about 15 to 20 times but never, as the gunman claimed on social media, had guest-hosted the program — clearly had a problem with women.

“He was anti-abortion,” Floyd said. “The best I can recall, Rusty had an issue with feminine rights. He was opposed to women having a say in anything.”

[Dan H]

Reading Housler's comments on line, he comes off as the typical Stormfronter. Not exactly a limited government type.



Current laws should have prevented him from buying a gun since he was involuntarily committed previously.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2 ... urders.php

Additionally, the theater is a gun-free zone, with signage, which hold the force of law in Louisiana. Unfortunately as we see time and time again, people who desire to commit crime couldn't care less.

[carey]

Mayci Breaux was the cousin of my girlfriend's mentor (an accountant.)

[Dan H]

That sucks, man. My condolences.

[Ghost]

Additionally, the theater is a gun-free zone, with signage, which hold the force of law in Louisiana. Unfortunately as we see time and time again, people who desire to commit crime couldn't care less.

When you get training in proper firearm usage, do they have a segment on how to engage an assailant in a crowded theater that is mostly pitch black, aside from the screen, without hitting innocent bystanders? That seems next to impossible to me. Even an expert shooter will have a lot of difficulty keeping things together in that situation, short of military combat training.

And let's say there are five responsible people carrying in the theater when the shooting starts; once a second person starts firing, how do the other four now differentiate between the assailant and the new guy firing in all the confusion? I don't think it's as simple as it sounds ("Aim at the first shooter!"), since most people will not be looking for a shooter at all while watching the movie. It sounds like a Tarantino-style Mexican standoff, only without the part where they actually stand off before opening fire and killing everyone. Including the original shooter, but also potentially double or more innocent people.

I heard that the Lafayette theater was far from full, but that wouldn't answer my question. And it's a pretty fair one that those who want to do away with gun-free zones seem to ignore. It doesn't have to be dark, either; the same questions would apply in broad daylight in any crowded area.

[Dan H]

When you get training in proper firearm usage, do they have a segment on how to engage an assailant in a crowded theater that is mostly pitch black, aside from the screen, without hitting innocent bystanders? That seems next to impossible to me. Even an expert shooter will have a lot of difficulty keeping things together in that situation, short of military combat training.

http://www.donath.org/Rants/TheFourRules/

Any training starts with Cooper's Rules or some adaption thereof.

I'm not necessarily endorsing gunfights in darkened theaters, but if a business is going to take the step of disarming law-abiding patrons they should to some extent assume responsibility - and thus liability - for anything that happens.

Lucas Oil Stadium is also a GFZ, for example, but they take the proactive step of wanding people coming in and checking them for non-approved items.

Would this guy have gone to, oh, the SuperDome and tried this? Would he have risked a confrontation with NFL security or would he prefer to go somewhere where he knew there was essentially no security?