Active shooter in Pittsburgh

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/27/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-active-shooter/index.html

 

Another pu**y with a gun.. Never ends

 

I heard this about an hour ago. Had to track down a couple of close family friends who are members of the congregation. They are okay.

It is all kinds of weird hearing about something like this in a place you have been before.

 

Thanks. We went through that with members of my wife's family on 9/11. None of them worked in the towers, but my wife's father, sister and brother-in-law worked in the city at the time.

The funny part came when my wife's cousins, who live in California, called to check on us. We were living in Pittsburgh at the time and they didn't realize that Somerset wasn't really that close to us.

I mostly keep thinking of the family members of the victims. I can't imagine what they must be going through right now. I knew the sister of one of the victims of Richard Baumhammers' shooting spree in 2000. I remember how difficult that was for her, including the media attention during his trial. She was often the spokesperson for the family and she hated it.

That was also a crime driven by hate, one carries out with a gun. Last I heard, Baumhammers was still alive as he continued to challenge his conviction and sentence to the death penalty.

 

Prayers go out to my Pittsburgh family, from a friend in Texas. Tragic.

 

Very sad and senseless. Prayers to all.

 

Oh, Pittsburgh. I am so sorry at today's events. I hope your loved ones are safe.

praying for you all.

 

We have always done lockdown drills and we added more last year. The problem with lockdown and active shooter drills is they don't want anybody panicking and doing something stupid, so they announce that it is a drill. People walk through the motions, but it's not a realistic view of how they will react if the real thing happens.

The only thing that scares me more than the thought of a shooter at my school is the thought of one at my daugther's school.

 

???

 

Prayers for the famliy's of this tragedy , and the city of Pittsburgh

 

Thoughts and prayers for the city and community of Pittsburgh. SteelersNation in Minnesota and North Dakota grieve with you. Take care everyone. My heart is with you.

 

It is scary stuff, but yesterday is a reminder that any place where people gather can be a target. That includes malls, movie theaters and houses of worship.

 

As a Canadian I always wonder what will be the tipping point to really start the conversation on some minor but sensible gun laws.

My thoughts and prayers to the victims and their family's, but my hope is for some kind of change.

I was an active skeet and sporting clay shooter for twenty years so I am not preaching as some anti gun type.

Maybe just maybe please make it a little more difficult for insanely crazy people to purchase assault rifles.

 

The problem is that while individuals can have an honest and productive discussion about common sense laws that could make things safer, all it takes is someone to bring up a slippery slope argument that any type of regulation will lead to a complete ban on guns to halt the progress that is made. I had a discussion with a guy at work during the last Presidential election and he was terrified that Hillary was going to take his guns. I said no one is taking your guns, oh no I heard she was going to take all our guns. No matter what was said he still wouldn't believe me. I believe a little regulation can go a long way. The US does it with just about everything else.

I ahd a great discussion with my cousin about gun ownership and specifically the AR-15. Most gun enthusiasts when cornered about the AR-15 will fall back on the hunting excuse. IF you need a 60 round clip with a bump stock for hunting, you are a bad hunter and might need to give it up. I finally got my cousin to admit that it is the cool factor, the going to the shooting range and laying down some serious fire and feeling for a moment like you are a soldier. There is nothing even remotely wrong with that either and people can have that feeling and shouldn't be made to feel like they are monsters because of it. But they can also have regulations that set some limits on that right, much like you can't have a car that goes 200 mph and drive it that speed all the time everywhere you go.

anyway I will step away from the political discussion because its not what we are here for, but I want to just say that