Some of you may recall the guy the press dubbed Joe The Plumber. He wrote an open letter regarding these latest shootings -

The following is Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher’s open letter to the parents of the victims murdered by Elliot Rodger:

I’m not talking here about the three tragic murders Rodger committed by stabbing before his driving and shooting spree; I speak now only to the families of the gunshot victims in Santa Barbara; It’s a tragedy. I am sorry you lost your child. I myself have a son and daughter and the one thing I never want to go through, is what you are going through now. But . . .


As harsh as this sounds – your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.

Richard Martinez, whose son (Christopher) was among the murdered, choked back tears at a news conference, blaming politicians the next day: “The talk about gun rights. What about Chris’ right to live?” Martinez said – and much more.

There are no critical words for a grieving father. He can say whatever he wants and blame whoever he’d like – it’s okay by me. You can’t take a step in his shoes – at least I can’t.

But the words and images of Mr. Martinez blaming “the proliferation of guns”, lobbyists, politicians, etc.; will be exploited by gun-grab extremists as are all tragedies involving gun violence and the mentally ill by the anti-Second Amendment Left.

As a father, husband and a man, it is my responsibility to protect my family. I will stand up for that right vehemently. Please believe me, as a father I share your grief and I will pray for you and your family, as I do whenever I hear about senseless tragedies such as this.

We still have the Right to Bear Arms and I intend to continue to speak out for that right, and against those who would restrict it – even in the face of this horrible incident by this sad and insane individual. I almost said “Obama Voter” but I’m waiting for it to be official.

I noticed the mainstream media have stopped the practice of immediately reporting the psycho maniac is a conservative Tea Party Republican Christian. Guess they’re sick of having to hide being wrong every time when it comes out the whacko votes Democrat?

Mr. Martinez and anyone calling for more restrictions on American’s rights need to back off and stop playing into the hands of the folks who merely capitalize on these horrific events for their own political ends.

They don’t care about your family or your dead children at all. They sound like they do, whereas I sound uncaring and like I say, harsh. Don’t be fooled – I care about your family and mine. The future of our very liberty lies in the balance of this fight.

In conclusion, I cannot begin to imagine the pain you are going through, having had your child taken away from you. However, any feelings you have toward my rights being taken away from me, lose those.

Sincerely;

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher

PS: To the parents of Elliot Rodger’s stabbing victims: I’m very sorry for your loss. I’m sick to death every damn time I turn around and some poor soul with obvious violent mental sickness is allowed to exact this kind of pain on a family.

Elliot Rodger deserved help, yes – but your child deserved so much more. I’m very sorry and sad for you.

Story

If only the media would follow this advice....

So . . .

Anyone hear if any of the three "mental health professionals" allegedly treating this murderous prick, have spoken to the media, yet?

(05-27-2014, 02:16 PM)Blindgreed1 Wrote:

(05-27-2014, 01:59 PM)Maggot Wrote: Its to bad nobody had a chance to blow his head off at some point during all this.

He's a rich kid. He felt entitled to those pretty girls. Women can pick up the crazy vibe from men. Men? Not so much. From what I've seen, he was a social moron so it's likely only women got the creepy crazy vibe.

Turns out, he wasn't a rich kid -- despite appearances. His family was always struggling with money. Of course, he felt deprived (though seems to me that he still had more than most).

He did wanna be a rich kid though, that was part of his resentment and anger according to his manifesto. He felt that being wealthy would obviously make him desirable to those pretty girls to whom he thought he was entitled (entitled because, of course, he was a superior person).

Snip:
"I tried to pretend as if I was part of a wealthy family," he wrote about that night. "I should be. That was the life I was meant to live. I WOULD BE!" He blamed his parents for his lack of wealth. "If only my damnable mother had married into wealth instead of being selfish," he wrote. She dated wealthy men after her divorce, giving her son hope and prompting him to "pester" her to marry one, he said. "I will always resent my mother for refusing to do this. If not for her sake, she should have done it for mine. Joining a family of great wealth would have truly saved my life. I would have a high enough status to attract beautiful girlfriends and live above all of my enemies."
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/27/justic...er-wealth/

Tiki -- haven't seen any word directly from the therapists or any clarification of what LE was told when the killer's mom called SBPD to file a report about him the week before the murders.

(05-28-2014, 12:18 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: Tiki -- haven't seen any word directly from the therapists or any clarification of what LE was told when the killer's mom called SBPD to file a report about him the week before the murders.

Rumor (CNN) has it that, during the "welfare check", LE had the little, whiny bitch call his "Mom" and chat things over, before they left.

I do not know if it was bio or step.

(05-28-2014, 12:27 PM)BlueTiki Wrote: Rumor (CNN) has it that, during the "welfare check", LE had the little, whiny bitch call his "Mom" and chat things over, before they left.

I do not know if it was bio or step.

I did read that he called his bio mother after the police visited and told her that everything was fine.

It was actually a couple of weeks before the killing spree, not the week before as I'd previously read.

Anyhow, still no word, that I've come across, as to whether mom or the therapist who's also been reported to have called PD, informed PD of the videos or not -- nor what kind of "therapists" Rodger was seeing and emailing. Volunteer counselors? Social workers? Psychologists? IDK.

According to his Manifesto, he turned to The Secret to help improve and manage his life. But, that obviously didn't pan out.

(05-28-2014, 02:32 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: According to his Manifesto, he turned to The Secret to help improve and manage his life. But, that obviously didn't pan out.

...because he had such a negative attitude. At least that's some of what I took away from his manifesto. He left me with the impression he didn't want to spend the time and effort to cultivate the things he wanted, he simply wanted it all handed to him. He was destined to fail with that sucky attitude.

^ He was intensely negative and bitter, with a huge sense of entitlement.

Lazy, too.

Somehow, he apparently tried to apply the concepts in The Secret to winning the lotto and was convinced that winning it would make his whole world fair and just -- then freaked out and started really going off the deep end when he didn't hit the jackpot.

He didn't invest in himself at all, no effort that I could see, granted I only got a tiny glimpse of his life.

(05-28-2014, 02:56 PM)Duchess Wrote:

(05-28-2014, 02:32 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: According to his Manifesto, he turned to The Secret to help improve and manage his life. But, that obviously didn't pan out.

...because he had such a negative attitude. At least that's some of what I took away from his manifesto. He left me with the impression he didn't want to spend the time and effort to cultivate the things he wanted, he simply wanted it all handed to him. He was destined to fail with that sucky attitude.

I am always telling my kids that you don't get anywhere in life with out hard work. My kids can have a sense of entitlement at times. We have been very blessed. But I remind thrm that I have worked my ass off for it. Worked, saved, invested. No one appreciates it when everything is handed to them.

There was no mention that this kid worked. Yet he drove a BMW. I'm not trying to blame the parents but it does appear this kid was given a lot. Couple that with whatever mental illness this kid had and he was a mess.

This is from The Onion -

In the days following a violent rampage in southern California in which a lone attacker killed seven individuals, including himself, and seriously injured over a dozen others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said North Carolina resident Samuel Wipper, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this guy from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what he really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past five years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”

(05-29-2014, 12:47 PM)Duchess Wrote:

This is from The Onion -

. . . citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.

. . . sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations.

I enjoy satire . . . unfortunately, these are CN's words, too.

I've never understood when genocide occurs in other parts of the world, using firearms, it is not considered "gun violence" or "mass shootings".

And the questions of mental health and gun control never see the light of day.

(05-28-2014, 03:18 PM)Duchess Wrote: He didn't invest in himself at all, no effort that I could see, granted I only got a tiny glimpse of his life.

Gotta love the Daily Mail / Mail Online. They've dubbed Rodger the "Virgin Killer" in their recent headlines.

They did an interview with the best friend, Philip, from childhood -- the one who's mentioned many times in Rodger's manifesto.

INTERVIEW: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...s-ago.html

Philip's claims tend to support your view and shed some light on how Rodger came across to those he interacted with personally.

(05-29-2014, 02:05 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: Philip's claims tend to support your view and shed some light on how Rodger came across to those he interacted with personally.

Simply from reading his manifesto it seemed to me that he didn't put himself out there, put himself in a position to meet people. All the conversation was going on in his head.

I read a comment from someone who claims to know him and his family and he said that kid was painfully shy, that it was difficult to even approach him, that his shyness was almost like physical pain.

(05-26-2014, 06:36 PM)BlueTiki Wrote: I absolutely agree that the kid schmoozed and confused LE.

Yep, that's now been confirmed.

The officers who conducted the welfare check have been investigated and cleared of any wrong-doing -- SBPD found that they followed protocol.

The deputies described Rodger as “shy, timid and polite,” and accepted his explanation that the videos were just a way of “expressing himself” amid his troubles fitting in at the California college town.

My question was answered in the related press release; the officers were in fact informed about the Youtube videos, but they never watched them.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isla-vi...ed-n119331

Isla Vista Mass Murder: Police Oversights? -- Lessons Learned?

This is what's been confirmed in the past few days:

1. Police had interactions with Elliot Rodger three times over the last year.

2. While police were, in fact, informed by his mom of Youtube videos showing Rodger making threats of suicide and homicide, they did not watch the videos before or after performing the requested welfare check 3 weeks before his spree.

3. Police never checked or requested to check Elliot Rodger's residence or LE gun registration documents because they did not suspect he had any weapons and did not consider him a threat. All of Rodger's firearms were legally purchased despite his reported lifelong treatment for mental illness. His mentally ill status wasn't in the NICS background check database because he'd never been institutionalized, long term or by emergency hold.

I don't wanna bash the SBPD and understand that Rodger probably did come across as just another shy awkward college kid trying to fit in. Also, I understand that a lot of people post outrageous videos and remarks/claims over the internet. LE can't be expected to field them all.

I do hope, however, that this tragedy prompts some consideration and review of how LE should respond when contacted by a parent or social worker or other concerned party in regards to repeated and in-depth threats like those that Elliot Rodger posted. In the future, I hope that officers at least examine the threats posted first-hand and expect that the threat-maker will lie when questioned about them. They should also check the person's record of police visits and, if death threats have been made calling out specific weapons to be used, there should be a weapons check.

I agree, they (the govt, police) need to come up with a way to deal with this bullshit without fucking with us regular folks.

I'm seeing a breaking news scroll stating there has been a shooting at a university in Seattle. That's all I know right now.

One dead, three with injuries, two of them have life threatening injuries. It's being reported that when he stopped to reload students jumped him and held him until LE arrived.

(06-05-2014, 08:34 PM)Duchess Wrote: One dead, three with injuries, two of them have life threatening injuries. It's being reported that when he stopped to reload students jumped him and held him until LE arrived.

Again and again and again...


^ This is the shooter/killer: Aaron Ybarra, 26.

Police have confirmed that Ybarra is not a student at the Christian college which has 4,200 students enrolled. His connection to the school and any of his shooting victims is unclear at this time, AFAIK.

Good thing the student building monitor had pepper spray and the help of a couple of other brave students to get the shooter down and hold him til police arrived.

Police initially said that the shooter may have had an accomplice, but have since clarified that he was a lone attacker.

One of the victims, a 20-year-old man, was pronounced dead at Harborview Medical Center, according to police. Another victim, a woman, has life-threatening injuries. The other two victims, a man and a woman, are both in stable condition.

Full story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-...niversity/