Santa Monica Shooting Premeditated, Say Cops
Laura J. Nelson, Richard A. Serrano and Andrew Blankstein write at the LA Times:
The shootings, which left four victims and the shooter dead, took place on a number of typically quiet streets in Santa Monica around noon and ended on the campus of Santa Monica College."Any time someone puts on a vest of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semiautomatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people and has to be killed at the hands of police," Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said, "I believe that's premeditated."
...At a parking lot at 20th and Pearl streets, the suspect fired at a red Ford Explorer, hitting driver Carlos Franco, who died at the scene. Franco was a Santa Monica College employee.
The passenger of the Ford Explorer has "a very grim prognosis," Seabrooks said.
Campus police intercepted the gunman on the edge of campus and exchanged gunfire with him, authorities said. They continued to trade shots as the man ran toward the school's library and shot a woman outside the building's entrance before disappearing inside.
The woman outside the library later died at a hospital.
Inside the library, a group of people hid inside a "safe room" when they heard or saw the shooter coming, Seabrooks said. The group barricaded the door with materials found inside the room and dodged bullets the gunman fired through the drywall.
"It's miraculous that those patrons were not physically injured," she said.
What happened illustrates how gun control laws do not work. As commenter GFRGFR writes:
1) The AR15 is BANNED in California since it is specifically named on the "Roberti-Roos" list. How could this guy have gotten a BANNED firearm?2) California limits the number of rounds in a magazine to ten (10), and yet the Santa Monica shooter had at least twenty high capacity (30 round), magazines which are also BANNED in California - how is such a thing possible?
3) California requires that semi-automatic rifles be fitted with "bullet buttons" so that the rate of fire is reduced. How is it possible that the shooter could have killed so many people using a "bullet button" equipped rifle?
Santa Monica College is a gun-free zone:
Weapons Prohibition on CampusPossessions of firearms or replicas, ammunition, explosives, knives/blades longer than 21/2 inches, other weapons, or fireworks are against the law in the College community or at College -sponsored activities. California Penal Codes 626.9 and 626.10 also prohibit the possession of firearms (including pellet and BB guns) on College property without specific written permission of the Chief of Police.
If you are a witness to a crime involving a weapon, please call 9-1-1 immediately. If you see a weapon of any kind on campus, alert SMCPD by calling (310) 434-4300
or 9-1-1.
If I were on a college campus or going regularly to some populated public place that would possibly be a target, I'd want to be armed with more than my iPhone.
How'd that work for all those dead people?
The gun grabbers think the laws will protect them and us.
The only thing words written on paper do is make life harder for those who are law abiding, and something to be ignored for the law breakers.
Jim P. at June 9, 2013 5:54 AM
1. How often to witnesses remark that these mass murders are calmly walking around shooting at people? Conclusion:
A. These individuals are not expecting any resistance in the "gun free zone."
B. They probably would kill just as many people with a simply lever action rifle with a tubular magazine, so depriving them of a semi automatic with a detachable box magazine would make little difference.
2. A significant percentage of these individuals, not all, when confronted with armed resistance actually take their own life or simply surrender.
3. Any behavioral scientist will tell you that rewarding bad behavior will only encourage bad behavior. The one thing all these mass murderers want is lots of news coverage, and, of course, our main stream media happily obliges. Its not guns, its not video games, it is the news media giving these people 24/7 coverage for weeks on end that is contributing to these mass murders.
Bill O Rights at June 9, 2013 7:13 AM
Friends, it's through such brilliant deduction that Jacqueline Seabrooks became Chief of Police, City of Santa Monica, California.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at June 9, 2013 9:30 AM
Quite possibly the shooter was looking to commit suicide by cop, and so what he did WAS premeditated. But I don't think Seabrooks had to spell it out in such detail. Guy was not right in the head. It's too bad he felt the need to take out other people with him, but that's how cowards usually operate.
Flynne at June 9, 2013 9:41 AM
How did the shooter get these banned items? I'll tell you how, all those gun nut criminals in Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and elsewhere! We need universal background checks! No private sales anywhere!
Of course, we could just ban all guns nationwide. Yeah, thats the ticket!
/sarcasm
Sio at June 9, 2013 10:36 AM
The shooter had been hospitalized for mental illness. He didn't buy that gun at a gun shop or a gun show. I don't know why he was even walking around--I'm really tired of the mentally ill being protected by privacy laws. The WSJ had a great piece about thi.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323463704578495154217291958.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_6
KateC at June 9, 2013 10:52 AM
"mass murders are calmly walking around shooting at people"
I am not a gun free zone. I do not give warnings.
Dave B at June 9, 2013 11:42 AM
Old RPM, I think the Chief's answer was justified snark in response to a reporter 's dumb-ass question whether police thought the shootings might have been premeditated.
Mr_teflon at June 9, 2013 8:24 PM
Where was all this equipment found? The chief implies that all this stuff was in the duffelbag, including the cardboard rifle box which is a couple of feet longer than the bag. 1300 rounds of ammo (regardless if it's .223 or for a pistol) weighs a lot. The equipment listed is probably 75 pounds at the minimum, and apparently when the shooter entered the library he thought it was too heavy too, as he's not carrying the bag.
It appears to me that all this stuff was taken from the family home at the time of the initial killings. Like Lanza, killing someone who owns the guns you want to use solves any legal barrier to gun ownership for the deranged. The extra upper receiver the shooter had with him was essentially useless, and in fact is not a gun at all legally or practically. There is no bolt in the upper receiver pictured, and once again was probably stolen from his dad/brother when the shooter grabbed their firearms and ammo after killing them.
Why didn't someone ram the idiot with their car while he's in the street instead of pulling over to give him a ride?
Jay J. Hector at June 9, 2013 10:57 PM
Jay, the extra items are necessary to inject fear into the report: someone may actually possess these things! Panic!
And bend over - everywhere, not just at the airport.
Radwaste at June 10, 2013 2:23 AM
The ad on the left side of my computer screen is a picture of a gun with a website to get my concealed carry permit. Love it. By the way did anyone in the LA television market see the story on the news about an organization running the gun buy back program for toy guns? I almost spewed my coffee out when that story came on.
http://www.guns.com/2013/06/08/toy-gun-buyback-program-hits-the-streets/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=toy-gun-buyback-program-hits-the-streets
Speaking of which, need to beef up my grandson's arsenal of toy guns for the summer.
sara at June 10, 2013 6:31 AM
"These individuals are not expecting any resistance in the 'gun free zone.'"
I am reminded of the fact that the Virginia Tech shooter stopped for about a minute to reload. During that time, no one touched him.
Cousin Dave at June 10, 2013 12:19 PM
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