Mass shooting in California bar

[keen23]

And now there is a wildfire raging in the Thousand Oaks area.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/us/hill-fire-ventura-county-trnd/index.html

Husband is scheduled to be there through Tuesday. But no one can work because of the fire. I just want him to come home.

 

[Howl]

Just came across this on my fb feed via The 98%, 

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How many times does it have to be pointed out that men who commit mass shootings overwhelmingly have a history of abusing women?

Feminist News   BREAKING: The Thousand Oaks shooter's high school track coach alleges that the killer sexually assaulted her. She also says school officials pressured her to keep quiet as not to ruin his career in the Marines.   Once again, prior violence against women is the most accurate predictor that someone will commit mass murder. And once again, a woman was silenced so a young man's career wouldn't suffer.

Along with this link:  Thousand Oaks Gunman’s High School Coach Speaks About Sexual Assault

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NEWBURY PARK (CBSLA) — The Thousand Oaks shooter’s high school track coach says that he assaulted her.  "I turned on the news and I was watching it and when they said his name my jaw just dropped,” said Dominique Colell.  Ian David Long is the name this former high school coach hadn’t heard in a long time. But it’s one she never forgot.

“He attacked me. He attacked his high school track coach,” said Colell. “Who does that?”

For the former Newbury Park High School track coach this day has been full of emotions — from sadness to guilt. Because she never filed charges against Long after she says he assaulted her his senior year.

Colell says it happened during practice when someone found a phone and she was trying to figure out who it belonged to.  "Ian came up and started screaming at me that was his phone,” said Colell. “He just started grabbing me. He groped my stomach. He groped my butt. I pushed him off me and said after that — ‘you’re off the team.’ ”

But Colell says she was encouraged by other coaches and the school to accept an apology to not ruin his future in the Marine Corps.  "I should have reported it then,” said Colell.

And although she never would have predicted this, Colell says she doesn’t believe this is just a case of PTSD. She says Long had issues long before he was ever a Marine.  “There are hundreds of thousands of people with PTSD,” said Colell. “They don’t go around shooting people. This kid was mentally disturbed in high school. There were signs and the administration knew it.”

 

[AuntK]

The shooter at the yoga studio also had a history of groping women. He had a deferred prosecution on one, and dropped charges on another. The lesson here, obviously, is to PRESS CHARGES when assaulted.  These men typically escalate their actions, we need to stop them as soon as they offend.

[Duggarite]

I live in Spain. We do not get mass shootings here (usually).

 It is really strange for us to get a mass shooting, in the past six months I have heard of at least three mass shootings in the USA. I really can not remember our last mass shooting. 

The requirements to get a firearm are:

- guns for “self defense”. You need a really really good reason for that. You might be a target of terrorists or something similar. The police decides if they concede you the license or not.

- private security personnel. You need to demonstrate you work as that. You need to pass an exam that demonstrates you know the law and you know how to shoot. 

- hunting. You need a hunting license and to pass an exam.

- shooting as a sport. You need to demonstrate you practice shooting sports and pass the exam.

everybody gets a thorough background check including any type of conviction and sex offenders registry. 

The exam includes knowledge about the law, a medical exam and a psychological exam. 

The only exceptions to those rules are police and military, they are trained so they do not pass the exam (training for those jobs is tougher than the exam). They get the same background checks if not tougher. 

 

we still live  in a democracy and consider ourselves free citizens. And of course you can kill someone with a knife, just probably not so many people at once and of course if you are a mafia gang you get access to illegal firearms pretty easily. Even with that death or injury by firearms is pretty uncommon, and I would say that if you are not a terrorist or a member of a gang crime you are certainly not afraid about getting shot at. 

 

Starting background checks and getting exams and trying to obtain a plausible explanation for needing a gun is certainly not going to hurt anyone in the long term. Probably if your favorite past time is shooting empty cans in your backyard you might get pissed off but if that really bothers you, apply for a hunting license.

the guy in the yoga studio would not get a firearm here because of the groping, the type of firearm used in the Pittsburgh shooting is not possible to sit here... 

[libgirl2]

On 11/8/2018 at 3:57 PM, Shadoewolf said:

Not trying to start a gun debate BUT it's time the 2nd Amendment gets ratified. Rewritten to modern standards. And nothing is going to change so long as politicians can accept big $$$ from the NRA and Joe Blow keeps screaming you can't and won't take his guns away. And yet again a good guy with a gun (trained law enforcement officer!!) was killed by a bad guy with a gun. That philosophy just doesn't work. I'm about to say fuck the 2nd Amendment and somebody's bullshit "god-given right" to defend themselves. 

Well if Trump wants to change the 14th amendment, why should we change the 2nd. If one is outdated and needs to reflect modern times, so does the other. 

On 11/8/2018 at 4:27 PM, PumaLover said:

I am so, so sad to hear this. Even more sad that I'm not surprised. I lived in Ventura County years ago and we would always go to Thousand Oaks. It's such a nice place. 

I was sitting with my daughter at dinner the other night and thought about what we would do if a shooter suddenly came through the door. It's really sad that we have to think of things like that. 

Ditto to what one of the posters said upthread about how we need to take mental health seriously. My vote on Tuesday reflected that. So many people can't afford to get help and the medication and therapy that they need. It needs to be accessible to everyone!

As far as guns go, I have always hated them and feared them. This year, I actually got a gun and learned how to use it safely. It's just a 22, not huge, and it's because we live in the mountains and have bears and mountain lions (and at one point, an unstable armed neighbor). My husband recently bought another 22 for himself and it's a pretty easy process. You have to show your license and some sort of gun paperwork and then wait 10 days, and bam, you get your gun. I don't really know what the background check entails. But I do know that it's really easy for people who want a gun to get one.

That said, we spent some time this summer in Alabama, and here's a pic I took at a gun store. I'll just leave this right here. There is NO reason any civilian needs weapons like these.

Just seeing all of those sickens me. No one, no one NEEDS to have all of those weapons!