UPDATE
Tonight a gun-loving reader wrote a comment with this line, “Poor park ranger Margaret Anderson. I wonder what she did wrong to get shot? “
Needless to say the comment was not posted. To say I am appalled does not begin to define my reaction. The comment also included, “I like the guns. Guys in the know always load a tracer as the second round in. When you see the tracer leave the weapon then you know that you have only one more bullet left.”
There are some truly sick people in America.
By all accounts a very troubled person, Benjamin Colton Barnes, was involved in a custody dispute in Tacoma Washington. That happened in July 2011. At the time the toddler’s mother sought a temporary restraining order against him. She wrote that Barnes was suicidal and possibly suffered from PTSD after deploying to Iraq in 2007-2008. She said he was easily irritated, angry and depressed and kept an arsenal of weapons in his home.
With a totally unreasonable interpretation of the Second Amendment, along with the stranglehold that the NRA has on legislative bodies, there is no way to seemingly stop the madness that is contained in this photo of Barnes.
Is this really what you want to have happen in America? Are you proud to see this photo? This photo below is America’s t gun policy!
Barnes is considered the reason for the the fatal New Year’s Day shooting of park ranger Margaret Anderson at Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park, along with a shooting Sunday in the Seattle suburb of Skyway that left four people wounded.
Common sense tells us all what needs to be done in relation to guns and society. In 2012 will we heed that inner voice and demand our elected representatives pay more attention to the people than the monied-interests of the NRA?
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
You should be ashamed of yourself… This is not America’s gun policy… This is a perfect example of the US Military’s failure to provide the treatment necessary when wounded minds return to the US after soldiers are sent into the hinterlands at the warlords whim… and nothing is done for them when they return. Just a wild guess – I’m guessing you didn’t serve in the military – otherwise you would engage you brain and give a little thought before jumping on another chance to do a misguided and totally false attack on the NRA. Think it through… The NRA isn’t running the military – YOUR President is… Send this claptrap to him – only leave out the NRA part…and place the blame where it belongs. This is another perfect example of the fact that anyone with a blog can write any crap that comes into their mind… usually without any serious thought to what is being written… or the damage that is being done. Again – you should be ashamed of yourself……….
NO!!
The gun laws that are in place around this nation allow for all types, as troubled as they are, to have guns.
That IS the issue.
But let us assume for a moment you are right.
If there are troubled people from military service, mental illness, or drug addictions, etc, there are multiple ways to work them into a series of public health programs.
Oh…that is right….those programs are being and cut and under-funded due to conservatives in their haste to cut government spending. There is no desire for health care programs that will allow for all who have needs to be covered and paid for.
And when you state President Obama should be contacted you seemingly neglected to mention the one who lied the nation into an invasion of a Middle Eastern country….and that would be George BusH….which created the problems FOR this killer with a gun.
Which leads us all back to the NRA!
No, smokey3, YOU should be ashamed of yourself. Whatever the failures of the US military or other institutions in society, our gun policy is what enabled this obviously troubled and violent individual to own multiple automatic weapons, one of which he just used to murder someone. Better treatment for returning soldiers won’t prevent even a fraction of the 30,000-plus firearm-related deaths in the United States. Of course you know that yourself, which is why you ought to feel some shame.
Right on cue come the emotional anti gun activists. This story is typical of what they will use as fodder to demonize all gun owners.
You are so right Rudy. “Emotional” and “anti gun activists” is redundant. How sad it is that those folks have fallen victim to their own blather that they will not, for any reason, get off their emotional high horses and make any effort to think things through. Stick with the mantra… kinda like a little kid sticking his fingers in his ears and saying repeatedly – I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you. Sadly, that little kid could well be better informed than the anti’s. The all-knowing dekerivers is proof positive of that – and it’s sad to see an otherwise intelligent person so stuffed full of anti that they can’t get past emotion to reason for themselves. And Sheldon – that’s right out of the anti talking points…surely yuou can do better. I may be booted ‘Off the Island” one of these days when I try to bring logic into some peoples lives. So be it.
Smokey,
I have a 180 degree difference of opinion from yours. I have witnessed first hand in the WI Legislature how the NRA buys votes. I have seen it. I have witnessed how they control gun bills. I have studied the guns stats. I started writing letters to the Argus on gun control when I was 17. I know of what I speak. You can chose to disagree, but the facts of death and crime from guns keep underscoring my position. This post is just another example.
So some nut job kills a nice person with a gun.. An automatic weapon.. Now what if it was a baseball bat or a tennis racket? It could have been a single shot derringer.. It really doesn’t matter what weapon was used..
It matters that somebody who gave a s#|t is dead.. You take the guns away from the law abiding people who is left with guns??? WTF people. What has this country be reduced to? I am ashamed..
A bad guy does something very stupid with a gun, and now its the guns fault..If I get drunk and jump in my car and kill a human being, people don’t blame the car… Accountability people. Remember that lesson? They don’t seem to teach much of that anymore.
It goes all the way to Washington, its easy to just pass the buck..
Stupid selfish people who are more interested in power and greed than doing the right thing is the problem. Nobodies willing to pass up on the money. Get big business out of washington. Start looking out for the country and the people who serve her. This guy needed serious help. Now look at what we are.. Wake up people..
Deke, (mayIcallyouDeke?)
I’m curious to know exactly what kind of additional laws you would like to see in regards to firearms. Are you suggesting that some (?) guns be flat-out banned? Do you wish to see the list of people who are banned (mentally ill, marijuana smokers, most felons, some misdemeanor criminals, etc etc) from having a firearm be expanded to others?
Hey they found the S.O.B. dead in high snow. Good! Self inflicted. Better, saves a lot of paperwork and court time.
On channel 2 News this morning this flash in the pan news story has a connection to Wisconsin. Seems that park ranger Margaret Anderson was the sister to the wife of Steve Baylon, the weather man on channel 2 News in Green Bay.
skip.
.
‘truly sick people in America’ Yep that’s why…
Number one rule when a Peace Officer walks up to a car during a traffic stop.
“Assume the stopped person and passengers will kill you if they can.”
If you didn’t know it my retired Illinois State Trooper in Normal, Illinois told me at Funk Seed when we worked together that every Illinois State Trooper uniform has a little pocket to hold a single shot gun. Usually the trooper has it in his hand as they walk up to the stopped car. If they pull there service weapon, then they have to write more reports. But not with a single shot personal gun.
skip.