Why is this general news instead of the one about crime?
Aurora mass shooter Gary Martin opened fire at Henry Pratt Co. after a meeting in which he was terminated from his job. He killed five people and wounded five police officers.
www.chicagotribune.com
And what a surprise, gunman is a convicted violent felon, although oddly enough one could make the argument that he technically obtained his firearm LEGALLY, seeing how he utliized existing gun laws that should have red flagged him and the Illinois law enforcement "professionals" CHOSE to say "fuck it" and GAVE him access to gun ownership anyways. Prepare to be outraged folks, even diehard gun-nuts should find something extremely objectionable about all this...
There are gun laws on the books designed to keep weapons away from dangerous people. Then there is enforcement. In a long prelude to Friday's mass shooting in Aurora, Ill., which left five victims and a gunman dead, there was a lethal lapse.
www.chicagotribune.com
They soon learned he had caused the carnage with a handgun purchased from a local dealer in 2014. What’s now under question, as five families grieve and wounded police officers recuperate, is why the killer still had a gun he shouldn’t have possessed.
the man who fatally shot five employees of Henry Pratt Co. and wounded several officers Friday was a convicted felon. Gary Martin served time in prison in Mississippi in the 1990s for aggravated assault. Yet about a decade later, he was issued an Illinois firearm owner’s identification card and purchased a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun.
when he sought a concealed carry license. It appears that during the background check process, which included fingerprinting, his criminal record popped up.
It appears that Illinois law — or follow-through — is weak. Mark Jones, a senior policy adviser for the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence and a former federal law enforcement agent, told the Tribune over the weekend that state police typically don’t act beyond sending a letter when someone is found to have a gun he or she shouldn’t have. “They’re not funded to do anything more than that,” Jones said.
Scary stuff. Even in a state with gun laws as restrictive as Illinois, some asshole violent offender was able to obtain one without hassle. Terrifying. No clue why politicians, no matter what side of the aisle, arent losing their fucking minds right now and demanding changes. Truly bizarre lack of reaction, yet again, following a mass shooting.
There are laws on the books saying certain people cant own firearms, but the govt has WILLINGLY CHOSEN to not enforce ANY of these laws. The govt KNEW this man was violent and should not have had a gun, yet they CHOSE to give him this FOID card permitting him to purchase one, and CHOSE to allow him to keep it when their mistake was shoved into their faces. In this day and age, after all the recent mass shootings, in one of the most restrictive, democrat-led states in America, multiple decisions were consciously made by the authorities to knowingly and willingly permit this violent felon to not only purchase a gun but to KEEP it, and to later do whatever the fuck he wanted with it.
The need for a MASSIVE overhaul of Americas gun laws could not be better illustrated than by this horrible crime.
Every victim/family here should sue the govt of Illinois, certainly whichever law enforcement agency/city had jurisdiction over this individual and chose to grant him the FOID card and chose not to enforce any of their own laws. They KNEW he shouldnt have had a gun, yet they granted him access to one and then later refused to act to remove it from his possession. They are partially culpable for this and i hope they get massacred by a civil suit. OUTRAGEOUS how the govt has turned its back on the citizenry here.
Another terrifying element here is that the thing that finally tipped authorities off that he shouldnt even own a gun is when he tried to get a concealed/carry permit. Dont know if anyone has been following the news lately, but numerous states, most recently SD and idiot ignorant Oklahoma, have enacted laws that make it so an individual does NOT need any special permit to conceal/carry. How many others like this trash, who obtained a gun they should not be able to of obtained in spite of existing background checks and gun laws, will continue to slip under the radar as yet another regulation/gun law is stripped away???
abc7chicago.com
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