Madness in Webster NY two first responders shot and killed

[godofthunder]

 Irondeqouit where we live is on the west side of Irondeqouit  Bay, Webster NY the east. Two fire fighters shot and killed two wounded, a good friend of ours know one of the wounded. I am having a difficult time comprehending my fellow man these days.http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/2-firefighters-killed-2-injured-in-shooting-at/-MlU59wlUk-EezqfN_v6Jw.cspx?=FB

[patman]

Difficult to understand...firefighters (in my mind) are true "heroes".

[godofthunder]

 My wife went to High School with one of the injured firefighters.

[westen44]

What a cowardly POS the sniper was, contrasted to the heroism of the firefighters and policemen whose poise and professionalism deserve nothing but praise.  

Note:

I'm now reading that the killer beat his grandmother to death in 1980 with a hammer.  But somebody in their "wisdom" let him out of prison.  In the meantime, many others who have committed minor crimes remain in prison.  Needless to say, this pathetic excuse for a human being should have been executed or sentenced to life without parole.  I think we all know that now.  The justice system is so flawed it's bewildering. 

[Denis]

I read about this earlier today. Not sure what to say given all the multiple shootings of the past week and a half. It's just such a breach of trust to lure firefighters into a situation where they become targets and victims.

My condolences to the friends and family of the firefighters and the police officer.

[Dave W]

Condolences to all.

You have to wonder what set him off after apparently living a quiet life for years since being paroled.

[westen44]

Condolences to all.

You have to wonder what set him off after apparently living a quiet life for years since being paroled.

My guess would be that it might have had something to do with his mother dying fairly recently.  One can only speculate that she might have been a source of stability holding him together, since it's obvious he was a lunatic.  I can offer my condolences but also prayers for those wounded.  I read that those injuries were serious. 

[drbassman]

The only decent thing he did was blow his own brains out.  So sad what he did to those first responders, it just makes me ill and confused about my fellow man.

[rahock]

Difficult to understand...firefighters (in my mind) are true "heroes".

There's a whole lot of stuff that's difficult to understand going on lately
Rick

[Denis]

I just read that the firefighters were shot with the same .223 Bushmaster as the faculty and students in Connecticut.

[Dave W]

He had one. Right now it's just speculation as to which gun he used. For that matter, the Connecticut story was changed, it was definitely reported for a good 24 hours that the Bushmaster was found in his car. You don't know what to believe.

[mc2NY]

 
In the U.S., the mentally ill are not forced to seek treatment and it is deemed unacceptable to force them to. We also let many people out of prison, due to overcrowding, who should remain locked up. Those two facts alone have been catalysts to the increasing American violence.

Plus you have a couple decades of video game violence, ever increasing movie violence and glorified thug society. My personal thought is that a "violence tariff" be charged for every instance in any of the aforementioned media...and those funds be used to safeguard the public from "gun violence." Perhaps an armed guard or simply training some of the staff to have armed carry permits, in teh case of schools.

I'm not a gun nut but more people die from motor vehicles in the U.S. and I don't see anyone calling to outlaw cars. Blaming inanimate objects for things living beings do seems an odd "solution."

Guns are illegal in Mexico...the police and drug cartels are killing incredible numbers of people, now defenseless.
Most of the U.S. gun violence, something like 97 percent of it, is inner city drug/gang violence, not legal gun owners. It's mainly media and politicians stoking the fires trying to push their anti-gun agenda while they can play off a disaster. There are already many such laws in place but not properly enforced.

It's more a case of policing the mentally ill and existing criminal element to protect the general pubic...without the ACLU and attorneys crying foul. But you can never protect everyone from all the crazies out there. If someone wants to kill people and cannot get a gun, they will use any other method to do the same thing.

Also....you might notice that, as the U.S. moves more toward a secular society and away from church/religion, violence has increased. I would assume that, as more people do not believe in a "God" that they also have no fear of a "Hell"...so they have less fear of killing people and being punished. Same for the U.S. Government being at an all-time high level of providing free entitlements for citizens...a role that largely fell on churches for hundreds of years; providing for the needy and couseling them. Again, a trend that leads to less "morality" and increased violence.

It's a mess and I don't see it getting any better unless we lose most of the politicians and lawyers and start over.

[dadagoboi]

....you might notice that, as the U.S. moves more toward a secular society and away from church/religion, violence has increased. I would assume that, as more people do not believe in a "God" that they also have no fear of a "Hell"...so they have less fear of killing people and being punished. Same for the U.S. Government being at an all-time high level of providing free entitlements for citizens...a role that largely fell on churches for hundreds of years; providing for the needy and couseling them. Again, a trend that leads to less "morality" and increased violence.

Europe is a secular society, the churches are empty.  They must be murdering people hand over fist there.

God, the construct of man, is always an easy way to avoid personal responsibility.  Just about every organized religion has been happy to mass murder those who don't hold their exact beliefs.  Or at the least have the hubris to judge them in God's name and lock them away.  'Burning at the Stake' was pretty much the height of 'counseling' in churches for most of the history of Christianity.  Screw 'religion' that condones preemptive drone strikes and tells soldiers "God is on your side." 

[Denis]

In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.
And Man gave unto God a multitude of names, that he might be Lord over all the earth when it was suited to Man.
And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on his God and saw that it was good.
And Man formed Aqualung of the dust of the ground, and a host of others likened unto his kind.
And these lesser men Man did cast into the void. And some were burned; and some were put apart from their kind.
And Man became the God that he had created and with his miracles did rule over all the earth.
But as all these things did come to pass, the Spirit that did cause man to create his God lived on within all men: even within Aqualung.
And Man saw it not.
But for Christ's sake he'd better start looking.

[Dave W]

Involuntary commitment for "mental illness" when someone hasn't committed a crime is something that totalitarian states do.