Eyewitnesses said the gun had a laser sight on it.
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The man who killed five co-workers and wounded another and five police officers at a suburban Chicago manufacturing warehouse brought his gun to a meeting in which he was going to be fired, authorities said Saturday.
Because Gary Martin brought his gun to Friday's meeting at the sprawling Henry Pratt Co. warehouse in Aurora, he likely knew it was possible he was about to lose the job he had held for 15 years, police Chief Kristen Ziman said at a news conference.
Ziman said she didn't know what had been conveyed to Martin, why he was being fired or whether he had shown up for his regular shift or was there just for the meeting. But she said as soon as he was fired, he pulled his handgun and began shooting. Three of the five co-workers he killed were in the room with him and the other two were just outside, she said. A sixth employee and five police officers were shot but survived.
Frantic calls to 911 started pouring in from frightened workers at 1:24 p.m. and officers arrived at the scene within four minutes, authorities said. Martin fired on the officers when they arrived, striking one outside and another near the building's entrance. The other three wounded officers were shot inside the building. None of their wounds are considered life-threatening, Ziman said Saturday.
All of the officers who were wounded were shot within the first five minutes of police arriving at the scene, authorities said. Martin then hid inside the 29,000-square-foot building and a search ensued. He fired on an officer about an hour later and police fired back, killing him, authorities said.
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Martin had been arrested six times in Aurora over the years, including for domestic battery, Ziman said.
He was able to buy the Smith and Wesson .40-caliber handgun he used in the attack because an initial background check didn't catch that he had a prior felony conviction in Mississippi, the chief said. Martin was issued a firearm owner's identification card in January of 2014 after he passed the initial background check and he bought the gun that March 11.
It wasn't until he applied for a concealed carry permit five days later and went through a more rigorous background check that uses digital fingerprinting that his 1995 felony conviction in Mississippi for aggravated battery was flagged and his firearm owner's ID card was revoked, she said.
Makes it easier to know when you're accurately pointing a gun at a target you want to hit.
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Laser sight
The laser has in most firearms applications been used as a tool to enhance the targeting of other weapon systems. For example, a laser sight is a small, usually visible-light laser placed on a handgun or a rifle and aligned to emit a beam parallel to the barrel. Since a laser beam has low divergence, the laser light appears as a small spot even at long distances; the user places the spot on the desired target and the barrel of the gun is aligned (but not necessarily allowing for bullet drop, windage, distance between the direction of the beam and the axis of the barrel, and the target mobility while the bullet travels).
Most laser sights use a red laser diode. Others use an infrared diode to produce a dot invisible to the naked human eye but detectable with night vision devices. The firearms adaptive target acquisition module LLM01 laser light module combines visible and infrared laser diodes. In the late 1990s, green diode pumped solid state laser (DPSS) laser sights (532 nm) became available. Modern laser sights are small and light enough for attachment to the firearms.
In 2007, LaserMax, a company specializing in manufacturing lasers for military and police firearms, introduced the first mass-production green laser available for small arms.[23] This laser mounts to the underside of a handgun or long arm on the accessory rail. The green laser is supposed to be more visible than the red laser in bright lighting conditions because, for the same wattage, green light appears brighter than red light.
-------------------------------- When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
Posts: 38221 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
Makes it easier to know when you're accurately pointing a gun at a target you want to hit.
My apologies, that's not what I meant to ask. , That part (the benefit of the laser in terms of accuracy) I get. I didn't mean to ask "what is the function of a laser sight," but rather, why is that specifically relevant in this context?
Are laser sights uncommon? Only used on professional (military grade?) weapons? Are guns with laser sights harder to obtain? In other words, why does it matter that this guy's gun had a laser sight on it?
No, I don't think they are particularly hard to obtain.
He managed to shoot and kill 5 people in seconds, and then shoot and wound 5 police officers who were trying to track him down in the factory. The fact that he had one just meant that even someone who might not be a particularly good shot could be deadly accurate, especially at close range. I just found it appalling.
Beyond that, nothing notable I guess.
-------------------------------- When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
Posts: 38221 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
The fact that he had one just meant that even someone who might not be a particularly good shot could be deadly accurate, especially at close range. I just found it appalling.
I see what you mean, and yes, it is appalling. I’m sorry I misunderstood what you meant.
Laser sighting is very common. This was a failure of law enforcement. His ownership permit had been revoked and we was ordered to relenquish his weapon in Illinois because he was convicted of felony battery in Mississippi.
-------------------------------- "A mob is a place where people go to get away from their conscience" Atticus Finch
As Greg Zanis puts the finishing touches on the most recent of the tens of thousands of crosses he’s made in his Aurora garage for shooting victims across the country, he sighs.
So much of what the “Cross Man” does seems almost routine. Fielding calls from the national media. Talking to the families of shooting victims. And tracing ever so carefully — first in pencil, then in black permanent marker — the names of this country’s five latest mass shooting victims.
Then, one by one, he reverently loads them into the back of his white truck, the names of the dead facing outward, and straps in his precious cargo with a red bungee cord to keep the crosses safe on the trek to their next home.
Only on Saturday, that drive is far shorter than the thousands of miles he’s logged on his Crosses for Losses mission that has taken him to all the corners of this country. This time it takes Zanis less than 15 minutes to drive to the Henry Pratt manufacturing plant across town.
Far shorter than to Columbine, Colo., where it all began 20 years ago. Far shorter than Newtown, Conn.; or Sutherland Springs, Texas; or Orlando or Las Vegas or Parkland, Fla.; or San Bernardino or Thousand Oaks, Calif.; or Pittsburgh; or Annapolis, Md.
The victims were identified as Clayton Parks of Elgin, Trevor Wehner of DeKalb, Russell Beyer of Yorkville, Vincente Juarez of Oswego and Josh Pinkard of Oswego.
One was a college student at Northern Illinois University, shot and killed in the first day of his internship. The four others were fathers remembered as hard workers and dedicated family men.
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Plant manager Josh Pinkard of Oswego, was one of the employees killed. His wife, Terra, says she received a text message from Josh at 1:24 p.m. on Friday that said "I love you, I've been shot at work."
She posted the message on Facebook, writing in part, "The man who was dying and found the clarity of mind for just a second to send me one last text to let me know he would always love me. This unbelievable person was robbed from us."
