A lone gunman in body armor opened fire early Sunday in a "very safe" entertainment district, killing at least nine people, injuring 26 and igniting chaos in the crowded outdoor area before he was fatally shot by police within seconds, authorities said.
"Hundreds of people in the Oregon District could be dead today” if police hadn’t acted quickly, Mayor Nan Whaley said.
It was the nation's second mass shooting in less than 24 hours. Late Saturday morning, a 21-year-old gunman killed 20 and wounded 26 others at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
In Dayton, Assistant Chief of Police Matt Carper said the shooting began at about 1:07 a.m. EDT and involved a "very short timeline of violence" before the attacker was killed. He said the gunman appeared to have acted alone, but that the investigation was continuing. The Oregon District is a trendy stretch of bars and restaurants.
"Downtown Dayton is a very safe area," Carper said. “This is unheard of and very sad. It’s a very tragic evening.”
-------------------------------- We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
Posts: 37941 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
They just read the names of the nine people who were killed. Fortunately, my cousin who lives in Dayton wasn't one of them.
One of the people shot was the shooter's sister. She was killed in the area with the others, as opposed to him shooting her somewhere else and then going on a broader rampage.
That poor family.
-------------------------------- We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
Posts: 37941 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
The shooter was taken down by them in 30 seconds (there were police in the area). 30 seconds and the guy killed 9 people and injured another twenty-plus.
Gun was obtained legally. Shooter was wearing body armor.
quote:
Betts began shooting as he made his way toward a bar called Ned Peppers, Decker said.
Carper said Betts fired multiple rounds from "a very large gun, in technical terms."
Someone from Ned Peppers grabbed the barrel of the rifle, and the shooter "picked up a handgun and was willing to continue shooting," Decker said, when police arrived and killed the shooter.
The shooter wore body armor, she said.
No officers were injured, Carper said. "In less than one minute, Dayton first responders neutralized the shooter," Whaley said. "I really want to -- think about that minute. The shooter was able to kill nine people and injure 26 in less than a minute. And if we did not have police in the Oregon District and the thousands of people in the Oregon District enjoying their Saturday evening, what we could have had in this city," she said.
"The question has to be raised, why does Dayton have to be the 250th mass shooting this year?"
-------------------------------- We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
Posts: 37941 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
I certainly think it's the case that in the fast-moving, uncertain world that we live in, some of those things that Keller outlines can add to our general stress levels.
The question is, how many of those factors affect people in other countries? Probably most, if not all of them. And yet we don't see the same level of gun violence. I gotta believe that's largely due to the fact that there are a lot fewer guns to reach for when people get to their breaking point....
-------------------------------- We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
Posts: 37941 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
Betts carried an AR-15 pattern rifle and used a 100-round capacity drum, allowing him to fire more rounds without reloading as often as he would with smaller magazines. Biehl (Dayton police chief) said he could have carried 250 bullets if all magazines were at a “full capacity.”
“It’s fundamentally problematic to have that level of weaponry in a civilian environment,” said Biehl, adding that the gun appears to have been purchased on the Internet and then modified in such a way “as to avoid any legal prohibitions.”
What is "fundamentally problematic" needs to be dealt with. At some point, we need to stop being afraid of the misinterpretation of the second amendment and return to the sanity of gun regulation. I would happily make everyone who owns a gun buy an insurance policy. Everyone whose stolen gun is used in a crime ... minimum 10 years (no time off for good behavior). Make everyone who owns a firearm bear a significant cost for the risks they place on other people.
Posts: 12539 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005
Originally posted by wtg: I certainly think it's the case that in the fast-moving, uncertain world that we live in, some of those things that Keller outlines can add to our general stress levels.
The question is, how many of those factors affect people in other countries? Probably most, if not all of them. And yet we don't see the same level of gun violence. I gotta believe that's largely due to the fact that there are a lot fewer guns to reach for when people get to their breaking point....
I just can't figure out why people aren't yelling more about the need to AT LEAST ban assault weapons.
It's not equally about all guns.
I'd say at a rough guess that the ratio of deaths/injuries from an assault weapon compared to those from an "ordinary gun", are as much more lethal than ordinary funs are to knives.
Picturing the weapons in the hands of a hypothetical murderous lunatic motivated by the same violent impulse.
The type of gun makes a crucial difference.
And the gravity of the injuries, the difficulty in treating assault weapon injuries are immensely worse too. Not to mention using exploding bullets!
(Granted, there may be a special appeal in the planning stage,of that very ability to cause mass mayhem. May seem more "worth dying for". For that sick fame.)
-------------------------------- The most dangerous word in the language is "obvious"
Posts: 14392 | Location: PA | Registered: 20 April 2005