Shooting at Seattle Pacific University

[Mrs Haruo]

Yet another student shooting today. This time here in Seattle at Seattle Pacific University, on the north end of Queen Anne hill south of Fremont Baptist Church. The gunman entered an engineering building with a shotgun and gunned down several students. He stopped to reload and a student monitor was able to subdue him and several others piled on him and held him down till police were able to arrive and take him into custody. One student reported dead and several taken to Harborview Hospital, our central trauma center. KOMO 4 radio says some national news reports have confused it with Seattle University--, the Catholic University on Capitol Hill.
This has to stop.

[Sandy]

It will stop, but only after some high profile extremist right winger, tea partier, or NRA member's kid is exposed to a mass shooting on a school campus.

[Haruo]

Here's

[KeithE]

Know the school well. A Free Methodist university. Spent many a night there while attending UW across town- had 2 good friends who went there.

[William Thornton]

If a right wing NRA type gets shot then what is expected to happen? The guy had a shotgun. Take away shotguns from folks like me? Confiscate shotguns from folks who fantasize about school shootings? And knives?

This is a terrible crime but I'm not seeing a solution here that would have prevented it.

[Haruo]

The bright spot in this is the fact that the shooter was subdued by who did not apply lethal force.

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

Or maybe there should be a law that mental patients can't work at a shooting range?

I don't remember mentioning the NRA William.

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

For the most part the NRA seems to opposed any kind of regulation including smart guns. I have a hard time understanding why. There are some rules like background checks which only benefit good gun owning citizens whose reputation is tarred by the criminals and nut jobs who get guns. I've been background checked numerous times as a clergy person. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to lose. If you have something to hide then I have no sympathy for your gun "rights."

[Sandy]

People tend to take action when they are touched by something that could be preventable. Perhaps, because of the lack of accountability and responsibility that surrounds gun ownership in this country, mass shootings are not completely preventable. But the facts are facts, and they are certainly capable of being limited when enforcement of legislation that requires a level of accountability is taking place. You'll see some enforcement of genuine accountability when some right wing extremist's kid's school gets shot up.

THere's no unreasonable proposal anywhere near the table. Mandatory registration, background checks, and waiting periods create sensible gun ownership and allow for keeping them out of the hands of loons and nuts that don't have good intentions. It works everywhere else in the world where it is done. Why can't we do it?

[Tim Bonney]

We can't do it because we are listening to the nuts and loons too much. I've seen lots of pics of gun "enthusiasts" standing in a store or parking lot with rifles and other weapons to put on a show. How is that sensible? We don't need to become like Mexico or the Middle East where police have to publically carry automatic weaponry to keep on par with everyone else.

[Sandy]

[Chris]

Most states have some kind of mandatory automobile liability insurance, so that if the vehicle's owner or a guest driver causes an accident, the victims will be compensated.

I suggest gun liability insurance. Force every gun owner to register his weapons and purchase liability insurance for his weapons. Some people would give up their weaons rather than pay the insurance. If that doesn't work, send the police door to door and confiscate all guns, with the promise that the Second Amendment will be followed when, and if, a well-regulated militia is organized.

[Mrs Haruo]

There was an incident in an assisted living residence north of here several years ago where a man in his late 80's moved in to a retirement complex where with so many residents with dementia, various physical disabilities, etc. you would expect to be a weapons free facility. Seems one new resident moved in complete with a handgun in his luggage. It went totally un-detected till a few months later when the man- who suffered from dementia, had a misunderstanding with a staff member over something and came back later and shot the administrator at point blank range. When I did home health care as an independent contractor for clients seeking help from Washington State Department of Disabilities and Aging and Adult Services, I stipulated that I would not work in homes where people smoked indoors because of my lung condition, or where guns were kept unsecured because of my allergy to lead. Bullets can make big messy holes in people. I have nothing against guns when used on a shooting range or plinking bb.s at a target down in the basement, but I found it hard to sleep at my parent's house when Dad started showing signs of behavior just as irrational as my mother not long after she died, knowing he had a pistol stashed away in a drawer somewhere, and a locker full of assorted rifles in another part of the house. Believe me, it was very difficult explaining to Dad why my brother and I spirited his guns out of the house to a secure location off the property till things had settled down and we agreed on some rules now that he needed care givers in the house.

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[ET]

So when the criminal steals a gun or acquires a gun illegally, is he required to pay for liability insurance also? And when the criminal commits a crime with that gun, does the criminal's liability insurance policy pay or the one purchased by the rightful owner?

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]

[ET]