Monday - June 10, 2013

What, again? Again??

I dunno ... Sudden Jihad Syndrome again? And/Or a mental patient with illegal access to firearms?

A fifth victim in the Santa Monica shooting rampage has died, the family confirmed on Sunday. Marcela Franco, 26, was taken off life support at a hospital on Saturday night, said her cousin between sobs. She was shot along with her father, Carlos Navarro Franco, who also died on Friday, when a gunman shot at the SUV they were riding in near Santa Monica College.

They were picking up books for summer classes at the college when they were shot, the college’s president said. Marcela Franco was a student at Cal State Dominguez Hills and had registered to attend Santa Monica College this summer.

They were among six fatalities, including the gunman, in Friday’s shooting rampage. The suspected gunman has been identified as John Samir Zawahri, according to Santa Monica police.

The suspect’s father, Samir Zawahri, 55, and brother Christopher Zawahri, 24, were killed in the rampage, their bodies found in their burned home, Santa Monica police confirmed on Sunday.

The entire ordeal lasted about 13 minutes, Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis said Saturday.

Below is a rough timeline of the shooting rampage, based on information provided by Lewis at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

• 11:52 a.m.: Police receive report of shots fired in the 2000 block of Yorkshire Avenue. First responders arrive to find a home engulfed in flames and a female driver suffering from a gunshot wound.


• he gunman carjacks a female driver at gunpoint and orders her to drive. They travel down Pico Boulevard toward Santa Monica College.


• Two people are later found dead in a back room of the house. The fire is believed to have started in the front of the 1,000-square-foot home, Santa Monica Fire Department Chief Scott Ferguson said. It is not yet known what time or how the fire started. [ victims are Zawahri’s father and brother ]


• 11:56 a.m.: Witnesses report seeing and hearing shots fired at a Santa Monica Big Blue Bus at Cloverfield and Pico boulevards.


• 12:02 p.m.: Police receive calls of shots fired at Cloverfield Boulevard and Pearl Street.


• A 68-year-old man is fatally shot while driving a red Ford Explorer near Lot 1 on Santa Monica College campus. His passenger is also shot. [ this turned out to be Carlos Franco and his daughter Marcela]


• The gunman scrambles onto campus, dropping a bag later found to be filled with magazines and a handgun. He heads toward the library.


• 12:05 p.m.: One of three police officers involved in a gun battle with the shooter announces over his radio that the gunman has been killed.

And just like that it was over. And aside from the shooter’s name, that he was a mental patient at some point, the name of the victims, and that this happened the day before the shooter’s 24th birthday, that’s about all we know at this point. My God, it took me longer to research and write this post than the entire event itself.

Some pro-active defenses, not of the shooter but against the expected media circus ... which oddly hasn’t happened yet, and Freepers wonder why. And of course our government says “lone shooter, no connection to any terrorist network, not terrorism”. Guess they have to phone records to know, right? Nothing to see here, move along, entirely a random coincidence that the killer is of some sort of Eastern ethnicity (Lebanese?)

But anyway ... Clayton E. Cramer at PJ Media covers all the bases: in theory it was impossible for Zawahri to have an assault weapon, or a handgun, or that huge bag of 30 round magazines ...

According to news accounts, the killer used an “assault-style weapon.” Unsurprisingly, the 24-year-old killer had a history of mental illness, a run-in with the police, and had been hospitalized at some point in the last few years (although it remains unclear if this was voluntary or involuntary).  As regular readers of my columns know, this is the heart of the mass murder problem, not just in America, but in Europe and Canada as well.

But how could this happen? California has had an assault weapons ban since 1989, progressively tightened over a decade.  This law has been on the books, and enforced, since the killer was born.  The only lawful way for a Californian to possess a high-capacity magazine is if he owned it before 2000 – when the killer was eleven years old. California passed a firearms-transfer background check requirement that took effect on January 1, 1991, which checks not only for felony and violent misdemeanor convictions and pending charges, but also for involuntary mental hospital commitments.  Even if you are only held for 72 hour observation and then determined to be not crazy enough for longer term treatment, you are ineligible to possess a firearm for five years.  The shooter was 24– unless he was hospitalized between 18 and 19, he could not have legally purchased any firearm.  You can’t drive across the border into Arizona or Nevada to legally buy a gun; federal law prohibits such transfers unless your state of residence allows such transfers — and California does not.

So we are again left with the question: how did the killer get this gun?  It would seem as though he broke a stack of laws, without much of a struggle

Another day, another mass murder, another passel of laws that just don’t work. Welcome to the New Normal. I don’t like it one bit.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2013 at 11:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Guns and Gun Control • Terrorists •  
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