Mass shooting at Naval Yard in Washington DC

[C. Lee]

At least 12 dead so far....

http://news.yahoo.com/shots-fired-a...Rwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3BtaA--;_ylv=3

 

[Teelie]

I saw the breaking news on this just over an hour ago and it was only 4 dead... hopefully the number doesn't climb any higher than it has.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Oh man, not another one.

 

[Grievous]

Prayers for the victims and families.


The gun debate was dying down in the news too. Looks like its gonna get heated up again.

 

[Duke]

This is just getting out of hand.

 

[Teelie]

Before anyone jumps into a gun debate for or against, we should probably know who was responsible, why and how it happened. It's a Naval Yard, how the hell did this occur there and why?

 

[Destructus86]

dang man...I actually know someone there too.

 

[regwec]

Oh man, not another one.

That's exactly what I thought.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

Before anyone jumps into a gun debate for or against, we should probably know who was responsible, why and how it happened. It's a Naval Yard, how the hell did this occur there and why?

Sounds like they pretended to be military and when asked for ID, that's when they opened fire. Plus, it sounds like they were targeting law enforcement from the start. Not sure of the reason for it so that's still up in the air. And before anyone asks why they're able to attack a military base that has guns/weapons on it, bases are weapon-free zones for everyone except those doing training and law enforcement personnel.

 

[Teelie]

I've lived on military bases so I know how most of them generally work. It's not like everyone is armed but there are armed personnel there like the police as you said. I don't know the particulars of this base so that's why I'm not in any rush to judge the situation.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

I've lived on military bases so I know how most of them generally work. It's not like everyone is armed but there are armed personnel there like the police as you said. I don't know the particulars of this base so that's why I'm not in any rush to judge the situation.

The base seems to be more of an administrative and ceremonial center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Naval_Yard

 

[Spider-X]

all I know is that this year the US has had waaaaaaaaaaaay too many mass shootings (btw, I'm talking comparatively here...1 mass shooting is too many in my book) and not enough has been done to try to stop them. I personally blame gun nuts, lobbiests, lack of education, and crazy people having too easy of access to guns (and apparently not as easy of access to actually freaking mental health care) per our current laws and lack of social responsibility.

Something's gotta give on a regulatory and government level...it just has to. When too many people die on a road, we'll change the speed limit and/or put up new warning lights/signage...we don't just leave the road alone and say "well, people just enjoy driving fast and/or drunk...we just have to try to be better about it," which is what we've pretty much done with gun laws....it's just wrong.

Sorry to get this grand ol' debate started...but it's going to happen anyways...so that's where I stand. Argue away.

in any freaking case, this is a terrible tragedy and I look forward to hearing why this happened so hopefully something can be done to stop/avoid future occurrences

 

[MrMaooz]

Wow, this is horrible. I was going to go to a Nats game too today, looks like it will be canceled considering Naval Yard is right next to it.

 

[Destructus86]

all I know is that this year the US has had waaaaaaaaaaaay too many mass shootings (btw, I'm talking comparatively here...1 mass shooting is too many in my book) and not enough has been done to try to stop them. I personally blame gun nuts, lobbiests, lack of education, and crazy people having too easy of access to guns (and apparently not as easy of access to actually freaking mental health care) per our current laws and lack of social responsibility.

Something's gotta give on a regulatory and government level...it just has to. When too many people die on a road, we'll change the speed limit and/or put up new warning lights/signage...we don't just leave the road alone and say "well, people just enjoy driving fast and/or drunk...we just have to try to be better about it," which is what we've pretty much done with gun laws....it's just wrong.

Sorry to get this grand ol' debate started...but it's going to happen anyways...so that's where I stand. Argue away.

in any freaking case, this is a terrible tragedy and I look forward to hearing why this happened so hopefully something can be done to stop/avoid future occurrences

I agree. We need WAY more strict gun control and A LOT more effort to deal with mental health.

 

[Teelie]

The base seems to be more of an administrative and ceremonial center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Naval_Yard

So it's probably an open base that doesn't have a strict or probably even existent identification check on who enters.

Something's gotta give on a regulatory and government level...it just has to. When too many people die on a road, we'll change the speed limit and/or put up new warning lights/signage...we don't just leave the road alone and say "well, people just enjoy driving fast and/or drunk...we just have to try to be better about it," which is what we've pretty much done with gun laws....it's just wrong.

Also, this is in no way comparable to imposing speed limits or adding stop signs like traffic, which probably do as much harm as good anyways, though that is another topic altogether.

We still don't know who is behind this. For all you know they were legally licensed to carry guns and had no history or signs of this. I've seen upwards of four people are responsible which is not some lone gunman or even a pair of gunmen shooting up a location. This is more on par with the "t" word but I'm not jumping to that conclusion yet either.

It's knee-jerk reactions like this that only entrench people deeper into their respective for/against arguments.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

So it's probably an open base that doesn't have a strict or probably even existent identification check on who enters.



Also, this is in no way comparable to imposing speed limits or adding stop signs like traffic, which probably do as much harm as good anyways, though that is another topic altogether.

We still don't know who is behind this. For all you know they were legally licensed to carry guns and had no history or signs of this. I've seen upwards of four people are responsible which is not some lone gunman or even a pair of gunmen shooting up a location. This is more on par with the "t" word but I'm not jumping to that conclusion yet either.

It's knee-jerk reactions like this that only entrench people deeper into their respective for/against arguments.

Sounds like they're searching a Naval Sea Systems Command building for some more shooters (unconfirmed at this point) so I'm thinking this is a random shooting, someone's trying to make a political point, or possibly a workplace violence shooting over a case of terrorism. Seems they've possibly identified the dead shooter as a man in his 30s from Texas. Also looking for a probable second shooter with the description being of a black man in his 40s dressed in olive drab military fatigues.

 

[jonathancrane]

My thoughts and prayers are out to the victims of this violence.

 

[Spider-X]

Also, this is in no way comparable to imposing speed limits or adding stop signs like traffic, which probably do as much harm as good anyways, though that is another topic altogether.

I respectfully yet completely disagree. Both are laws meant to restrict the use of something so it does less harm than good and extra percausions works to help reduce occurances of abuse. If you seriously believe that extra hazard signage and stop signals at a heavily used, yet uncontrolled intersection causes "as much harm as good"...then I'm really at a lose for words.

We still don't know who is behind this. For all you know they were legally licensed to carry guns and had no history or signs of this. I've seen upwards of four people are responsible which is not some lone gunman or even a pair of gunmen shooting up a location. This is more on par with the "t" word but I'm not jumping to that conclusion yet either.

It's knee-jerk reactions like this that only entrench people deeper into their respective for/against arguments.

Not sure what the "t" word is (treason?) and whether gun control fits like a glove into this issue remains to be seen...so fair enough with the knee jerk comment...

However, given this countries track record recently I have a feeling gun control fits into it fairly somewhere...but time will tell.

 

[terry78]

Thoughts definitely go out. They targeted them specifically though, but for what reason is the question.

 

[chamber-music]

I honestly don't even know what to say anymore besides condolences for the victims.

 

[regwec]

Do you think mass shootings are becoming "normailised" in the USA? This tends to happen with recurrent tragedies, like the nightly air raids of WWII.

 

[Spider-X]

Do you think mass shootings are becoming "normailised" in the USA? This tends to happen with recurrent tragedies, like the nightly air raids of WWII.

Like they are becoming accepted as just part of being an American? like "well...we just have mass shootings from time to time...whatcha gonna do?"

I'd say hell no...And I don't know anyone who feels that way. That would be very distrubing if it was that the general concensus.

And it's really upsetting that it's gotten to the point where people are wondering that...though, given the volume of these's we've been seeing as i mentioned earlier, I can see why now it would be asked More to the point of us as a nation needing a better solution to this mass shooting epidemic.

 

[Teelie]

No, mass shootings are not becoming more common place and definitely not normalized. The media hype and promotion of them however is another story. If there is one thing the news loves, it's a tragedy to exploit and mass fear to propagate and glamorize.

 

[terry78]

They're not happening like once a week or anything, though I know having like several in a given year is several too many for anyone.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

They've identified the shooter as 34-year old avionics engineer Aaron Alexis from Ft. Worth, Texas who was possibly a contractor on the base. Sounding more and more like a workplace violence thing, probably brought about by the upcoming round of cuts the DoD is making due to sequestration and budgetary cuts.