Dare to connect today’s tragic shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School to the availability of, you know, guns, and gun rights advocates will excoriate you for politicizing a tragedy. But of course, the immediate wake of yet another tragic shooting is always exactly the right time to debate the wisdom of our gun culture, and the public policies that sustain it.
After all, if someone were to somehow die in a background check gone horribly wrong, you can be sure the NRA crowd would be screaming about it. So there is no shame in pointing out the role of the gun in this tragic shooting.
Our goal should be to make future gun tragedies less likely. If that requires a painful conversation, so be it.
There have been 87 school shootings since Sandy Hook, according to Everytown. That’s in less than two years! I could see maybe having waited a day or two after the Sandy Hook shooting. But not any more. As far as I am concerned, school shootings are inherently and permanently politicized, and will remain so until we finally put an end to them.
Well, it hit close to home this time, didn’t it? After several close calls (several would-be school shooters were apprehended in our state before they could act), we have our own homegrown school shooting tragedy.
I-594 just got whatever pushed it need to pass. Actually, it probably didn’t need any; the last polls I saw had it leading 2:1. But after today I don’t think there will be very many people left in our state who don’t feel we need more, not less, control over access to guns.
The NRA’s “solution” — arming everyone — is a miserable failure. What that actually does is put more guns in the hands of more people who shouldn’t have them. It’s time for people, including gun rights supporters, to walk away from this discredited organizations. If for no other reason, because it could be their kids next.
Seattle Times, using information from students, identifies the shooter by name, says he was on the freshman football team and was angry at a girl who wouldn’t date him, and walked into the school cafeteria and shot her and several other students at the same table.
How long before we hear that this was a false flag situation, designed to help I-594 pass? Where’s the deniers claiming that there was no shooting, no dead people?
I must have missed the “arming everyone” solution. When did we actually try that?
HA!! Perfectly reasonable laws regulating a deadly object!! Isn’t that just what Hitler did? Dead children are the price we must pay to not have Nazis or something.
Plus if every student had been armed…
because no one, especially adolescents, ever make bad impulsive decisions.
http://mynorthwest.com/11/2630487/BREAKING
Students have identified the shooter as Jaylen Ray Fryberg, who was angry about a girl who wouldn’t date him.
… And according to KUOW, the shooter was raised in a gun totin’ and God fearin’ household.
Nothing in 594 would have stopped this. The problem isn’t crazy guns, it’s crazy people.
“Nothing in 594 would have stopped this.”
So the fuck what?
“The problem isn’t crazy guns, it’s crazy people.”
Pure fucking genius.
Try to understand that it closes loopholes that allow certified “crazy people” to do an end-run around background checks and buy a gun legally. If that inconveniences you, I don’t care.
@5
1776.
Breaking News — 2 California sheriff’s deputies have been killed, and another deputy and a bystander have been injured, by a shooter in the Sacramento area. A gunman armed with an AR-15 assault rifle was captured alive.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, a controversial Ten Commandants on the state capitol grounds was destroyed last night by a man claiming to be a Satanist who rammed it and ran over it with his car. According to news reports, he doesn’t like President Obama, either.
Personally, I think this whole country is nuts. Except for us rabbits. We’re the most rational creatures around here.
I read a comment that We had one death from Ebola and the conservatives were ready to self quarantine the country. But dozens of deaths a day fom guns is just fine. You know. For freedom.
12 but was that also a false flag operation? Hummm?
@15 Sure looks like it.
Over on the “Brand X” political blog, nothing but silence about today’s Marysville tragedy. Guess they can’t figure out what to say about a GUN being used to kill KIDS in a SCHOOL again. I know what to say: I-594, if it didn’t already have them, just got all the votes it needs to pass.
@12
I think he was probably a bible re-enacter, you know, playing Moses (the dude with anger management problems) who smashed the tablets the first time around.
Would I-594 apply on Indian reservations? The shooter was a member of the Tulalip Tribes, and may have also lived on the reservation. A lot of state laws do not apply to Indians living on reservations, who are governed by tribal laws instead. I-594 would only penalize the person selling or transferring the firearm, not the person buying or receiving it. So an Indian living on a reservation might be able to evade the requirements of I-594, to any member of the general public, just like most reservations have unrestricted sales of fireworks to the general public, or unrestricted gambling.
As a side note, the Tulalip Tribes criminal laws are incredibly lenient. Section 3.15.030 defines assault — and only includes 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree. 4th degree assault — or simple misdemeanor assault does not appear to be criminalized anywhere in the code. This means that most domestic violence — at least if committed by an Indian on the reservation — would not be criminally punished by the tribe.
Even first degree murder in Section 3.15.010 is a Class F felony — which under Section 3.05.090 is punishable by a maximum of three years in jail. A longer sentence can be imposed if multiple offenses are committed, but only to a maximum of nine years in jail.
http://www.codepublishing.com/wa/Tulalip/
Actually, I was not entirely correct. What we call 4th degree assault in Washington is included within the definition of 3rd degree assault by the Tulalip Tribes. But it is Class D, with only 180 day maximum sentence, versus 364 days in our state system.
If the crime is serious enough of a felony — like murder, and committed by an Indian, then the federal courts can prosecute the Indian. With less serious felonies, and all misdemeanors committed by Indians on a reservation — at least if there is no victim or the victim is an Indian — the more lenient tribal laws apply. And if the feds don’t prosecute a murder case, then the incredible lenient tribal maximum sentence of three years can come into play.
Washington law punishes children under 18 years of age who possess firearms. But Tulalip tribal law Section 3.50.140 only makes it illegal for children under 14 to possess firearms, unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian. It isn’t a tribal offense for the child under 14, and the parent is only punished by a Class A offense for giving a firearm to a child under 14 — which is punished by a maximum fine of $250.00 and no imprisonment under Section 3.05.090.
So if Jaylen Fryberg was an Indian and lived on the Tulalip reservation, since he was 15 years old, it would have been perfectly legal for his mother or father to have given him the firearm. And if he had been under 14 years of age, they would have gotten a maximum fine of $250.00 from the tribal court. And I-594 would not apply to the conduct of an Indian while on a reservation.
@19 That nuance probably will fly over the heads of most voters.
@20 News media reported this firearm was legally obtained. But what was a 14-year-old doing with it? I have a feeling some negligent parent (or other relative) is about to get sued for very big bucks. The tort claims from this incident probably will run at least $20 million. (That’s my estimate of minimum asking; what a jury might decide or families of the killed and wounded would settle for could be different.)
It is time to get rid of this separate nation bullshit for the tribes.
Your advice, Goldy ?
http://kuow.org/post/too-soon-.....-shootings
Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer posted a link to a story about the shooting with this caption: “We need more school shootings!!! Vote yes on Initiative 591.”
Thank you Richard Pope,
Your comments prove how low these leftist low information voters (LIVs) really are on this blog. It was well known in out of state news reports the shooter was a Tulalip tribesboy. But don’t let a good crisis go to waste on HA DUMMOCRETINS.
So NOPE the DOPE, how does one throw out federal law? Hey… Puddy has it… Obummer has a pen and a phone!
Didn’t white law makers force Indians onto these “reservations”? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_reservation
Rabbit @ 21
Excellent points. But it really is legal for a 14 year old Indian to carry a pistol on the Tulalip reservation.
It isn’t against federal law. 18 USC 922(b)(1) prohibits a gun dealer (or other federal firearms license holder) from transferring a pistol to someone under 21 or transferring a rifle or shotgun to someone under 18. Other persons are not prohibited from transferring firearms to minors — although restrictions on transfers to convicted felons, etc. apply to all persons, not just dealers, under 18 USC 922(d) and convicted felons, etc. cannot possess firearms under 18 USC 922(f).
Otherwise, possession or ownership of firearms by minors is entirely up to state, local and tribal law. Washington law prohibits persons under 18 from possessing firearms, RCW 9.41.040, with exceptions in RCW 9.41.042 for licensed hunting and things such as adult supervision with parental approval. It is illegal to transfer firearms to minors who are prohibited by state law, RCW 9.41.080. Violations of RCW 9.41.040 or 9.41.080 are Class C felonies, up to five years in prison. And possession of firearms by persons 18 to 20 is restricted in several ways by RCW 9.41.240 (home, business, real property one controls, or hunting, etc. exceptions) with misdemeanor penalties (up to 90 days).
But state criminal law doesn’t generally apply to Indians on reservations. Those Indians are subject only to federal law while on reservations, which include punishment for major crimes (murder, rape, etc.) under federal statutes, general federal laws such as gun control under 18 USC 922 etc., and tribal laws the tribe adopts to cover offenses that are not major crimes under federal law. In addition, if an Indian commits a crime against a non-Indian on the reservation, they can be prosecuted for that in federal court, using general state criminal laws.
So persons like Jaylen Fryberg appear to be perfectly free to possess and carry firearms as enrolled tribal members (of any Indian tribe) on the Tulalip reservation. The Tulalip Tribes do prohibit such things as sawed off shotguns, carrying concealed without a permit, or carrying concealed while drunk. But minors themselves are not directly prohibited from carrying or possessing. And parents are punished (with a max $250 fine) if they allow their children under 14 to possess or carry firearms without adult supervision.
Interestingly, the Tulalip Tribes seem to prohibit several categories of firearm possession, which I believe are legal under state law. They don’t allow firearms in the glove box, or in a financial institution, or any government building — things which are often legal in Washington, especially with a concealed weapons permit.
When the news media says Fryberg’s firearm was legally acquired, they likely meant that his dad or mom bought it legally — most likely off-reservation. But sadly, it was perfectly legal for Fryberg to possess and carry the firearm anywhere on the reservation even though he was just 15 years of age.
Of course, Fryberg violated state law the minute he set foot off the reservation with the firearm — and further violated state law by discharging the firearm at school. But perhaps a tribal law against him possessing the firearm as a minor on the reservation MIGHT have made a difference.
Moronic klownservative nutjob@24..
NOPE is a DOPE because he’s an always wrong wing turd like you!
Notice his handle dumbass? He’s in “opposition” aka a jerk troll! Yes, LIKE YOU!
Damn you’re stupid! Thanks for playing!
LMAO!!!
http://horsesass.org/90-percen.....nt-1261613
Too funny. If I had to guess, it’s little Maxie being an irrelevant twerp again.
As for the jerk@24 – talk about “low information”! HAHAHAHA!
Notice how the monomaniacal moronic mudhat didn’t address the question?
It’s bad news for that LIV! No brain in that LIV!
Sux to be it!
So much for those gun free zone signs. Maybe if schools taught students to read those signs would be read, understood, and obeyed? When are WEA libtards gonna install metal detectors in schools?
@13 “:Personally, I think this whole country is nuts.”
Which is OK if you happen to be a squirrel.