A bit of a glitch in the screening process apparently allowed a gun and a badge to be handed to a young psycho in Wisconsin. When his girlfriend had the temerity to break up with him, he indicated his displeasure by walking into a party she was at and shooting most everybody dead, including the girl he claimed to love. Funny way of showing it he had, there.
Anyway, remember kids: Only cops and soldiers should have guns!
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29 comments:
Another "glitch inthe screening process".
Like you can screen for that.
Something puzzles me; if he was only 20, why was he able to be a cop and carry a gun? Here where I live, you have to be 21 to be a LEO.
Also note that Wisconsin is one of the few states left where civilians who aren't cops can't legally carry concealed pistols.
Good thing too! Someone could've gotten hurt!
Carrying at a private party would have been legal...but now we get into age restrictions, too. Possession would not have been legal for under 18 or 21, depending on the local laws. In other words, absent an armed adult, teenagers are at the mercy of others. And we wonder why they act like kids -- the laws force them to be dependent!
"Like you can screen for that."
But... but... that's what the gun control crowd tells me!
So wait, the youngest was 14-15 years old and at a party at 2:30am. This is a horrific crime and blame lays squarely on the shooter. But still, maybe the grieving mother wouldn't be grieving if she kept her 14-15 year old child home, rather than at a party at 2:30am.
Nothing wrong with kids being up late.
I love how so many people can sit in judgement when no one will ever know (except the people involved) what really happened. Being only 5 miles away from the small town it happened in, I know the best thing to do is send support and suspend judgement. You don't have to have a gun to hurt someone by standing blindly, aiming, and shooting (your mouth off).
"So wait, the youngest was 14-15 years old and at a party at 2:30am. This is a horrific crime and blame lays squarely on the shooter. But still, maybe the grieving mother wouldn't be grieving if she kept her 14-15 year old child home, rather than at a party at 2:30am."
Anonymous, down that road lies madness.
It was a Saturday night. There's nothing in the story saying that there was drinking going on. They were Freshman-aged kids, at a private residence, where a person should be safe. Trying to claim that the blame lies upon the parents for letting them attend a party at that time is moving the blame from where it belongs: the shooter who could have gone postal at 8:00 PM, 10:00 PM, or 9:23 AM on a Wednesday. Yes, we can reduce our exposure to risk by avoiding certain situations, but there's nothing inherently risky about being awake and conversing with other people at 2:00 AM on a Saturday night.
Things were apparently going along just fine, until the maniac walked in and began killing people.
So wait, the youngest was 14-15 years old and at a party at 2:30am. This is a horrific crime and blame lays squarely on the shooter. But still, maybe the grieving mother wouldn't be grieving if she kept her 14-15 year old child home, rather than at a party at 2:30am.
Not fair, you don't know what relationship that young adult had with the resident of the house. Maybe they were family, or very close friends that the parents trusted. I used to spend the night at my sisters house all the time after she moved away from home, and I was just a teenager.
MadRocketScientist
When my (now 17) teenager daughter was 14, I did not let her go to boy/girl parties that lasted until the wee hours of the night. That young girl had no business being at a party with older teenagers.
I think the entire situation is beyond words..the grief the parents feel is bad enough without reading judgmental statements like some of the ones on here. Lets also remember the grief of the peterson's family, they also lost a child. While no one would ever condone such horrific behavior even if done by your own child, it still does not change he is stil the child you gave birth to and loved. My only hope is that everyone spend some time in prayer for all of the grieving families and less time trying to place blame.God is not the author of confusion so we can safley say we know where this is coming from, lets let God's peace that passes all understanding be what helps us all get through this awful tragedy.
Oleg- While there may or may not be anything legally or morally wrong with kids partying to the wee hours, statistically, nothing good is likely to happen outside your own bed after midnite...... as for me and my house, we will follow a curfew......
This is just another opportunity to tell my kids, "Some people were put here on this earth solely to serve as a warning to others. Don't be one of those people."
There is nothing in the articles I read that indicates it was a boy/girl get together. The only victims mentioned specifically were both female, other than the shooter. Those kids were hanging out, watching movies and eating pizza.
In a town that size, I'm willing to bet the parents knew exactly where their kids were. I grew up in similar circumstances and it's tough to get away with anything in a place that small.
I agree that there is some huge gap here in the facts... this is a mixed boy/girl party going on a 3:00 a.m. and at least one of the partyers is 14 years old? hello? To all of you who claim the shooting could have taken place at any time... sure it could have. But if you were a spurned boyfriend and you knew your ex girlfriend was "having pizza" at 3:00 a.m. with another boy... that might just put you over the edge...
Try our State law in Califonia for years, no officer carry guns under 23 years of age.
I say I have to agree with the people asking what a 14 year old girl is doing out with a a group of high school graduates??? I don't care what time of night it is and what day of the week it is. It is never a good idea for 14 year olds and 18-20 years to "keep company". Period.
We have three kids. The oldest is our son. Two and four years younger are our daughters. When our daughters had slumber parties we allowed our son to have some of the pizza/snacks we bought for the group. Did that make it a "mixed party"?
What if it was a neighbor kid that came running over when he heard the shooting and the screaming?
I don't think we have enough information to pass judgement on the parents.
Joe
ohhhhh, and now all the armchair philosophers come out of the woodworks.
you people can't see two feet in front of your face.
the blame doesn't fall on any of the parties involved, it falls on society, which is a pressure cooker for this kind of occurance.
in a society so self-absorbed, convoluted and culturally blind, this type of shit is bound to happen again and again and again, and it will continue to happen until man annihilates himself.
humans are a dumb, arrogant, aggressive species who all deserves to die, so we will. and most likely by our own hand.
wow. that was a bit grumpy.
and I was under the impression it was a handgun, which made the whole "how did a 20 year buy a handgun..."
later I heard it was an AR-15. that fact was reported on NPR.
what surprised me was the report said it was "an AR-15 rifle" not, "and evil high capacity military assault semi-automatic weapon of mass destruction." so I was pleasantly surprised.
crud, I should have saved that comment and blogged about it my own dang self.
It never ceases to amaze me the shock and horror that people feel when someone flips out over something like this. Of course what he did was insane. But they shouldn't have called him names and provoked him. As long as you have people in the world that bully or push too far, you're gonna have people that just can't take it.
"the blame doesn't fall on any of the parties involved, it falls on society"
Bullshit.
It falls squarely on the mad dog who pulled the trigger, and nowhere else.
Tam's response was more eloquent, concise, and appropriate than mine.
There are things I don't like about American society, but at least it is "self-absorbed, convoluted and culturally blind," and that gives me hope.
In my experience, anyone who sincerely believes that the species is the organism ("society," Gaia, "The Nation," "alle menschen")also believes in a "dumb, arrogant, aggressive species who all deserve[s] to die."
"It never ceases to amaze me the shock and horror that people feel when someone flips out over something like this. Of course what he did was insane. But they shouldn't have called him names and provoked him. As long as you have people in the world that bully or push too far, you're gonna have people that just can't take it."
True, that. There is an unfortunate and growing tendency to forget that people who push, and push, and push their luck are not nearly as blameless for mental blowouts like this as they are made out to be. Did the guy have a responsibility to not gun down six kids? Certainly. Should they have been smart enough not to call a guy with a gun, already probably a little distraught over the whole breakup thing, at 2:30AM, and proud of his position as a cop, a "worthless pig?" Absolutely.
Not saying they deserved it. Not saying the action was excusable in any way, shape, or form. But you can't say that he would have pulled the trigger if he hadn't been provoked to losing it...
I find the whole he was provoked arguement bulshit, no matter what was done, or said by the people at the party. No matter what someone does it is NEVER ok to act this way.
The blame here lies squarely on the sholders of one thin skinned tiny little man. He was a cop and this makes it WORSE. He should have been held to a higher standard. You don't get more privilage without more responibility.
"I find the whole he was provoked arguement bulshit, no matter what was done, or said by the people at the party. No matter what someone does it is NEVER ok to act this way."
Of course it isn't OK. But you are speaking as if this is a perfect world. Unfortunately, you have people in this world that are chemically imbalanced and not right in the head. They don't have that little stop sign inside of them that keeps them from stepping over the line when things go wrong like most of us.
In nearly every case you hear the same thing. "he/she was so normal, you'd never expect this from them" Which means that these people are ticking time bombs. And if you push these people, you light that fuse. So you better be prepared for a worst case scenario.
Unfortunately, you have people in this world that are chemically imbalanced and not right in the head.
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And if you push these people, you light that fuse. So you better be prepared for a worst case scenario.
That's part of the problem, the shifting of blame, the need to make excuses. No matter what they called him or did to him short of assualt on him or his property it was not OK.
From what I've read about it he crashed the party, and then flipped out after being called names. Now granted it was not the classiest of things to insult someone, but was it a capital offense? no. Not even close.
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