Regular Daily News coverage on MSNBC was brought to complete halt yesterday by an apparent School Shooting at Lone Star College just outside Houston Texas. Now, with the still recent spectre of Newtown on everyone's mind, it's understandable that this became the instant focus, but then on the other hand - this is a good example of why our media tends to resemble 5 year-olds playing soccer. Everyone chases the ball, no one plays with any strategy or forethought.
Witness Amanda Vasquez recounts the shooting.
During the course of this coverage there were a few claims made. One, that there was one suspect still "at large" who was described as a "Black Male, wearing a Red Shirt/Sweatshirt and Falcons Cap". There was also some talk that this shooting, unlike Newtown which has been said to have been the act of someone mentally or emotionally disturbed, was instead "Gang Related".
To which I immediately wondered, What exactly makes this "Gang Related"?
When you have ever heard of Gangs at a College? I mean, just from my experience, Gang Members really aren't all that interested in higher learning. Many are high-school drop-outs. Most don't work at regular jobs, but instead function in the underground economy of drugs, guns and bootlegged movies that doesn't really translate very well with traditional education.
Let me just imagine that some Gang Member needs to get a few more English Credits so he can write a really terse Smack-Down Letter to the Rival Gang Leader down the block. Yeah.. um... no.
Now with 24 Hours of 20/20 Hindsight we now know that the "suspect" didn't flee at all - both shooters were Shot and remained at the scene. A maintenance worker was caught in the cross-fire and another women suffered from some medical condition, allegedly a heart attack.
http://abclocal.go.com/...
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A fight between two people erupted in gunfire Tuesday at a Houston-area community college, catching a maintenance man in the crossfire and leaving students and others cowering in classrooms.
No one was killed, but the volley of gunshots heard just before 12:30pm sparked fear of another campus massacre less than a month after 26 people were killed at elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Authorities one of the two people involved in the altercation had student identification. Late Tuesday, detectives identified the alleged shooter as 22-year-old Carlton Berry, but did not specify whether he was the one with the student ID. Berry has been charged with aggravated assault, but is still at a hospital being treated for a gunshot wound.
According to Alan Bernstein with the Harris County Sheriff's Office, the other person involved in the fight also was shot and taken to a local hospital. He says both of them are being treated under armed guard by deputies, pending more possible criminal charges.
A third person, identified as a maintenance man, was accidentally hit by gunfire. He was taken to Ben Taub Hospital. A woman, uninvolved in the shooting, was taken to an area hospital for a medical condition.
I don't see any mention of "Gangs" in that report.
Still many of the facts still remain unclear, such as what as the subject of the argument? While Texas is a concealed carry state, those rules don't include college campuses - so why where both men armed at school? If one was a student and one was not - was the campus location merely a coincidence since that was the one place that the non-student could find the student and confront him?
If this was an attempted 'killing" somebody did a lousy job and got themselves shot too.
If neither of these guys had been armed, would this have simply been a fist fight?
Lone Star College actually has it's own armed Police - but as in most real life situations including Virginia Tech and Columbine - they weren't in the room when the altercation took place. Too little, too late to make a difference.
Wayne Lapierre likes to say the only thing that stops a "bad guy with a gun" is a "good guy with a gun" - could that be what just occurred here, or are we simply dealing with two dimwitted assholes who brought loaded weapons onto a crowded campus where cross-fire could easily injure others instead of just one?
Aren't shootings like this - albiet off campus - where friends, family issues or personal arguments escalate into something deadly exactly where most of the gun violence and deaths in this nation occurs, not with "Gangs" or 'Mass Shootings"?
For example there is now a case where a 15-year-old shot and killed his entire family - and this is news worthy because he used an AR-15.
New Mexico authorities announced on Tuesday that a 15-year-old boy who killed his family with several weapons including an AR-15 military-style assault rifle enjoyed playing “violent” video games and had planned to go to a local Walmart to shoot random people.
Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston told reporters at a press conference that Nehemiah Griego eventually admitted to the murders of his mother, father and three siblings after initially saying that he had come home to find them dead, according to KRQE.
Houston said that Griego had waited for his mother to fall asleep before gaining access to her unlocked bedroom closet to obtain an AR-15, a .22 rifle and two 12-gauge shotguns. Some of the weapons had been purchased by the father through private sales, the investigation found.
“The teen told authorities after killing his family he reloaded his weapons so that he could ‘drive to populated area to murder more people,’” KRQE reported. “He expressed a desire to shoot people at random and eventually be killed while exchanging gunfire with law enforcement.”
Raw Story (http://s.tt/...)
So did anyone ask if this kid was in a "Gang"? Apparently not since he was "Home schooled" and therefore not socially vulnerable to gang recruitment, but they do make an issue of his being an avid video-game player...
Houston also said that Griego told investigators that he regularly played “violent” video games like “Grand Theft Auto” and “Modern Warfare.” The teen said that he had been taught to shoot by his father.
Uh huh. Both Grand Theft Auto and Modern Warfare are
Rated M for "Mature" - which means
17 years or Older. So why did a 15-year old even have access to these games? Apparently his dad not only taught him to shoot, he taught him not to obey common
gorram sense.
And why doesn't the Media Ask any of these questions?
Just wondering.
Vyan