It doesn't take much to get yourself a semi-automatic assault rifle and kill a bunch of students. Just watching the cell-phone video and hearing the shots, I could tell it was a medium caliber assault maching pistol (Tek-9)/assault rifle (AR-15, M-16), most likely a 5.56 or 9mm. I'm assuming a rifle, as those pistols are very inaccurate. He was shooting in semi mode, picking people off. Of course, he could've had a shotgun before or after the video too; something like a Browning or Beretta autoloader. Maybe he's packing a cheap 9mm handgun for cleanup.
It's easy. You could buy the whole works at a gunshow for cash. Or maybe order it online from somewhere like
Guns America or one of the many other buy/sell gun sites. I saw a local investigative report where a reporter did just that. For cash. No wait period.
It's no secret. There are sites that'll tell you how to turn your semi-auto into fully auto for those fire supression situations once the cops arrive. Then there's the
silencer sites so you can put down a bunch of targets before they know what's happening. Then there's barricade & bomb construction, etc.
But why .. is what I can't figure. Hostages, demands.. I can see. Trying to make a statement or change something or call attention to something.. I can kind of understand it. But random killing then (perhaps) suicide makes no sense. My sense of Columbine was the same. Gus Van Sant's moving docu-drama
Elephant doesn't really shed any light on
WHY, and neither has any of the articles I've read about that particular shooting.
CNN has 31 deaths so far. One shooter (appearently). That in a pretty short time. He might have had a suppressed weapon. Or maybe he was a marine, like in
Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick's masterful anti-war movie. From the screenplay, in boot camp:
Later they are grouped around [Sgt.] Gerheim. "Does
anyone known who Charles Whitman was?"
Blank faces.
"None of you dumbasses knows?"
Cowboy slowly raises his hand.
"Private Cowboy?"
"Was he the guy that shot a lot of people
from a roof?"
"That's right, Private Cowboy. He shot and
killed twelve people from a 28-story observation
tower at the University of Texas, from distances
of up to four hundred yards."
The recruits look impressed.
"Does anybody know who Lee Harvey Oswald
was?"
That's easy. Almost every hand goes up.
"Private Snowball?"
Private Snowball says, "He shot Kennedy, Sir!"
"That's right. And do you know how far away
he was?"
"It was pretty far. From that book
suppository building, sir!"
"Two hundred and fifty" feet. He was two
hundred and fifty feet away and shooting at a
moving target. He got off three shots with a bolt
action rifle in six seconds, and got two hits,
including a head shot. Do you know where those
men learned to shoot like that?"
No one knows. Joker raises his hand.
"Private Joker."
"In the Marines sir?"
"In the Marines. Outstanding! Now those
people did not put their Marine training to a good
purpose but they showed what a Marina with his
rifle can do, and before I am through you will all
be able to do the same thing."
Leonard stares at Gerheim.
Yeah, I know it's cavalier but look at their culture, look at their gun culture. Why are these weapons available? Why haven't things changed there since Columbine? The NRA/gun lobby?
Well, it didn't take long for CNN to cash in, huh. Paula Zahn's set up interviews for this afternoon. Cooper on 360 probably has his shit together. Like a well-oiled machine over there. I'd love to see their protocol/contingency pllans for disaster/tragedies, their immediate tactical plans, list of things to do/people to call, their plans probable scheduled at first by the minute, then half-hour, then hour for a 24/36/48/72 hour block depending on severity of 'incident.' O yeah, they're doing the usual feeding the news in slow bite-size increments in order to maximize viewership depth and longevity.
I just find the whole thing sad. Just happened in
Seattle as well. And didn't we have our own
little version of this in Canada? And who is to blame? You don't see this in Europe.
