According to police: State trooper attempted a traffic stop on Interstate 20. Suspect started shooting at both the police and others around, eventually stealing a mail truck and heading toward a movie theater. Suspect is now dead.
I’m reminded of Michael Douglas’s character in “Falling Down.”
Seems like more and more people are getting pushed to the edge.
What’s left to say? We may as well have a permament thread like the Best Book, Weddings, Empty Nest, Dressing Young, etc threads. " This week’s shootings".
Much is being said about a 17-month old being shot in the face. The children at Sandy Hook were, too. That was what, a decade ago? And much is being said about how this is just a traffic stop gone bad, so it isn’t really a mass shooting. We have so many multiple casualty events now that we are categorizing them. Talk about normalized…
I’m with you, greenbutton. What more can we say? I haven’t heard that people don’t think that this is a “real” mass shooting. That is ridiculous. Let’s think about this: If this guy killed this many people after a routine traffic stop then does that mean that he was driving around with an arsenal in his car?
Know that today new, less-restrictive gun laws take effect in Texas. My favorite is that people with no license and no training can carry after a natural disaster. I have worked in Red Cross shelters housing hurricane evacuees. They are traumatized. What could possibly go wrong?
I like the idea of a mass shootings thread. Maybe I’ll start one.
I’m saddened that Texas has just loosened the its gun laws. It’s disheartening that even as an HOA or landlord you can’t restrict someone having an arsenal.
Unfortunately if killing a bunch of first graders in their classrooms did not bring change, I suspect nothing will. And now Texas has loosened their gun laws. Don’t get me started.
How did this guy just happen to have enough weapons and ammunition in his car to do this damage?? Wouldn’t he have to stop and reload? How did he get out of his car, steal a mail truck and still have a weapon and ammunition to keep killing?? If there is an automatic high capacity weapon involved, I’m just beyond pissed at every single person in government who keep these weapons out there. I’m just not knowledgeable enough to know how this much damage can be inflicted from one person in a car.
Obviously allowing even more weapons loose in Texas is not the right answer. None of those ‘self defense’ weapons have ever stopped these nut cases.
The Odessa police just said in his press conference that it was an “AR-type” weapon.
He would not have to stop and reload if he had a high-capacity magazine.
He shot and killed the mail carrier in order to get her truck.
A lot of damage can be done anywhere with an assault-style weapon and expanded magazines.
The governor keeps convening task forces and round tables to demonstrate “action,” but nothing comes of them and key parties aren’t at the table (Moms Demand Action, for instance).
The gun was almost certainly not automatic. Reports are that he was firing randomly out his car for a good portion of the 20 miles between Odessa and Midland. Probably had a standard 30 round staggered box magazine, could have been a 20 round. Yes, he would have had to reload, likely multiple times. But it’s quick to change a clip, and possible to do while driving. To hit that many people, from a moving vehicle while no doubt some of the victims were also in moving vehicles, likely more than 100 rounds were fired, perhaps many more. It is certainly odd to be driving around with multiple preloaded cartridges at hand. Do we know why the car was stopped by the police? I suspect there is a lot more to the story, like the police had an inkling that he was armed but perhaps didn’t expect that level of firepower. Who knows?
On a better note, the generosity of the American people is astounding. Within 16 hours, people have already donated more than $125K on go fund me to the 17 month old who was hit by a bullet fragment. We have a good hearted country, even though some individuals are beyond redemption.
The Odessa police are being really locked down with the info, but they’ve said that it was for failure to signal and that there wasn’t a warrant on the guy but that there had been some kind of previous issue with driver’s license. That’s what I’ve read.
CBS and other news sources have reported that the shooter was Seth Aaron Ator, 36 years old, of Odessa, TX.
Nobody needs to know his name.
" Gerke said was armed with an “AR-type” weapon" Gerke is the police chief.
@twoinanddone - an “AR-type weapon” is a semi-automatic, at least every one that is legal to purchase. For instance, the AR-15 is the civilian, semiautomatic version of the select fire (auto or semi) military M16. Have you ever fired an AR-15?
“Have you ever fired an AR-15?”
Not relevant to the discussion.
I’m so depressed I have to raise my kid in this country.
If it wasn’t for my health, we would’ve tried to leave long ago.
Point taken.
By the way, I don’t want Romani to leave the country 
But if assault rifles are scaring her, it might be worthwhile to understand that about 4 times as many people are killed a year in the US with knives than with any form of rifle. In fact, in a typical year more people are killed with hammers and clubs than with rifles.
The stats I am sure will be eye-opening to some:
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls
Handguns are by far the biggest contributor to gun homicide.
To put @dropbox77177’s comment in context, according to the FBI site linked in post #18, in 2017 there were 15,129 murders. Of those, 10,982 (more than 2/3) were committed with firearms.
Total firearms 10,982
Handguns 7,032
Rifles 403
Shotguns 264
Other guns 187
Firearms, type not stated 3,108
Knives or cutting instruments 1,591
Blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.) 467
Sadly, nothing. Considering that people who should know better are violating ToS left and right, it’s too time-consuming for me to clean and monitor. If another mod wants to take a crack at it, they can be my guest, but I’m closing.