Texas Church Massacre

[Burning Petard]

That federal rule on domestic violence and gun possession pretty much brings an automatic separation from military service. There is no 'rubber gun squad' in the military where you have duties and can work out a pension without a gun.

And it absolutely pulls my chain when major news media are so ignorant about military service that they confuse a BCD with A DD.

The domestic violence/no guns thing is well known among law enforcement in communities where the military is the major employer. It acts to lead civilian law enforcement to try to settle domestic violence complaints without going on the record for military personnel. The federal rule ends up having a reverse effect in those communities--becomes harder to get a conviction when the rule was intended to decrease domestic violence. Instead, greater pressure to sweep it under the rug.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

Yes, and the military justice system is vastly different from the civilian justice system, defendants have fewer protections and it’s very possible the federal prohibition doesn’t apply to those convictions - I honestly don’t know but will reach out to an AUSA colleague to check.

That said, I can’t even count the number of defendants I came across in just a half dozen years who had purchased firearms post-conviction on DV charges. People think the laws we have are enough but they don’t realize how abysmal is the sharing of information amongst law enforcement entities nationwide; we need major investment in technological infrastructure and personnel on this issue, but it’s not getting done - I imagine because it’s not as profitable as the private prison industry, or the gun sales industry.

Here’s a true story: a lot of criminals are pretty ignorant about the particulars of their conditions of conviction - I can’t count the number of defendants - especially in the hunting culture of Montana - who were horrified to learn that they faced possible mandatory federal prison time for keeping a shotgun or rifle after conviction for knocking around the wife. I don’t feel sorry for them based on the behavior they engaged in, but it does bother me that the failures of the system to inform defendants (often this is defense counsel’s failure) and to properly log conviction records ends up almost entrapping some of these guys into committing a federal crime that comes with hard time.

I don’t mean to imply any connection to this monster, but I have known (and defended) men AND women who got a DV conviction on minor bodily injury who were technically barred for life from firearm possession and didn’t understand that. This is one reason why Montana prosecutors would use the right - which converts to a privilege - as leverage to obtain convictions, by amending to a non-bodily injury (apprehension of fear) and getting a guilty plea in that way. Feds don’t count an apprehension of fear conviction toward the prohibition.

[BoSoxGal]

Cross-posted with you, snailgate. Yes, I handled a few cases where the result of a conviction was going to be military discharge or loss of an offer extended to an individual not yet enrolled - we have a few bases in Montana. I would work with defendant and do deferred impositions with lengthy probation to try to preserve the military attachment, if appropriate.

[Sue U]

Oh well, just a couple dozen more slaughtered, obviously there's nothing that can be done, so just have some thoughts-and-prayers and shut up.

ETA:

Oh, what was that Chris Murphy, Senator from Connecticut?

"The paralysis you feel right now – the impotent helplessness that washes over you as news of another mass slaughter scrolls across the television screen – isn’t real. It's a fiction created and methodically cultivated by the gun lobby, designed to assure that no laws are passed to make America safer, because those laws would cut into their profits. My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach, once again, when I heard of today's shooting in Texas. My heart dropped further when I thought about the growing macabre club of families in Las Vegas and Orlando and Charleston and Newtown, who have to relive their own day of horror every time another mass killing occurs.

“None of this is inevitable. I know this because no other country endures this pace of mass carnage like America. It is uniquely and tragically American. As long as our nation chooses to flood the county with dangerous weapons and consciously let those weapons fall into the hands of dangerous people, these killings will not abate.

“As my colleagues go to sleep tonight, they need to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets. Ask yourself – how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents.

“My heart breaks for Sutherland Springs. Just like it still does for Las Vegas. And Orlando. And Charleston. And Aurora. And Blacksburg. And Newtown. Just like it does every night for Chicago. And New Orleans. And Baltimore. And Bridgeport. The terrifying fact is that no one is safe so long as Congress chooses to do absolutely nothing in the face of this epidemic. The time is now for Congress to shed its cowardly cover and do something."

[RayThom]

Thoughts and prayers. What else can we do?

It's all in God's hands now.



AMEN

[Guinevere]

Oh well, just a couple dozen more slaughtered, obviously there's nothing that can be done, so just have some thoughts-and-prayers and shut up.

ETA:

Oh, what was that Chris Murphy, Senator from Connecticut?

"The paralysis you feel right now – the impotent helplessness that washes over you as news of another mass slaughter scrolls across the television screen – isn’t real. It's a fiction created and methodically cultivated by the gun lobby, designed to assure that no laws are passed to make America safer, because those laws would cut into their profits. My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach, once again, when I heard of today's shooting in Texas. My heart dropped further when I thought about the growing macabre club of families in Las Vegas and Orlando and Charleston and Newtown, who have to relive their own day of horror every time another mass killing occurs.

“None of this is inevitable. I know this because no other country endures this pace of mass carnage like America. It is uniquely and tragically American. As long as our nation chooses to flood the county with dangerous weapons and consciously let those weapons fall into the hands of dangerous people, these killings will not abate.

“As my colleagues go to sleep tonight, they need to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets. Ask yourself – how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents.

“My heart breaks for Sutherland Springs. Just like it still does for Las Vegas. And Orlando. And Charleston. And Aurora. And Blacksburg. And Newtown. Just like it does every night for Chicago. And New Orleans. And Baltimore. And Bridgeport. The terrifying fact is that no one is safe so long as Congress chooses to do absolutely nothing in the face of this epidemic. The time is now for Congress to shed its cowardly cover and do something."

Copying this. Thank you Senator Murphy.

[liberty]

Oh, what was that Chris Murphy, Senator from Connecticut?

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy Exploits the Blood of Innocents for Politics.


Bs,he is hypocrite, there are about 15 million Southern Baptist. You got twelve now why stop, only about 12 million to go.

Call out your ANTIFI storm troopers.

[Sue U]

Oh, what was that Chris Murphy, Senator from Connecticut?

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy Exploits the Blood of Innocents for Politics.


Bs,he is hypocrite, there are about 15 million Southern Baptist. You got twelve now why stop, only about 12 million to go.

Call out your ANTIFI storm troopers.

Does anyone have any idea what this is even supposed to mean?

[BoSoxGal]

You are one crazy motherfucker, liberty.

[liberty]

I am channeling the liberal mind: As liberal see it, not all of course, conservative
Southern Baptist are no better than Nazi, fascist and racist and the more that die the better.

[Lord Jim]

I will go out on a limb and say the shooter is a white liberal who hates Southern Baptist and Christians;...

Lib, have you been following the latest news about this?

I believe that limb has been pretty much sawed off; all the evidence is pointing to a twisted personal motive that has nothing to do with politics or religion:

Texas officials say before massacre, gunman had threatened his mother-in-law, who attended the church

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. — The massacre here that killed more than two dozen people — the youngest of them just 18 months old — occurred amid an ongoing “domestic situation” involving the gunman and his relatives, at least one of whom had attended the church, law enforcement officials said Monday.

While authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, they emphasized that the shooting did not appear to be fueled by racial or religious issues, as has been the case during other rampages at houses of worship. Instead, they pointed to the gunman’s issues with his relatives, saying he had sent “threatening texts” to his mother-in-law.

“This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs,” Freeman Martin, a regional director with the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news briefing. “There was a domestic situation going on within the family and the in-laws.”

While the gunman’s mother-in-law had attended the church, she was not there when the shooting occurred, officials said.

More:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... 7564a8fa02

Unless you think those left-wingers at the Texas Department of Public Safety are engaged in some sort of cover-up of a pinko motive, this really looks like a domestic situation motive...

Which fits well with the dirtbag's prior history of having a violent response to relationship situations...

(The earlier assault on his wife and child so severe that resulted in a bad conduct discharge from the military, a felony assault conviction, and a year in prison.)

[liberty]

You are one crazy motherfucker, liberty.

Instead of being vulgar why do you say crazy fascist, raciest, homophobe.

[Joe Guy]

You are one crazy motherfucker, liberty.

Instead of being vulgar why do you say crazy fascist, raciest, homophobe.

I'm pretty sure motherfucker covers all that, lib.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I am channeling the liberal mind: As liberal see it, not all of course, conservative
Southern Baptist are no better than Nazi, fascist and racist and the more that die the better.

i'd rather you did not try to channel my mind, thanks. You're gonna need a bigger shovel . . .

Lib is merely spouting the narrative I was seeing last night on alt-right sites, which was that the shooter was Antifa, whoever they are; but that is the usual name for this tenuous bunch (?) not ANTIFI.

I see FoxNews is making the point that he was an atheist. Not sure what that signifies - the NYC bike path guy and the 9/11 hijackers were theists of one stripe or another. Are we keeping score?

For once and for all and I hope liberty will agree with this: the Texas shooter was nothing more and nothing less than a pile of shit. That is regardless of his political religious and personal beliefs. To put it another way: he may have been a San Antonio Spurs fan. That makes zero difference to what I think about the Spurs and their followers.

[liberty]

I will go out on a limb and say the shooter is a white liberal who hates Southern Baptist and Christians;...

Lib, have you been following the latest news about this?

I believe that limb has been pretty much sawed off; all the evidence is pointing to a twisted personal motive that has nothing to do with politics or religion:

Texas officials say before massacre, gunman had threatened his mother-in-law, who attended the church

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. — The massacre here that killed more than two dozen people — the youngest of them just 18 months old — occurred amid an ongoing “domestic situation” involving the gunman and his relatives, at least one of whom had attended the church, law enforcement officials said Monday.

While authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, they emphasized that the shooting did not appear to be fueled by racial or religious issues, as has been the case during other rampages at houses of worship. Instead, they pointed to the gunman’s issues with his relatives, saying he had sent “threatening texts” to his mother-in-law.

“This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs,” Freeman Martin, a regional director with the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news briefing. “There was a domestic situation going on within the family and the in-laws.”

While the gunman’s mother-in-law had attended the church, she was not there when the shooting occurred, officials said.

More:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... 7564a8fa02

Unless you think those left-wingers at the Texas Department of Public Safety are engaged in some sort of cover-up of a pinko motive, this really looks like a domestic situation motive...

Which fits well with the dirtbag's prior history of having a violent response to relationship situations...

(The earlier assault on his wife and child so severe that resulted in a bad conduct discharge from the military, a felony assault conviction, and a year in prison.)

I am sure that there are pink communist in the Texas system and they will lie to promote their fascist leftist political agenda, but unlike the federal system is has not been totally corrupted yet.

[RayThom]

... Instead of being vulgar why do you say crazy fascist, raciest, homophobe.

Adjective, racier, raciest. 1. slightly improper or indelicate; suggestive; risqué. 2. vigorous; lively; spirited.

[liberty]

You are one crazy motherfucker, liberty.

Instead of being vulgar why do you say crazy fascist, raciest, homophobe.

I'm pretty sure motherfucker covers all that, lib.

Ok, whatever you say, if that is the way you want it, you mother fucker.

[Joe Guy]

Ok, whatever you say, if that is the way you want it, you mother fucker.

No need to be so racy, libster.

[Econoline]

I am channeling the liberal mind: As liberal see it, not all of course, conservative Southern Baptist are no better than Nazi, fascist and racist and the more that die the better.

I'd rather you did not try to channel my mind, thanks. You're gonna need a bigger shovel . . .

Ditto for me and my mind.

What "liberal" sources have you seen or heard, liberty, that have been calling for the slaughter of their political opponents??? I don't know...are there, maybe, "alt-right" sources calling for the killing of liberals and you're just extrapolating from that?

Lib is merely spouting the narrative I was seeing last night on alt-right sites, which was that the shooter was Antifa, whoever they are; but that is the usual name for this tenuous bunch (?) not ANTIFI.

Hi-fi, sci-fi, wi-fi, anti-fi...

[Sue U]

I see FoxNews is making the point that he was an atheist. Not sure what that signifies - the NYC bike path guy and the 9/11 hijackers were theists of one stripe or another.

Well duh, they had the wrong theism, obvs.