Those crazy vets
DrewM at Ace sent us this Tweet last night from a Washington Post headline
The Post changed the headline after Drew captured it, but they’re back at it again this morning;
One Navy official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Alexis was discharged in January 2011 for “a pattern of misconduct” and that the 2010 gun incident in Texas played a role in his departure.
Another Navy official said Alexis was given a “general discharge,” a classification often used to designate a blemished performance record. In some cases, a general discharge can make it difficult to land a civilian job.
But Alexis, 34, had no such trouble. He moved from Fort Worth to Washington about a month ago, friends said, and was hired as an hourly tech employee for The Experts, a Hewlett-Packard subcontractor that is updating computer systems at Navy and Marine Corps installations worldwide. He was scheduled to begin work at the Washington Navy Yard this month.
The problem isn’t the military or Alexis’ training. He had an incident in 2004 before he joined the military in which he fired three shots into a tire of some construction workers who he thought were mocking him – that was before he joined the military. The problem is that he wasn’t prosecuted on either incident, so he wouldn’t appear as a risk in the NICS criminal background check. In fact, after the 2004 incident, it took nearly month from the shooting until police finally arrested Alexis.
I’m having similar problems with our current situation. Apparently, not answering your door when the police knock is one way to avoid jail. And if you don’t answer your phone, the police won’t bother to take you into custody or get an arrest warrant from the prosecutor, in some places.
Seattle’s excuse;
He was arrested but not charged, Seattle police said. The paperwork apparently was lost.
“That report never got to the Seattle city attorney’s office,” said Kimberly Mills, a spokeswoman for the city attorney. “Consequently, we never filed charges.”
So, there you go. Yes, there are plenty of gun laws in place, but if the police and prosecutors aren’t willing to use them, they’re useless.
Not reported in the news this morning; Millions of veterans who legally own guns didn’t go on a rampage yesterday.
Oh, yeah, good job, CNN;
I LOVE me some AR15 shotgun; does it fire .223 rocksalt or just birdshot?
This shitbag’s clearance was apparently renewed just a few months, ago, despite two arrests. BUT IT’S THE GUN’S FAULT!!!
Feinswine is already screeching about renewing her gun control efforts.
Of course the media would automatically latch onto the crazed vet stereotype.
They share a large part of the responsibility for spreading this.
But veterans and military personnel also have some accountability. Quite a few seemingly have jumped onto the PTSD bandwagon. Even those that have never even been beyond the wire in a combat zone, let alone deployed, are scamming the system by claiming PTSD for every little thing just to get benefits and sympathies. Got a hang nail? Claim PTSD.
Fox 5 DC last night that he was highly decorated. GWOT and NDSM medals. They sure look impressive on a resume.
@4: By that standard, virtually every damn joe and jane in the U.S. Armed Forces would be “highly decorated”. Wonder what they would call William Swenson and Dakota Meyer? Incredibly ultra-super uberly decorated? Damn stinking media just doesn’t have a f-cking clue…
@3: Yeah, I heard several news reports, this morning, where they ran the 2004 arrest and that he claimed PTSD for that one. I wish the media would at least be somewhat responsible when reporting. The dude wasn’t even in, yet, but because he’s a Vet, they are going to package everything into his time in the military, even if it didn’t happen in the military. Plus, he was given the hook from the military BECAUSE of his propensity to get into trouble with guns.
So, the media is running with the PTSD bullshit as the reason why he shot up the Navy Yard.
@1: There is actually a 12 ga. shotgun that resembles the AR-15.
@7: If it resemblas an AR-15, I’m sure uncle joe biden would not want you to use it to defend your home by firing through the door with it…
So let me see if I understand this correctly.
This deceased person had a history of anti-social and violent behavior that got ‘lost in the clouds’ somehow, lost his spot in the Navy, had a civilian job lined up and was about to start it but went ballistic before he even started work.
Sounds to me like he had a hidden agenda, not PTSD.
OT, why on earth do you expect responsible reporting (e.g. fact checking) from the media? Everything about them is sensationlism, not reporting.
Bless her heart…Diane Fecalstain back on the gun grabbing warpath.
Unlike Newtown, where I can see where reasonable people could disagree on the wisdom and psychology of arming up more people at school, it seems like arming more people on base would be a reasonable no brainer. Of course, it will not stop the sociopaths among us from obtaining weapons (God forbid we enforce existing laws) but I know I’d sure as hell feel a lot better if more of the Marines in my space were armed. Don’t these liberals ever understand that these criminals pick targets where people are not likely to be armed?
The more accurate angle on this story is reflected in the increasing number of reports relating that he felt himself to be a victim and constantly aggrieved. This makes sense. At 34, his formative years found him smack-dab in the middle of the victimization era. Well, he sure showed the world, didn’t he, killing people who had nothing whatsoever to do with him and his myriad failures. And then there’s the criminal history. A shooter with a shooting past and paperwork is lost? Oh bullshit. Paperwork can be rewritten, if anyone had cared to pursue the matter.
Interesting theory by a commenter on another website; namely, that the perp (who was a buddhist) had recently visited Thailand for over a month, and perhaps on his journey there came in contact with mozzies from southern Thailand, who converted him to islam. Since Alexis was apparently such a confused and mixed-up individual, the mozzie conversion theory is potentially not out of the realm of possibility.
Too bad for the gun grabbers that the 9mm and the Ar or possibly even a military version M-4 were taken by the gunman inside the facility. First person shot was a security guard who had his 9mm taken, the M-4 was taken along the way elsewhere… though I have heard some subtle shift that the weapons were taken from a “gun vault”… problem being with thatstory is that the military never stores weapons and ammo in the same spot.
Betting on the intial report that it was the security guards 9mm and a DC Cops M-4.
As to the PTSD angle..assholes have no idea what PTSD reall is, but they are all fucking experts on it.
Rolling Stone cover anytime now…
perhaps this is what they were talking about… http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/2-RAAMK-19B
So Feinstein is screaming or guns to be rounded up (again) but still no word on whether or not she ever gave up her incredibly difficult to obtain California CCW permit.
Freinkenstein is either senile, or getting there quickly. (Never misses a chance to use a crisis to get attention.)
If she shows up again in a hearing with another weapon to make her point, I will want to know why she isn’t being arrested by wickrebill’s capital hill police.
Also, anyone who expresses anger in any way other than calmly saying “That makes me angry” seems to be viewed now as having PTSD by the media. If something else doesn’t come along soon as a clanker that they can latch onto, I will be so disappointed. Why hasn’t drunken slob Lindsay Lohan claimed PTSD for her episodes of pushing people at nightclubs?
Has it been said anywhere what the cause was for all this? I mean what set the dude off? Was there more than one? I thought I read that there was 3, one got killed and 2 were “still at large”. Or am I reading old news or a totally different story?
12 gauge AR 15 military grade anti armor weapon fully semi automatic with a bayonet lug. Extremely dangerous.
As a friend stated on Facebook this morning :”In other news, millions of legal sane gun owning Vets didn’t go on a shooting rampage yesterday”.
@12. AirCav, sounds like the city attorney is covering his/her ass with the old “blame the fuckup on lost paperwork” dodge. The police reports have a number assigned, the report is put into the computer by number and cross-referenced by the name of the victim, suspect and arresting/reporting officer. It CAN’T get lost!!!
Oh, brother. Time to disarm the US Navy! (And where do I buy me an AR-15 shotgun? That would help with my lousy aim on duck hunts!)
We’re not supposed to judge Muslims or illegal aliens by the actions of a few. Why don’t law abiding gun owners get the same treatment by the media and administration?
“Why don’t law abiding gun owners get the same treatment by the media and administration?”
Because they hate us.
Need a like button here Rob. I think they hate us AND fear us.
On Fox News last night, former USS Cole CO, Commander Kirk Lippold, claimed that “There are only two ways to get discharged from the Navy. Either by Court Martial or administratively for misconduct.” Right…
He went on to claim that Alexis had been discharged from the Navy because of the 2010 weapon’s discharge incident and chastised the Alexis’ CO for not giving him an other than honorable discharge.
When Greta was harping on how Alexis could get a security clearance, she should have asked Lippold how a liar could advance to command a US Navy warship.
They say he bought the shotgun at a Virginia gun store – which means he was background checked. Then, using the original shotgun, he stole the pistol and rifle. Someone please ask Feinstein et al how universal background checks would have helped?
The FBI has just confirmed that a shotgun and two pistols were recovered, and that the “gunman was NOT armed with [an] AR-15.”
I read the article by NBC snooze linked to Drudge during lunch yesterday, and they couldn’t help but say “It is not known yet if an AR15 was used in the attack”. Fuckin’ newsmaggots!!
And then there is this from CNN. It might have gone around already.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/16/ive-never-heard-of-such-a-thing-did-cnn-anchor-really-just-forget-about-the-fort-hood-shooting/
Well, well, well…what do you know. He never had an AR-15
Apparently the ONLY stressful thing this dirtbag ever did in the service was to commute on I-30.
I read that he grew up in NYC and had somehow participated in the aftermath of 9/11, hence the PTSD. I haven’t heard that he was ever deployed overseas.
That said, another beef I have are the headlines from yesterday that said ‘Aaron Alexis from Texas’. The way it was said implied that he was yet another right-wing gun nut from Texas, because, of course, everyone in Texas is a right-wing gun nut. He spent maybe 2 years out of 34 in Texas, hadn’t lived there in years, grew up in NY, had a shooting incident in Seattle, yet was “from Texas”.
freakin’ Texans are all loonie tunes to alla them news folks from “New Yawk City” (best Old El Paso ad pronounciation)
Thought there were people talking about him through the walls and sending waves to prevent him from sleeping…sounds like psychotic to me. Sad thing is it sounded like he called the cops and unlikely 30 years ago, they didn’t bring him in for a psych eval otherwise he would be sitting in pjs on a psych ward.
Colorado, Arizona, V tech, Newtown, and now the Navy Yard…and we keep wasting time and energy with the gun debate instead of seriously discussing our utterly broken mental health system.