Weapons of Mass Destruction
Politics | capitol hill, capitol hill shooting, civil rights, gun control, Politics, seattle 03/27/2006 |
- A semi-automatic assault rifle.
- A pistol-grip shotgun.
- An aluminum baseball bat.
- A machete.
- Over 300 rounds of ammunition.
All but the shotgun were recovered from Aaron Kyle Huff’s truck after the massacre on Capitol Hill; the shotgun is one similar to the one Huff used during the shooting. Not pictured is Huff’s semi-automatic handgun, also used in the attack.
All legal to own.
For God’s sake, why?!?
NRA members and “right to bear arms” wingnuts, feel free to brand me as a gun-control nut. I’m fine with that.
There is NO good reason why this sort of weaponry (specifically, the assault rifle and pistol-grip pump action shotgun…obviously, it’s a bit hard to get worked up over a baseball bat, and while I personally find a two foot machete pretty damn creepy, it’s nowhere near the same league as the guns) needs to be openly available to the general public. You want to hunt? Fine, hunt. Buy a hunting rifle and go slaughter as many deer as you want. But this kind of stuff?
Seattle Chief of Police Gil Kerlikowske has it right:
As many as 30 people were in the house when the man approached, draped in bandoliers of ammunition and armed with a handgun and a pistol-grip, 12-gauge shotgun — a weapon Kerlikowske pointedly said was “not for hunting purposes, but for hunting people.”
What actually happened was bad enough. It makes me ill to consider what could have happened if a police officer hadn’t been in the area and on the scene after only five minutes of shooting.
[See also: Close to Home | Capitol Hill Tragedy | Downtown Excitement | Tacoma Mall shooting report roundup | Pride leaving Broadway? ]
2 Responses to “Weapons of Mass Destruction”
Leave a Reply
Michael Hanscom
jer@nyquil.org
March 28th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
If you’re ever in Pittsburgh, look me up. I’ll take you to my gun club and let you see for yourself how much fun shooting at paper targets and clay pigeons can be.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
I’ve been conflicted about this issue, as I’ve recently been reading my Tom Tomorrow book, and thinking about the coming revolution if his predictions of president-and-dictator-for-life ever come true.
I might be very happy to have an illegally^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h anonymously purchased bushmaster next to a hunting rifle and thousands of rounds under the house when the revolution comes.