06-13-2016, 05:52 PM
Sorry for my lack of participation so far. But here's what stinks BAD to me:
All this talk about his past and his family's past leads me to one big glaring question. How the hell was he able to buy a gun? And now we have (again) a giant chunk of this country screaming for more gun control? We have a person who was already under investigation by the FBI (in the recent past), had a police report filed against him by his FLEEING ex wife, and yet he was able to just waltz into a store and buy this stuff? The government denied 1,376,272 purchases from '98 - 2016. Why couldn't they add one more? You can't tell me the precedent isn't there somewhere... Federal Denials (Note: It's a PDF)
The List GOES ON AND ON
Now some of you on here may be surprised to find out I'm much more "liberal" or "progressive" than you may have thought. But I hate those labels because I firmly believe in taking it issue by issue (and i do). I mean hell, a guy who votes for Russ Feingold and Scott Walker on the same ballot is clearly bi-polar (but don't worry, I already can't buy a gun...). But one thing I am adamant about is the 2nd amendment and gun rights: NEW LAWS DONT FIX THIS. To argue my own point, if he had been denied a gun he could have just bought one illegally. So more laws? Stick a fork in your eye, you'll match the thought process. Renew the Assault Weapon Ban? Ok, so now he has multiple 10-round clips instead of a few bigger ones? Holding hostages for hours wasn't exactly leaving him short on reload time. Nothing was going to prevent this specific person from doing this unless he was under constant surveillance and being tracked / monitored (and even then, who knows. He made it past the first off-duty cop to get in the club in the first place - a surveillance van following him probably would've have been able to stop him either). Can we strengthen background checks to give the government a larger net to cast? Absolutely (I've even argued for that very position in the past), but I realize more than ever my other point above: He could have just bought one illegally.
On the flip side, nor do I think it's possible (or right) to track every person from that goes to a mosque, a church, or even a damn mob hangout. The point I'm going to eventually try to make in my ramblings is we can't legislate craziness. We can't fix hatred by making certain groups of people "glow in the dark" so we can see them coming. James Wesley Howell from Indiana is the guy they found with a mini-arsenal at the California Pride Festival, god only knows what he was planning or what he would've done if he didn't get flagged as suspicious (and after the events earlier that day, it's no wonder his odd demeanor was flagged). But he wasn't a "goofy named Afghani that was previously investigated by the FBI for making statements about supporting terrorism".
(just say what you're thinking: "Shut up DFC") - But finally, in all of my anger and sadness over the last 24+ hours the one thing that stands out more than anything is the outpouring of support. With all of the LGBT talk & bathroom madness recently, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a giant chunk of this country saying "they deserved it anyways". I would've been disgusted, but not surprised. But we haven't seen that (not even from Westboro I don't think, but I'm not going to search and find out). We've seen communities and people coming together and offering prayers and support. PRAYERS for people that (in their mind) may not even be deserving of prayers. Support from people who may have been vehemently opposed to their lifestyle and unions just days ago. We've seen love win. It's just a tragedy all around but I for one won't let this sway an issue one way or the other.
I kind of went off on a tangent there. My apologies
All this talk about his past and his family's past leads me to one big glaring question. How the hell was he able to buy a gun? And now we have (again) a giant chunk of this country screaming for more gun control? We have a person who was already under investigation by the FBI (in the recent past), had a police report filed against him by his FLEEING ex wife, and yet he was able to just waltz into a store and buy this stuff? The government denied 1,376,272 purchases from '98 - 2016. Why couldn't they add one more? You can't tell me the precedent isn't there somewhere... Federal Denials (Note: It's a PDF)
Quote:"I saw that he was bipolar, and he would get mad out of nowhere. That's when I started worrying about my safety."
She said the abuse became a regular occurrence.
"He started abusing me physically, very often, and not allowing me to speak to my family, keeping me hostage from them," Yusufiy said.
"(My family) had to pull me out of his arms and find an emergency flight. ... I made a police report."
The List GOES ON AND ON
Now some of you on here may be surprised to find out I'm much more "liberal" or "progressive" than you may have thought. But I hate those labels because I firmly believe in taking it issue by issue (and i do). I mean hell, a guy who votes for Russ Feingold and Scott Walker on the same ballot is clearly bi-polar (but don't worry, I already can't buy a gun...). But one thing I am adamant about is the 2nd amendment and gun rights: NEW LAWS DONT FIX THIS. To argue my own point, if he had been denied a gun he could have just bought one illegally. So more laws? Stick a fork in your eye, you'll match the thought process. Renew the Assault Weapon Ban? Ok, so now he has multiple 10-round clips instead of a few bigger ones? Holding hostages for hours wasn't exactly leaving him short on reload time. Nothing was going to prevent this specific person from doing this unless he was under constant surveillance and being tracked / monitored (and even then, who knows. He made it past the first off-duty cop to get in the club in the first place - a surveillance van following him probably would've have been able to stop him either). Can we strengthen background checks to give the government a larger net to cast? Absolutely (I've even argued for that very position in the past), but I realize more than ever my other point above: He could have just bought one illegally.
On the flip side, nor do I think it's possible (or right) to track every person from that goes to a mosque, a church, or even a damn mob hangout. The point I'm going to eventually try to make in my ramblings is we can't legislate craziness. We can't fix hatred by making certain groups of people "glow in the dark" so we can see them coming. James Wesley Howell from Indiana is the guy they found with a mini-arsenal at the California Pride Festival, god only knows what he was planning or what he would've done if he didn't get flagged as suspicious (and after the events earlier that day, it's no wonder his odd demeanor was flagged). But he wasn't a "goofy named Afghani that was previously investigated by the FBI for making statements about supporting terrorism".
(just say what you're thinking: "Shut up DFC") - But finally, in all of my anger and sadness over the last 24+ hours the one thing that stands out more than anything is the outpouring of support. With all of the LGBT talk & bathroom madness recently, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a giant chunk of this country saying "they deserved it anyways". I would've been disgusted, but not surprised. But we haven't seen that (not even from Westboro I don't think, but I'm not going to search and find out). We've seen communities and people coming together and offering prayers and support. PRAYERS for people that (in their mind) may not even be deserving of prayers. Support from people who may have been vehemently opposed to their lifestyle and unions just days ago. We've seen love win. It's just a tragedy all around but I for one won't let this sway an issue one way or the other.
I kind of went off on a tangent there. My apologies