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Recived this e-mail from a friend

"Friday, July 20th was intended to be an evening of excitement and entertainment. The first showing of the last of the Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale was scheduled to run shortly after midnight. Instead of excitement and entertainment, movie-goers were subjected to terror and bloodshed. The Aurora community was wounded and traumatized; an entire nation was shocked and sickened. Like fingers closing around a smashed thumb, Americans throughout the country closed ranks to support and comfort a victimized Colorado community.
However, many responded with a knee-jerk reaction and pre-packaged panaceas. Predictably, cries to remove the evil of firearms from the citizenry sprang up like an old, worn jack-in-the-box. This time, the fact that the suspect had a large ammunition drum feeding his AR-15 revived cries to ban high-capacity magazines. Heated arguments broke out well before the first of the murder victims had been removed from the theater.
One of the first to call for banning “assault weapons” and expanded magazines was Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) of California. Senator Feinstein is credited with crafting the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (popularly known as the Assault Weapons Ban). Provisions of this law included strict restrictions on the number of rounds that a weapon magazine could hold. Feinstein argued that had her legislation been renewed in 2004 rather than allowed to expire, that this massacre could have been averted.
Studies from the National Institute of Justice contradict the Senator’s claims. According to a 1999 report on the effectiveness of the legislation…
“The ban has failed to reduce the average number of victims per gun murder incident or multiple gunshot wound victims.”
Conversely, I would argue the following:
- The presence of a 100-round drum for the AR-15 most likely SAVED LIVES. Oversized, third-party magazines are notorious for their poor construction and performance. The shooter in this case was unable to clear a jam on his primary weapon.
- Had the shooter used a 20 or 30-round MIL-SPEC magazine, the rifle most likely would not have jammed. Changing magazines is a very simple affair and dropping an empty instead of retaining it would have cut the time to reload in half.
- The real target for the AR-15 was not the movie-goers. It was law enforcement, whose ballistic vests would have failed to stop the high-powered .223 Remington projectile. That is why the shooter meekly gave up when approached by an officer.
Others from the gun-rights lobby have argued that had there been one lawfully armed citizen, the gunman would have been neutralized in short order. In most cases, I agree. In this case, I could not disagree more. The suspect was wearing substantial body armor, designed to stop handgun ammunition. A CCW holder could have difficulty recognizing the capabilities of his or her opponent and accurately hitting a small area of vulnerability.
The one person on TV who made sense was a former Navy Seal who said that had one person had a tactical flashlight, 3 – 5 seconds could have been purchased by blinding the suspect. Ruger sells a 500 lumen tactical light that lists for $59.95. At $15 per second of “get out of Dodge” time, I think I’ll get one.
So, what is the real solution? I used to tell my sailors that properly defining the problem provides at least 50% of the solution. We need to better define the problem if we are going to address it. This is what I think…
- Both this shooter and Jerrod Laughner in Arizona displayed symptoms of a mental disorder.
- Schizophrenia most often strikes men in their early 20’s, the same age group as the Aurora and Arizona suspects.
- The number of beds for in-patient care of psychiatric patients has dwindled to a fraction of what it was before Geraldo Rivera’s 1972 expose` on Willowbrook in Staten Island, NY.
- It is much more difficult to commit a person to a mental hospital since legislation addressing the abuse, neglect, and human rights of mental health patients.
The pendulum has swung far away from Willowbrook. There must be a mid-point between 1972 and where we are now. In other words, the country needs to fix health care, including mental health, in both the medical and legislative arenas. Parents of adult children must not be forced to wring their hands and pray for the best while a ticking time bomb is walking the streets. At the same time, abuse of civil commitment must not be allowed.
Others have written about the 5 Stages of the Active Shooter. That’s great. It reminds me of the Kübler-Ross model of the 5 Stages of Grief. The difference is that Kübler-Ross provides insight of what should be done for the grieving party and by whom. To my knowledge, the 5 Stages of the Active shooter model confines itself to one discipline – law enforcement. This is the hole in the fence… who does what to support law enforcement interdiction and how.
For one thing, we need mental health professionals working on Active Shooter studies willing to integrate their work with law enforcement, institutions of higher learning, and legislators. Establish a peer-reviewed model. Develop methodologies of intervention. Work with law enforcement at the beginning and not as an afterthought. Finally, educate the public; Joe Citizen is a well-known force-multiplier.
What constitutes an assault rifle and whether or not they are/can be used for hunting or applied to legitimate, lawful activity can be discussed in a separate venue. In the meantime, let’s work together to corral the crazies in a way that works and respects the rights of citizens and thereby preventing another Aurora or Columbine.
Bruce Bremer, MBA is LET’s technology contributor. Bruce retired from the Submarine Service after 21 years of in-depth experience with complex electronic technology. Since then, he has been involved in fleet modernization and military research analysis. He teaches electronics and alternative energy at a Virginia college. Besides his MBA, Bruce earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer networking. He has been volunteering in public safety for many years"

Just heard on TV from CNN
They interveiwed two teens at another theater that has metal detectors, the teens said they made them feel safer. Did I miss something here, or did he break in an emergancy exit. Are people really this blind to things. Need to stop my rant for forum rule reasons.

KHOU Houston just reported that there are 14 dead, 50 injured. The suspects apartment is being swept for explosives