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SHOOTING IN OMAHA MALL

4K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  Jeff Johnson 
#1 ·
There is a shooting in an Omaha Mall right now. 5 individuals are shot, one is KIA. Thoughts and prayers with the innocent people who were Christmas Shopping.
 
#2 ·
Looks like 9-10 dead 5+ injured 2 critically

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A gunman opened fire Wednesday at a busy Omaha shopping mall, killing nine people before taking his own life, police said. Five more people were wounded, two critically.

LINK
 
#3 ·
The alleged shooter, a 19-year-old man, left a suicide note stating, "I'm going out in style," a local news station reported. The man's vehicle was found in the parking lot.

Shoppers and employees ran screaming through the Westroads Mall and barricaded themselves in dressing rooms after hearing gunfire. The gunman was found dead on the third floor of the Von Maur store with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his victims were discovered on the second and third floors, police said.

Witnesses said the gunman fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store.

Sgt. Teresa Negron said the gunman killed eight people, then apparently killed himself. His name was not immediately released, and authorities gave no motive for the attack and did not know whether he said anything during the rampage.

Police received a 911 call from someone inside the mall, and shots could be heard in the background, Negron said. By the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over, she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,315342,00.html

Such a horrible, senseless tragety....
 
#4 ·
Of note, Nebraska just started allowing concealed carry about a year ago. Unfortunately, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon in a business that is posted as this mall was. Another tragic case of gun restrictions doing absolutely nothing but creating target rich environments where innocent people needlessly die en masse.

Prayers to all those involved.
 
#5 ·
While it's sad to see situations like this develop... the up-side is that every time this happens, the case for gun-control is weakened.
 
#7 ·
bane said:
While it's sad to see situations like this develop... the up-side is that every time this happens, the case for gun-control is weakened.
It depends which side of the fence you sit on..... Many will argue that this incident shows the importance of cracking down on guns and controlling them even more.

-PW
 
#8 ·
Yes, I realize that gun-control advocates will argue this way. But I think the general public is smart enough that incidents like this will sway them towards our line of thinking.
 
#9 ·
***Clarification***
I just wanted to let you all know that when I initially started this post, it was still ongoing... Thats why I only said that 5 shot.

Stupid gun control laws that propbably got some people killed. Malls like this with their stupid "policy" make things easier for the bad guy. Even their security wasn't armed.... What ARE THEY THINKING?????
 
#10 ·
bane said:
Yes, I realize that gun-control advocates will argue this way. But I think the general public is smart enough that incidents like this will sway them towards our line of thinking.
The problem is the general public doesn't make the laws. The special interest groups seem to have the most pull with our politicians. We know whose side the media sits on and they really control what people hear. So even though the general public will see it for what it is, the only thing we are going to hear about for the next week is the vocal minority that are against guns and the media proudly proclaiming their anti-gun message.

-PW
 
#11 ·
bane said:
Yes, I realize that gun-control advocates will argue this way. But I think the general public is smart enough that incidents like this will sway them towards our line of thinking.
Prohibitionists always use emotional rhetoric because logic and reason don't serve their cause. They'll use this tragedy to renew emotional cries for AW and magazine capacity infringements. They won't consider that if this nimrod hadn't been able to steal this SKS (now the news says it was an AK47) from his step father, he might have wrapped himself with explosives and harmed even more people in his final act of stupidity.

We're praying for the innocent victims...
 
#12 ·
Oh no, I'm not referring to the short-run of things... of course the public will here nothing but anti-gun rhetoric from this one single incident. I'm referring to bigger-picture, longer-range battle over concepts. The more the gun-control advocates use individual cases like this to further their cause, the more legislation is likely to be passed, which in turn will most likely lead to more incidents of this nature... eventually people WILL wake up and the whole fallacy will come crashing down. In the mean-time, gun friendly states such as UT will be showing statistics that will only help to reinforce our position.
 
#15 ·
I just thought I would share this.

American Police Beat received an email this morning from Sgt. Baker of the Omaha Police Dept. Jeff was one of the first officers to respond to the shooting rampage at the Westroads Mall yesterday in Omaha, Nebraska. I thought I would share his comments with you.

Sgt. Jeff Baker, Sergeant
Omaha Police Dept.
December 6, 2007 10:42 am

I've been a cop for 20 years, but nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced yesterday afternoon when we were called to the Westroads Mall.

Myself and two of my officers were first to arrive at Von Maur. It was surreal.
Cordite hanging in the air.

Blood, bodies, and empties from the suspect's rifle everywhere you looked.

People frozen and cowering under displays and in fitting rooms.

Abandoned baby strollers, ladies' handbags, dropped cups of coffee and Christmas shopping bags littering the floor throughout the mall.

Alarms shrieking from speakers in the ceiling, "Emergency! Depart the mall immediately!"

Christmas music playing in the background.

And all the while, you're searching, guns at the ready, certain the bad guy is going to pop up from a clothing rack and kill one of you before your buddies can react and fight back.

Scan, drive forward a short distance with your fire team, pray. Repeat.

I will write more when I have time, but for now I'm back to work after about three hours of broken sleep. Please pray for the victims and the ever-widening branch of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and public safety personnel who will be forever impacted by this horrific event.

Cynthia Brown, Publisher
 
#16 ·
This is a terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their devastated loved ones.

It is a dangerous world. These types of shootings will continue as long as morality, respect and personal responsibility are under continuous attack by an increasingly narcissistic society, including the attacks on the most fundamental building block of society ... the family.

I watched the news about this shooter. They were discussing how he was removed from his home by the state and bounced around from foster home to foster home for years.

I believe that being prepared at all times to defend yourself and your loved ones is critical, but not enough. We need to try to solve the social and moral ills of society which lead to these kinds of attacks, which used to be much rarer than they are today.

How to solve this problem is the hard part. I don't believe that government is well-suited to do this. Government isn't very good at anything except confiscating our income. Government will likely try to solve this by creating even more gun-free (victim-rich) zones, which will just increase the body count and frequency of attacks like these.

Somehow, we need to combine our voices in this long struggle to try to remind people of the noble cause of liberty bestowed upon us by the Founding Fathers of this great nation. They well understood that liberty and personal responsibility are inseparable. Remove the latter and the former will easily be taken with the consent of the people. :cry:
 
#18 ·
#19 ·
#20 ·
UtahCFP said:
Jeff Johnson said:
I guess somebody ought to point out to Dr. Lott that CPF holders *can* carry in Trolley Square.
I haven't been to Trolley Square in some time, but I believe that a private business can prohibit CFP holders if a notice is posted. I believe that change was made in March 2003 and also includes private homes and churches if notice is posted or where verbally requested. I'm not sure how the business would go about enforcing the restriction, but I'm not inclined go through the expense of finding out.
 
#21 ·
Hunter: Thank You for the post... sad and a bit depressing, but very informative. I feel really bad for those LE that I was able to picture while reading that.

Regarding the degradation of our nation's morality: it is my opinion that the problem is so deep and pervasive the hope of restoring it is small and the road is extremely long. At the root, I believe, of the problem is not the assault on the family (that assault is merely one of the victims) but the assault on the mind. That assault has been going on for many decades. You can't destroy the concepts of morality, family, freedom, and responsibility until you've destroyed a person's ability to think logically and rationally. An attack on those aspects is an attack on one's mind.

But you can't fix the national mind overnight. It took decades to get us to this point and it will take AT LEAST AS LONG to recover. Both the Religious Right and the Liberal Left want immediate results that they can demonstrate by each next election. But immediate results won't suffice. Most here realize the Liberal Left is only making the problem worse. Many may not realize that the Religious Right is also adding to the problem (I hope I don't offend anyone by that statement) -- the Religious Right's causes are NOT going to get us anywhere but a further division in our nation and a further degrading of our collective mind.

So... how do we "fix" it??? The same exact way it has been broken in the first place: a slow, patient, ideological war. A war of ideas. And if you don't view it as a war, you will lose. But don't expect to see the victory, we will all most likely not live long enough to see that day. But fight we must. We must choose to live noble lives -- which means: not merely obeying the law but choosing careers which advance society not merely drain it, choosing hobbies which better ourselves and those around us not merely help us pass the time, choosing to read things which better our world not merely keep us entertained, etc. And we must choose to help our developing young ones to live even better than we -- which means: TEACH THEM TO THINK, TEACH THEM PHILOSOPHY AND REASON. If you are religious, by all means teach them that... but don't just teach them to trust in what others tell them... teach them to analyze and think about what people, even people they respect, tell them. TEACH THE KIDS TO THINK AND SHOW THEM, BY EXAMPLE, WHAT A NOBLE PERSON LOOKS LIKE... that is how our system has been broken and it is how we will win it back.

Just my $0.02
 
#22 ·
69RR: Actually, Utah Law is pretty clear on CCW. You have a permit, you can LEGALLY carry anywhere you want (with the few exceptions in law such as mental institutions, courts, federal places, churches, and homes).

If a Utah business posts a "no Guns" sign and you CC anyways you are not breaking ANY law. You are breaking their POLICY. Now, however, if you are "made" while there and they ask you to leave and you refuse, they can and most likely will make a case for TRESPASS (which is not a weapons violation so your permit MIGHT not be revoked). However, in response to their trespass case, you also could make a pretty strong case of a violation of your civil Rights.

As you said, it would end up costing money... most likely a bunch. But that's ONLY if you are "made", asked to leave, and refuse. And up until such point you are NOT committing a crime. So, another TS occurs and you shoot the guy with your CC permit??? You haven't broken any laws, no reason you would get into any legal trouble.
 
#23 ·
bane said:
69RR: Actually, Utah Law is pretty clear on CCW. You have a permit, you can LEGALLY carry anywhere you want (with the few exceptions in law such as mental institutions, courts, federal places, churches, and homes).

If a Utah business posts a "no Guns" sign and you CC anyways you are not breaking ANY law. You are breaking their POLICY. Now, however, if you are "made" while there and they ask you to leave and you refuse, they can and most likely will make a case for TRESPASS (which is not a weapons violation so your permit MIGHT not be revoked). However, in response to their trespass case, you also could make a pretty strong case of a violation of your civil Rights.

As you said, it would end up costing money... most likely a bunch. But that's ONLY if you are "made", asked to leave, and refuse. And up until such point you are NOT committing a crime. So, another TS occurs and you shoot the guy with your CC permit??? You haven't broken any laws, no reason you would get into any legal trouble.
Thanks for the clarification. Like you said, just don't make waves if made and asked to leave.
 
#24 ·
69Roadrunner said:
...
I haven't been to Trolley Square in some time, but I believe that a private business can prohibit CFP holders if a notice is posted. I believe that change was made in March 2003 and also includes private homes and churches if notice is posted or where verbally requested. I'm not sure how the business would go about enforcing the restriction, but I'm not inclined go through the expense of finding out.
69Roadrunner,
Please back up that claim with a reference to the actual Utah statute. You can do searches at:
Utah State Legislature - LivePublish Searchable Database

Also, check out this thread: Handy links to Utah and Federal gun laws online
 
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