Two times too many:
The online gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter said it was an unnerving coincidence that he also sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five students at Northern Illinois University.
Eric Thompson said his Web site ... sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Steven Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.
Another Web site run by Thompson's company ... also sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in April on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself.
I dunno, if I were this guy I might find another line of work. Like working in a hospital with people paralyzed from gunshot wounds, or counseling families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. Because if it had happened twice, I might start to think it was going to happen again, and I couldn't deal with it.
"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said Friday. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this." ...
Maybe Kazmierczak did a little research on Cho beforehand. He had one of the same weapons. Just think, Mr. Thompson: You and the Glock 19 could become synonymous with mass murder.
"I still feel just absolutely in shock," he said. "I feel like I was run over by a truck."
That's a pity. But I can think of a few people who feel worse.
Update: Welcome Eschatonians. Mike Dorf quotes another "I can't believe the free publicity I'm getting" story:
Jason Dunavan, a tattoo artist in Champaign, said he spent hours as recently as last month creating tattoos for [the killer]. His work included an image of the macabre doll from the horror movie "Saw" riding a tricycle through a pool of blood with images of several bleeding cuts in the background.
Dunavan said he was so proud of the tattoo that he enlarged a photo of it and placed it on a wall in his shop — a move he is now rethinking.
"I don't know if I still want that picture on my wall," said Dunavan, who also described [the killer] as timid and apologetic.
To which Mike responds, "Rethinking? Don't know?" What else does the tattoo guy need? Like Mr. Thompson, Dunavan is shocked but not actually displeased. I think it makes a nice trifecta. The "Saw" movies, a tattoo artist selling macabre images, and the gun dealer: All you need to make money is to know your audience and have a strong stomach.
Update again: And speaking of coincidences, just like with the Virginia Tech shooting, conservatives trot out depraved fantasies like this:
Good thing the great state of Illinois, and the wise overseers of Northern Illinois University did their damnedest to make absolutely certain that those kids trapped in that slaughterhouse pen were as unarmed and helpless as victims could possibly be.
Their blood is on the hands entrusted to protect them by disarming them.
Just think…if only one of those students or teachers had been able to shoot back….
Yeah, just think if a bunch of college students were walking around strapped at all times. Not one of them could have effectively countered an ambush like the one at NIU, but hardly a week would go by without an accidental shooting, road rage brandishing, or suicide.
When I heard about this on the radio, I wondered if a reporter had discovered the connection and contacted him for comment, or if he contacted the media himself (because that sounds kinda like advertising).
Posted by: cathy | February 17, 2008 at 04:25 PM
I think that however "blown away" (poor choice of words) he is, he isn't running out there to take down his web stores. He'll make plenty of money off of this.
Posted by: Mithras | February 17, 2008 at 04:50 PM
This reminds of the aftermath of JFK's assasination. Investigators found that Oswald had bought his gun via mail-order and Congress banned the practice. Maybe it's time to do that with online gun sales.
Posted by: Justin K. | February 17, 2008 at 04:50 PM
Whatever we do, we mustn't dare speak ill of guns!
Why, if easy access to guns were a problem, there'd be shootings at schools in America all of the time!
Posted by: Adam Stanhope | February 17, 2008 at 04:52 PM
Justin-
Well, he picked up the weapons at a local gun store, which is where they are shipped if you buy them online. It hardly addresses the issue to forbid shopping for the gun you want online.
Posted by: Mithras | February 17, 2008 at 04:52 PM
And the AP piece features two clickable URLs -- thanks Mithras, for not copying them over.
You do get the feeling that this guy sent out a press release.
Posted by: pseudonymous in nc | February 17, 2008 at 04:59 PM
You do realize that you cannot directly buy a gun online?
You can order it but you have to go to a local store with a federal firearms license and go through the mandated federal background check and local waiting periods.
Maybe the problem isn't with the guns it's with the way we raise our kids and society as a whole?
We used to have easier access to firearms but never had these kinds of killings.
Do you think it might have to do with the fact that parents have to work 2 or more jobs to support their families and depend on television and other children to raise their kids?
Kid's today realize that most of them will not be as well off when they get older as their parents were.
No wonder they have no hope and turn their schools into the lord of the flies.
Wait, never mind, lets keep blaming the guns and ignore the real issues. It's easier than actually doing something that might make a difference...
Posted by: drm | February 17, 2008 at 05:19 PM
Ridiculous. A guy expresses understandable dismay and you have to pile on. I guess everyone not in a progressive blogosphere approved line of work should just close up shop or they are evil.
Posted by: winner | February 17, 2008 at 05:22 PM
DNFTT, people.
Posted by: Mithras | February 17, 2008 at 05:27 PM
Ridiculous. A guy expresses understandable dismay and you have to pile on. I guess everyone not in a progressive blogosphere approved line of work should just close up shop or they are evil.
Handguns are tools expressly designed to kill humans. There is absolutely no other purpose for them. Rifles, shotguns, bows and arrows, fine, those are for hunting, if killing animals is what gets your microscopic rocks off and makes you feel like a manly man, that's your business.
But handguns, especially high powered plastic-cased Glocks (designed to be light weight for more efficient killing and -- hey! -- they evade metal detectors as well!) are expressly built to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.
Who knows how many of this asshole death merchant's handguns are floating around in the ghetto killing people right now? The only reason why we don't hear about those dead bodies is because they're poor and have brown skin.
This man eats his dinner by paying for it with blood money.
Coincidence my ass, that's a sign from God.
Shame on him. I hope everyone heaps as much scorn and shame on him as possible. I also hope the ghosts of the dozens of dead people he helped kill haunt his fucking dreams for the rest of his life. Beg for forgiveness for your unconscionable sins from whatever God you worship, motherfucker.
Posted by: Old Hat | February 17, 2008 at 05:37 PM
Excellent. He has a statement up with a comment thread: you can imagine the roiling cesspit the thread has become.
Has anyone done a survey to determine what parents think of a school-issued handgun for all incoming students? Schools used to require students learn to swim as a graduation requirement. Maybe they should update that to a firearm competency requirement.
Posted by: paul | February 17, 2008 at 05:40 PM
Yeah, just think if a bunch of college students were walking around strapped at all times. Not one of them could have effectively countered an ambush like the one at NIU, but hardly a week would go by without an accidental shooting, road rage brandishing, or suicide.
More guns = less crime! Just look at Somalia. And Congo! And South Central LA! And Bogota! Everyone there has guns.
Posted by: John Lott | February 17, 2008 at 05:44 PM
Has anyone done a survey to determine what parents think of a school-issued handgun for all incoming students? Schools used to require students learn to swim as a graduation requirement. Maybe they should update that to a firearm competency requirement.
Ingenious! Hell, I know I'd personally feel way more safe sending Junior off to school with his Lunchables and Colt .45 with an extended clip in his backpack.
Posted by: Old Hat | February 17, 2008 at 05:46 PM
We used to have easier access to firearms but never had these kinds of killings.
Actually, we did. Multiple slayings of students at schools go back to when the Baby Boomers started entering college. It was over 40 years ago that Charles Whitman took to a tower in Austin, Texas, perhaps inspired in part by Lee Harvey Oswald's assassination of JFK.
Prior to those years, people interested in multiple slayings chose other venues.
Posted by: darrelplant | February 17, 2008 at 05:50 PM
Not to piss off 2nd amendment nuts, who forget about its introductory absolute phrase (no the Constitution says nothing about the right to hunt quail), one must ask if the threat of a terrorist attack utilizing hijacked aircraft, is sufficient to abrogate the right to be free of illegal searches and seizures, not the freedom of privacy, in procuring hairgel from onflight baggage--shouldn't they have to show you a warrant?--then why should, given what seems to be a more widespread threat in statistical terms, some nut with a gun, shooting down students on a campus, lead to stricter limitations and regulations when it comes to gun ownership not related to having a well-regulated milita?
Posted by: CitizenE | February 17, 2008 at 05:56 PM
Unregulated sale of weapons to lunatics with being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Posted by: White Male, Jew of Liberal Fascism | February 17, 2008 at 06:12 PM
I always love the looping (and loopy) reasoning of those who advocate the right...indeed the obligation for everyone to own and carry a gun.
"If they just enforced the laws that exist and kept guns out of the hands of criminals, there wouldn't be a problem."
In fact, in so many of these cases, the person using the gun had never been a criminal UNTIL they went off the deep end in some way and decided to use the gun they had or easily obtained because of weak gun laws to become one....at the unfortunate expense of anyone who happened to be in the way at the time.
Remember....they were not criminals until they got the gun to carry out the act(s) which made them one. By then, it was too late.
And I always find it fascinating when I read various essays by the gun zealots. In many cases, there is this underlying fantasy which they carry with them throughout their lives....the desire, the hope, the passion for someday finding themselves in a situation in which they can pull a weapon and defend themselves or those around them.
In fact, the person with the gun who is planning to use it in some awful way....kidnapping, holdup, alcohol or drug-fueled rage, mental melt-down, has the advantage. They know what they are planning and when it will happen. You do not. Even if you are packing, chances are that one or more of those also in the area will be dead or wounded before you can even begin to react....if you can at all. (And if you doubt that claim, examine the number of law enforcement officers who get shot on the scene, or upon arrival in such situations. They are better equipped than most to respond, but are just as vulnerable in the face of a determined gunman who choses the time and place to act.)
I, for one, don't want to live in a society in which everyone is armed because of a communal belief that everyone else around me is potentially out to kill me.
Posted by: dweb | February 17, 2008 at 06:25 PM
Did they notice?
There was a killing in a Missouri City Council meeting where an angry citizen opened fire on the City Council...two of the victims of the shooting spree WERE ARMED POLICE OFFICERS attending the meeting.
Yeah.
Arming everybody and their brother sure worked well didn't it?
Posted by: tpaine | February 17, 2008 at 06:26 PM
Nice one, tpaine.
Alas, mere facts and logic have no power over Gun Fetishists.
Posted by: White Male, Jew of Liberal Fascism | February 17, 2008 at 06:37 PM
I'm a counselor in Blacksburg VA where, as you know, we've been dealing with the aftermath.
I saw the CNN front page of this Illinois shooter, festooned/"sleeved out" in not too professional looking tatoos (I don't have any, so what do I know?). Also read that Kazmiercazk was a cutter in his teens and was in a group home.
What f**king geniuses do they hire that validate all those folks they interview who knew the shooter and actually believe that he was like, you know, just the guy next door with not a thing outstanding except that he was maybe the nicest guy in the world.
Posted by: DonS | February 17, 2008 at 06:51 PM
Remember Amadou Diallo, who was shot by 4 of NYC's finest? They shot 41 times, he was hit 19 times - less than 50% for trained police officers who go to shooting range to increase their accuracy. The other 22 shots didn't hurt anyone, but that's because there wasn't anyone else around. Now, extrapolate that to several dozen of untrained people with guns who panic . . . .
Posted by: bc | February 17, 2008 at 07:56 PM
bc-
Good point. A suicidal attacker is dangerous enough. A gunfight between amateurs is worse.
For that matter, anyone who knows they might face armed opposition could just buy one of these and significantly lower the chance that their attack will be cut short.
Posted by: Mithras | February 17, 2008 at 08:28 PM
Interestingly, we have metal detectors at inner city schools to try and keep the guns out, thus lowering violence.
Everyone in Afghanistan and Iraq is armed - and notice how little violence there is in those countries, let alone Somalia, et-multiply-cetera
Posted by: RepubAnon | February 17, 2008 at 09:26 PM
Indeed RepubAnon, as CitizenE points out above, we don't let civilians take guns onto airplanes, either. What a Second Amendment travesty! And although people like Messrs. Cho and Kazmierczak can buy guns, the answer is not to limit gun sales. If a few people on every plane are crazies ready to kill and die, the fact that there are more sane people with guns on those planes will more than offset it. Plus, shootouts will make those boring long-haul flights much more exciting!
Posted by: Mithras | February 17, 2008 at 09:40 PM
I've often thought that the aircraft ban is a definite hole in the gun lobby's argument. Hey, if it's just that there's something about punching hole in an aluminum shell at 40,000', maybe issuing a taser to every passenger would do.
I do think that the idea of "Blood On The Streets" films, like those that used to run in schools to show what bad driving could do, might make it clear that the aftermath of gunplay is not like the movies nor your average video game... If done right. If not, then it would just be another movie, just like all the other violent movies we show.
But then, at least those don't show pubic hair...
Posted by: atablarasa | February 17, 2008 at 10:28 PM
"We used to have easier access to firearms but never had these kinds of killings."
How can you be sure of that? It's not like mass murder is something new under the sun.
I would bet that a search of old records would find many instances of such events.
Posted by: zak822 | February 18, 2008 at 09:35 AM
I apologize for my erroneous quote in my previous post. I was responding to a similar thread in a different blog, and put it here by mistake.
Posted by: zak822 | February 18, 2008 at 09:59 AM
zak-
No, you were right the first time. You're on the second page of comments for this post.
Posted by: Mithras | February 18, 2008 at 10:02 AM
...and don't forget, guns aren't just illegal on airplanes. Guns are illegal in airports, too.
Now I don't know this for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that guns are also illegal in the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House.
The Vice-Presidential residence, I'm sure, is chockfull of Dick Cheney's guns. But if you tried to bring your guns over just for a laugh, I doubt that the Secret Service would let you bring them inside.
So that's the story of your so-called Second Amendment rights.
Posted by: White Male, Jew of Liberal Fascism | February 18, 2008 at 10:21 AM
I'm a professor. No way on this earth do I want to look out at a classroom of armed students. Here's a fact - the odds of a shooting taking place in my classroom are about nil. I'll take that risk over a) amateur gun battlse and b) stressed out, hormonal, sleep-deprived students packing heat.
And to anyone who thinks profs should be armed, I've got one question - which ones? Been to a faculty meeting lately? Yeah, that's a place we need more weapons - and I'll need to get some Kevlar.
Posted by: Theron | February 18, 2008 at 12:18 PM
It amazes me that the gun lobby thinks the answer to gun violence is... more guns!
Personally, the last thing I want is to be caught in the cross-fire between somebody who is obviously not in their right mind and somebody who wants to be a hero by taking out the somebody who is not in their right mind.
I shudder to think of how many more people would die if everybody was packing. Real life is NOT like the movies.
Posted by: Parrotlover77 | February 18, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Now, of course, I think real, certified police officers who happen to be taking classes somewhere should be allowed to pack. We train these people to be able to respond to violence, we ought to let them respond to it.
Posted by: Mithras | February 18, 2008 at 01:55 PM
Wait, never mind, lets keep blaming the guns and ignore the real issues...
drm
Oh, how right you are, drm! After all, guns only contribute a fraction, a tiny fraction of those murdered each year. What about those drive-by stabbings? And murder-by assagai? Not to mention the little guy who walks into a classroom and beats five or ten people to death before he's stopped? What about that nut who got on top of the Texas tower and started winging his entire collection of NBL rookie cards at people to give them fatal papercuts? Or all the people killed by long-distance home runs hit by steroid-pumped baseball stars?
And there's me! I don't need a gun, I can kill with one look!
It is the guns, stupid. Nothing else translates mild annoyance, or even a nervous twitch, into murder like a gun.
But what is amazing is the slave-like mentality you gun defenders adopt. Jesus Christ, drm, why do you want guns to have more rights than you, or your children.
Posted by: Mooser | February 18, 2008 at 03:01 PM