KC: Shooting rampage at the Ward Parkway Mall
Details are still scarce, but news junkies might be aware that there was a shooting rampage at the Ward Parkway Mall here in Kansas City yesterday. Coverage: KCStar (twice), KMBC, KSHB, WDAF, KCTV and AP.
Apparently, according to the reports, police sent to check on the welfare of an older woman discovered her dead in her home and her car missing. Later in the day, a police officer found the car being driven by the (future) shooter at a local gas station, pulled it over, got shot in the arm for his trouble and returned fire, busting a window on the car as the driver fled.
The shooter then arrived at the Ward Parkway Mall, shot dead two people on either side of his parking space, entered the Mall through the Target store and fired an unspecified number of shots, directly injuring at least one inside. Another reported injury involved someone jacking up their shoulder, or something like that, as a result of diving hard for cover. Events were brought to a conclusion when the shooter was killed, reportedly by police.
Without more background and event details, it’s difficult to form complex opinions about the case, but I’ll discuss what I can.
Nobody in their right mind is in favor of general mayhem. In contrast with the Virginia Tech shooting, I’m not so sure more widespread civilian concealed carry could have done much to help those two who were taken by surprise in the parking lot in this particular case. Perhaps the injury in the mall could have been avoided, though. It’s not really my place to say either way without more info. What I can say is that self-defense is a basic human right that can not ethically be interfered with by statist restrictions on carry.
Credit where credit is due: KC police apparently responded very quickly and went in immediately instead of dicking around outside for hours like at Columbine and several other mass shootings. The shooter was taken out quickly enough to keep fatalities at 3 instead of the 30 or so at VA Tech. On the other hand, while I haven’t been to the Ward Parkway Mall in a long time, my VERY POSSIBLY INCORRECT recollection is that it is one of the places around town where one might typically see signs indicating that concealed carry, relatively newly legal for licensees in Missouri in the past few years, is forbidden by the property owners. Although I support the right of legitimate property owners to make that decision, I also condemn making that decision to disarm people as stupid and reckless — just like I support free speech for people I disagree with. I’ll leave aside for now the question of whether or not the Ward Parkway Mall owners are actually legitimate property owners under libertarian property theory, beyond noting that big commercial real estate developments, such as shopping malls, are typically done with a great deal of tax subsidization by local government and, increasingly, eminent domain seizures of private homes.
Perhaps the numbers in this case could have been kept even lower with more widespread civilian carry and perhaps not. The most likely truth, as I see it, is that if somebody is going to snap and go on a murder spree, perhaps 1 to 3 people are going to die, no matter what. Fortunately, it wasn’t 30 dead this time.
The usual numbskulls are calling for “better parenting” and stricter treatment of kids so they supposedly won’t grow up to be trigger-happy mass murderers. That really pisses me off, as the shooter in this case was reportedly in his fifties! WTF? Maybe Bob Dole’s generation really dropped the ball on parenting half a damned century ago. You think? Way to late if that’s the case. STFU.
I’ve seen some indirect references indicating the shooter may have been a former Target employee who lost his job there a couple of years ago. I haven’t verified that yet. I’ve also seen secondhand info indicating he may have had alcohol issues. Again, that’s unverified as far as I know. Still, if we assume those two pieces of information are correct, a picture begins to emerge when we look at the stolen car angle. I’ll hold off on further speculation for now.
UPDATE: Video available from here. Also, let’s try to keep the tasteless jokes about a mass shooting at a Target store to a bare minimum.
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The person that sold the ammo to the Wardparkway killer is as guilty as the shooter…..his ID was never checked….dumb move…now people are dead…lazy moron….he may not have gotten the bullets to kill with if that salesperson would have had his/or her head out of their ass….this was a womans credit card ( should of had a womans name on it)…this was a fat slob with a beard….
The salesperson and the store should be punished!!!!!!!!!!
While you’re correct that the stolen(?) credit card should have been spotted, I think it’s at least overly simplistic to blame the retailer to the point of saying “as guilty as”. We wouldn’t just blame the electric company if he electrocuted a bunch of people. We don’t just blame the grocer that sold him food, since he presumably would have eventually starved and not been able to shoot anybody if he wasn’t able to buy food.