Slashdot Mirror
Gunman Opens Fire At LAX
McGruber tips news that today at 9:30AM PST, a man removed an assault rifle from a bag at Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire. The shooter moved into the screening area, and then further into the terminal. One TSA agent was killed; roughly six more people were injured. The gunman was a ticketed passenger. (Early reports suggested he worked for the TSA — this does not seem to be the case.) Police engaged him in gunfire, and he's now in custody. His motive is unknown at this time.
My congratulations on the Police who did the difficult task of taking this man alive.
More like, prepare for this to look like a warzone as airports start to resemble third-world combat zones. Soldiers with assault rifles on their arms staking out every airport entrance and jeeps on patrol around the airport every hour of the day. This is exactly the sort of justification they needed to ratchet things up.
That said, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I don't think even a TSA agent deserved to be murdered in cold-blood.
I have been saying for the longest time, terrorists don't need to get on the plane. Now they just need to blow them selves up getting into the security line. What then is TSA going to do? It's a cat and mouse game and unfortunately the TSA isn't going to win
There tends to be much confusion right after events like these. Give it time.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
How many years have people been complaining that the only the thing the long lines at the screening areas do is make for a target rich environment? Attacking waiting points for security lines is a time honored practice in some parts of the world, the only surprising thing is that it took this long for it to occur here.
Security theater isn't just an inconvenience, it's a security risk in and of itself. I used to travel for a living and I have easily seen times in major airports where there were thousands of people queued up to go through the security checkpoints. It's a target rich environment where you can't miss for trying in some airports.
It's time to end security theater and demand real security.
a man removed an assault rifle from a bag at Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire.
Assault rifles are illegal in California; therefore this could never have happened!
That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
I'm glad it's only six. It's really hard to believe there weren't more. A guy with an assault weapon aimin' to misbehave at a busy airport terminal? You'd think there would be dozens dead and many more injured.
Maybe it's because some nerds travel by airplane.
Maybe it's because Slashdotters have been pointing out that the line at the screening checkpoint is, itself, a target, and they have unfortunately been proven correct.
I seem to recall there are a number of gun-rights advocates in the Slashdot community, who may be concerned about a legislative (over?)reaction to this atrocious act.
Then there are people like me who check Slashdot a lot more often than they check mainstream news sites, and learned about the shooting just now.
I don't mean to be too hard on you, because your question is legitimate. My best answer is, "news for nerds" is in the eye of the beholder and sometimes the editors will post a story that doesn't interest you, but does interest someone else.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
That guy exercised the *shit* out of his second amendment rights. It's too bad Thomas Jefferson isn't around to high five him.
DHS wants more funding, so they told this man "You do this or we kill everyone you know in the slowest, most painful way that no one will ever hear about"
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
or we could have a rational discussion about gun control...Nah
"Rational discussion" meaning "groups of people coming to the same conclusion I did."
Unlikely. They're already calling his weapon an "assault rifle", despite the fact that "a dozen" shots were fired.
An assault rifle fires "a dozen" shots in about one second (automatic) or at most 4 trigger pulls (3 round burst).
Unless the fire selector is set to single-shot. In which case I'd have to wonder why someone would go through the trouble of procuring an illegal firearm for themselves (assault rifles have been illegal since at least 1986) simply to use it in a manner that any legal (and easily obtained) semi-automatic rifle would suffice for.
Maybe he's military, and it's his service weapon. Or maybe the news outlets are in a race to see who can offer the most hysterical coverage.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Not until you realize that guns cannot be uninvented, and/or that trying to circumvent the process by which the US Constitution is amended will come back to bite you in the ass regarding the amendments that you actually care about, will we be able to have a rational discussion about gun control.
Until then, it's not a discussion, it's just you telling me "you don't need a gun because I said so", and me responding back with "fuck off".
or we could have a rational discussion about gun control...Nah
Don't waste your breath. Not even the death of tens of children has had any effect whatsoever in "kicking the second amendment right where it belongs". That is into the wastebasket of History.
Americans love guns. Good for them. Have them deal with the aftermath of these anounced tragedies.
Assault rifles don't exist until someone commits assault with a rifle. At that point, any rifle is an assault rifle.
Any time I see a news article or press release with the term "assault rifle" in it I know I'm dealing with someone who doesn't know anything at all about guns. A quick scan of TFA, BTW, does not name or picture the weapon. For all we know, it could be a deer rifle with a black stock, a Warsaw Pact semiauto AK, any of dozens of M4/M14/M16/AR15 semiauto clones, or a really tricked out Ruger 10-22 (and a lucky shot on the one kill). A more attentive reading might tell us more, but I doubt it.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Sorry, but I can't really get sad over a jackboot thug groper getting the bullet. It's the price you pay for doing the job. Stop groping me and making me walk through cancer-causing nudie scanners and I might get some sympathy. This like crying over a guard of a concentration camp getting shot. Don't have the tears to waste.
Did you know a .22 short fired from a revolver can penetrate 12-inches of wetpack with roughly a 1-inch wound channel?
Sure, .22 is a tiny caliber - but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Your government has nukes, artillery, tanks, bombers, etc. Are you going to demand access to these too? After all your logic seems to be 'whatever government can has, I want too'.
Well yeah, but the body count would be a lot lower.
This is one of those stories where non-Americans sit back and watch, gobsmacked, as American /.ers rant on about gun-ownership, utterly unaware of what barking lunatics they all sound like.
You guys have a massive cultural blind-spot when it comes to this stuff. It's incredible.
That's my point Airports are full of armed guards and police... At least UK ones are. Men and women, with guns, loaded, maintained, trained in their use and ready to act. Didn't seem to help here.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Chart one on the police report you linked to shows there were fewer crimes where firearms were used in 2011 than in 1997, the year the handgun ban went into effect. That's despite the fact that
If you look at the second chart then you can even see that the "big increase" of firearm use in 2003 was nothing to do with handguns anyway, it was mostly from air guns.
Another shooting in the USA ... yeah yeah whatever. I really don't care anymore. You guys shoot yourselves up and scream about the 2nd amendment to your hearts content, sure as the sun rises tommorrow there will be another shooting soon and you won't do shit to change it
One thing for sure kiddies - it ain't news for nerds or stuff that matters, if it was, something constructive would be done. After all this time we have to conclude you idiots like it this way.
Sorry but that is irrelevant. Before we got rid of the guns we had 13 gun massacres in 20 years. None in the 20 years since. Clear proof it worked to anyone but US gun nuts.