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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.
Just what we need, now we'll have a security checkpoint before our security checkpoint to prevent you from bringing a gun into the security checkpoint.
Turtles all the way down...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Despite earlier reports, he was NOT a TSA employee, but just a ticketed passenger.
Flying out of LAX always makes me want to shoot someone, too. (Too soon?)
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Whatever his deeper motive is, it's all too likely to be whitewashed.
Or simply fall into the (really rather common) category of 'Yes, it's a motive; but nothing you say can really convey why it would be so motivating."
Not all affect states can be conveyed verbally, especially to people who haven't experienced them. All you can do is use hollow allusions to them.
Do we all know what words like 'hate', 'jealousy', 'frustration' mean? Sure. Do we know what they mean in the sense used by somebody who would offer one or more of them as an explanation for why he would face nearly certain death or capture in order to shoot up a terminal in LAX? Probably not. Not even clear that we could.
A leader of the union representing TSA officers deplored the incident.
i agree it is deplorable... and so is the TSA.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Article summary sucks. It wasn't an assault rifle, it was just a rifle. Likely a self-loading rifle, from pictures looks to be a varmint-type AR-15.
Looks like some sociopath finally noticed that a slow security checkpoint just means there's an easy crowd in an unsecured area.
What little empathy I can muster for anyone in LA (I have my reasons) goes to the 6(+- reporter error) injured and the family of the TSA grunt. He probably wasn't even one of the thugs, and his death will be used to increase the brutality of those who have abandoned all respect for the populace who just wants to ride uncomfortable chairs to a far-away destination.
My congratulations on the Police who did the difficult task of taking this man alive.
Duh. Nerds always have strong opinions on guns, whether real or virtual.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
OMG NO! We can't allow ANY magazines of any kind. if you're bored at the airport, you'll just have to read a pamphlet.
Just one to many gropes to this persons nether regions.
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
So does this mean no more hilights? :(
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
It isn't, but it's fantastic for increasing traffic while geeks put down their hardware and software and tech industry discussions and turn into mouth-breathing Disqus commentors at the bottom of CBS articles that Matt Drudge has linked to.
Don't get me started... next thing you know some states are going to ban possession of nuclear weapons. They don't understand that if nuclear weapons are outlawed, only outlaws will have nuclear weapons.
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.
240v
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
> Looks like some sociopath finally noticed that a slow security checkpoint just means there's an easy
>crowd in an unsecured area.
Maybe they should put a security checkppoint in front of the line to protect the people in the line?
> What little empathy I can muster for anyone in LA
I just take comfort in knowing how nice Arizona bay is going to be.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
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.
That's ok. The TSA has loads of pamphlets.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
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
According to the media, anything with a center-fire cartridge. For those who don't know, that's pretty much anything bigger than a BB gun.
He was shot and is in critical condition. Happy?
Really? +4? That's despicable, security guards are fucking people too. Or is this some kind of sick justice for you and those who up-moderated you? How can you justify this an consider yourself 'people'? If a gunman mowed down a courtroom during a tech-giant patent trial, would you eschew any sympathy for the lawyers who died too? Not liking the TSA is one thing, but implying a random person deserved to be fatally shot by a crazed gunman at an airport is sociopathic.
Silicon & Charybdis McLuhan Kildall Papert Kay
You're a dick. That's all.
Well, if you need to identify something deplorable, may as well ask the experts.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
An assault rifle, by definition is a machine gun. The gun used at LAX wasn't (as best we can tell from the available information). So the first sentence in the summary is inaccurate.
There's speculation, based on a photo on Twitter that the rifle is a Ruger Mini-14, in which case it may not have qualified as an "assault weapon" as defined by Federal Law. Under Feinstein's last [failed] assault weapon ban, the Ruger Mini-14 with a collapsible stock was banned, but the other Mini-14's were ok. It would depend on whether or not the stock folds/collapses.
Under California law, the pistol grip, and ability to accept a detachable magazine are sufficient to classify it as an "assault weapon."
Looks like high capacity magazines were used, although they may have had inserts to render them legal (i.e. limit them to 10 rounds). If they are large capacity and he owned them before 2000, they're legal. Otherwise they would only be legal if they were limited to 10 rounds (or fewer).
We can say with high confidence that a semi-automatic rifle was used. Under the previous Federal assault weapon ban, and the more recent failed Federal effort, this rifle may or may not have been considered an "assault weapon." Under California law this rifle is an assault weapon. The magazines may or may not have been legal.
There are many reasons why this fellow started to shoot people. Given how terrible service is on airlines these days in "cattle class", long lines, TSA agents who want to "touch my junk" (the pedophile who touched mine when I was a kid was enough), late flights, no-fly lists, and more horrors, it's no wonder that this guy goes nuts. He's probably a frequent flier on United.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
Don't get me started... next thing you know some states are going to ban possession of nuclear weapons. They don't understand that if nuclear weapons are outlawed, only outlaws will have nuclear weapons.
Yes, and do we really want our outlaws more heavily armed than our inlaws?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
News for nerds, stuff that matters. Stuff that matters is the most relevant at the moment. Otherwise you would not have posted and just ignored the article.
Flying out of LAX always makes me want to shoot someone, too. (Too soon?)
Interesting. Usually the drive to the airport to drop off my rental car makes me feel that way.
He was shot multiple times in the chest yet somehow survived. I don believe the officer was thinking about custody at the time, only about stopping him.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Indeed. My bet is that it was not an assault rifle at all. Just a scary looking firearm. Of course all scary looking firearms are branded by news outlets as being assault rifles these days.
It leads me to believe the guy didn't go in with the intention of killing as many innocent people as possible. There was a clear motive and plan IMO. He could have easily dropped dozens of people at a checkpoint if he wanted.
If you want to argue against gun control, be my guest. But please, stop using this fucking awful argument. I could kill dozens of people in a few seconds with an assault rifle.
If you know of a knife/bat/flashlight I can accomplish this with, I would love to own it.
There tends to be much confusion right after events like these. Give it time.
Son, wisdom like you express above isn't welcome around here,
because we like to make irrational stupid comments rather than
actually think things through. Of course this is an idiotic way to discuss
things but that is the way Slashdot regulars do things.
How did he have a gun in the airport?
Guns are banned there, the sign CLEARLY says so.
I mean, that's why pretty much nobody else was armed, right?
-Styopa
Apparently; Tory Belleci from MYTHBUSTERS was there, and called in to CNN not that long after the incident was being covered by the network. Not sure if other Mythbusters were there also as I couldn't hear the entire conversation (TV is on low at work).
So, could be an interesting next season???
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
You're a dick. That's all.
No and you want to know whay ? Because feeling sorry time and time again doesn't fix the problem. Every time a tragedy like this occurs, we hear people being sorry, politicians shedding crocodile tears and then what ? Nothing changes because Americans and the NRA are so in love with their weapons that they blame everything EXCEPT guns. So we put the blame on films, we put the blame on videogames, we put the blame on sex, we put the blame on hocus pocus etc... But we never have the political resolve to fix the real cause of these massacres. The freely available guns in this country.
Courtesy of the fucking second amendment.
America is a country of guns with all it entails. Deal with it.
What difference does center-fire vs rim-fire make? That's just where the primer is, no? It's the amount of gunpowder within the shell that matters, right?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
So we put the blame on films, we put the blame on videogames, we put the blame on sex, we put the blame on hocus pocus etc
You forgot to mention that we put the blame on guns.
Ignorance is a choice
... the NEW Intel on this? If they are tapping everything they sure aren't finding the signal in the noise.
Silence is a state of mime.
I bet you they'd call a .22 LR a high-powered rifle. I mean, it shoots supersonic bullets!
etc.
security guards are fucking people too
There's the problem. Just stop them from reproducing and the whole matter solves itself.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
Not anymore, now you're a just a proud one instead.
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...
You could, yes. But that's never what you see happening, incidentally.
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...
Large cartridges don't get an even burn from rimfire primers - so in general, you won't see rimfire on anything above a certain point.
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...
Nobody really cares what you do with your hair, just so long as nobody dyes - suicide blondes are right out.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
You can't have one without the other I'm afraid.
But our desires remain the same; people don't want others to be slaughtered. Not feeling sympathy for innocent people being killed just because people want the freedom to own guns is just silly.
No, that's a myth. A stab wound from a (kitchen-sized) knife typically does more damage than a bullet, at least for torso wounds. And the knife never runs out of ammo. Whether shot or stabbed in the torso, your survival is more about how long it takes you to medical care, either way you're bleeding to death internally unless you get help soon.
There's a big difference when people are spread out, or when they might fight back, but when it's a bunch of people tightly packed and disarmed, a knife is sadly just as deadly.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Do you need to see a wine list of all the people that you, too, can't stomach to consider as "people", to remind you of how wrong you're being? Or would you prefer to be treated as a person?
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
But by the same token, we shouldn't let you own it, now should we?
I can't see how working on the very-bottom rung of America's admittedly bad domestic security apparatus disqualifies one for personhood. I'm doubt this TSA officer has killed any innocent people, likely a prerequisite for inclusion on my wine list if I had one.
Silicon & Charybdis McLuhan Kildall Papert Kay
Apparently, Mythbusters' presenters Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci were inside LAX when this happened. From the Mythbusters FB page: "Grant and Tory were present in Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport at the time of today's shooting incident. Both were en route to Delaware for the filming of 'Punkin Chunkin'. Grant and Tory are safe and being rerouted." /Stolzy
I want to get drunk, but I don't want a hangover.
I want to stuff myself immobile, but I don't want to get fat.
I want to screw anything with a pulse, but I don't want to get a hurty-hurty on my wee-wee.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This is one case where Gun control laws would actually be highly beneficial, as nobody is allowed to bring a weapon into an airport, so the self defense argument falls apart.
Since we've had gun control laws here in AU, such events have become not-so-common
If you are trying to kill a lot of people, use bombs, not guns.
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.
It's a cat and mouse game and unfortunately the TSA isn't going to win
Oh ye of little faith - the TSA can and will use their ineptness as justification that we need *more TSA*.
Expect it. The only valid purpose of the TSA is to grow until life is unbearable. And then grow further.
This madness will only stop once we see the TSA (and the corrupt politicians and soulless equipment suppliers who create/feed it) as the terrorists who are bent on destroying our freedoms.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
240v
Voltage is not power. 240 V at what amperage?
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
If you know of a knife/bat/flashlight I can accomplish this with, I would love to own it.
May I ask why or would that just make you angry?
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Not liking the TSA is one thing, but implying a random person deserved to be fatally shot by a crazed gunman at an airport is sociopathic.
A TSA officer is not a 'random' person. And I think most of them do deserve it. Just my opinion of course.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
If marriage is outlawed only outlaws will have inlaws.
Not a sentence!
It's funny because people who get a decent paying job where bureaucrats want them to touch strangers' junk stop being people. It has nothing to do with the bureaucrats and the people who think security theater works.
Oh, I think those bureaucrats and the people who support this nonsense are garbage as well.
But you can't remove the blame from the people who actually violate people's rights. "I was just doing my job" is no excuse.
Ignorance is a choice
Why does this offend you so much? Most people consider AR-15s Assault rifles right or wrong. I suppose we should be glad he didn't have the full auto military version but I really don't get your outrage.
Blaming the news for reporting that he used an Assault rifle when most people likely agree the AR-15 falls within that common definition makes no sense. It's frankly unbelievable that you are more bothered out the term "Assault rifle" being mentioned vs the actual shooting. I'm sure the family of the murdered will be comforted by the fact it wasn't an "Assault" rifle and "only" an AR-15 that killed him.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
It doesn't seem like it's that unusual to be shot and live. You hear about people surviving multiple gunshot wounds all the time on the news.
People aren't quite as easy to kill as movies make it out to be (or for that matter quite as durable as they make action heroes look).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Another cretin who took my comment seriously. It is obvious that TSA agents are people; I just think that they're rather slimy people. If just that much scares the piss out of you, then you're rather oversensitive, I think.
Ignorance is a choice
It's actually very easy to believe there wasn't more. Consider this.
The weapon that guy used is almost certainly semi-automatic, meaning one shot at a time (if you think that "assault weapon" means some kind of bullet hose where you just squeeze and hold the trigger and wave the barrel, then you've been reading too much HuffPo).
Since it is an AR, it is reasonable to assume the most common caliber, .223/5.56. That is not a particularly powerful caliber - it is banned for deer hunting in most states because of a low likelihood of a one-shot drop; meaning that, unless an accurate hit at some vital organ is achieved, it is more likely to wound than to kill, and the wounds are not as messy as your typical medium-caliber (.308) hunting rifle or shotgun would produce.
Furthermore, this being a TSA security checkpoint, there was more than one armed guard at the scene in immediate vicinity, who'd start acting as soon as they noticed him taking out the rifle (it's not exactly an inconspicuous thing!), so the guy really had very little time to pull off those shots before he was a target himself. So the most likely scenario is that he managed to take about a dozen fast and very inaccurate shots, only half of which actually hit anyone, and mostly in random locations.
LOLWATT?
Yeah, I realized my error about 600 milliseconds after hitting the reply button.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
What you don't remember the Chinese mass stabbing around the same time as a recent US school shooting? Many stabbed, none dead. Not the same as the US result.
Plus, someone using bare hands to stab with a kitchen knife and no training, would likely end up with self-inflicted wounds. Getting blood on it from the first victim, making the handle slippery is common, then the second, without a guard (as few kitchen knives do), they will slip and cut their own hand wide open. It's common in stabbing perpetrators to have cut hands.
Learn to love Alaska
No pamphlets. I know a guy who was killed by a pamphlet. Didn't even see it coming. You'll just have to read a book.
~X~
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.
Maybe it's because Grant and Tory from Mythbusters were there. :)
Gov now has the reasons they need to impose even tighter security and restrictions on movement and personal freedom. How convenient!
Signature intentionally left blank.
There would be little political discourse if facts were given consideration.
No, he was saying that certain actions have consequences, and you can't have the former without the latter.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp
I get bombarded with news about current events everywhere, Slashdot doesn't need to jump on board the bandwagon.