Slashdot Mirror
Macbook Saves Man's Life During Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting (chron.com)
A 37-year-old credits his MacBook Pro laptop with saving his life during a shooting at the baggage claim of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. An anonymous reader quotes WPLG Miami:
He placed it in his backpack, but didn't think of it when he felt an impact on his back during the shooting... When the bloodshed was over, he said he went to the men's restroom and saw a bullet hole on the laptop. He gave it to FBI agents. And he was in shock when they found a 9 mm bullet in his backpack. That was when he realized a gunman aimed to kill him, but the laptop took the bullet for him. "If I didn't have that backpack on, the bullet would have shot me between the shoulders," Frappier said.
more about the near miraculous survival of the victim
Not miraculous in the slightest when you consider the five people who did die. If that's God's idea of a miracle, he's a bit of a prick.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The baggage claim area is not a gun free zone. It's outside security and literally anyone from the street could come in with a gun, in addition to someone who had a gun in checked baggage. I don't know if this shooter had actually declared his gun or just put it into his checked luggage (I thought they scanned all checked luggage these days).
The "solution" to this has nothing to do with gun control or kevlar underpants and everything to do with mental health care.
This guy walked into an FBI field office claiming the government was trying to make him watch ISIS videos. They thought he was deranged, so they passed him off to local PD who got him run through whatever cheap mental health screening they use for nuts off the street and then he was set loose again.
The sad story here is that nobody has dime one to provide mental health services for a person claiming the government trying to make them watch videos. This is quite literally tinfoil hat territory, and because there was no money behind him (insurance or private dollars) he gets a social worker with a form designed to satisfy some lawyer's idea of liability. Just how might this have turned out differently if he had been seen by a psychiatrist, talked into a 7 day in-patient evaluation and possibly been given some medication (even if it was just xanax) to get him closer to normal -- or at least seen long enough by trained people to see if he had a more serious long term condition? This guy had been discharged for being a fuckup in the military, so chances are he had a long-term problem.
So many of these spree shooters are people walking around with sign around their necks that says "I HAVE SERIOUS MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS" and we just don't give a shit because nobody will pay for mental health care, so they just roam free. We're not even smart enough to pay for the low-end therapy where they just sedate him in-house for a few days, it's literally a rush to get them out the door before they cost somebody money.
The baggage claim area is not a gun free zone.
Yes, yes it is. Florida law prohibits the carry of a firearm anywhere in the airport for self defense. People can and do travel with firearms on flights in and out of Fort Lauderdale but the firearm must be unloaded, in a secure container, etc.
It's outside security and literally anyone from the street could come in with a gun, in addition to someone who had a gun in checked baggage. I don't know if this shooter had actually declared his gun or just put it into his checked luggage (I thought they scanned all checked luggage these days).
Reports stated he traveled with his firearm in a manner consistent with the rules on bringing a firearm on a plane. It was unloaded, in a locked container, in checked luggage, and so forth. What he did though was illegally remove the firearm from the container, load it, and fire upon the people in the airport.
The reason he was so successful in his mass murder is the rest of the people OBEYED THE LAW! In this case the "gun free zone" in the airport existed only on paper. Blood stained and bullet holed paper.
I thought the laws existed to keep us safe, no? Well, we have another failure of the "gun free zone" and people paid for government incompetence with their lives.
I generally agree with your comments on the mental health issues. We can do both you know, address mental health and remove stupid anti self defense laws. Instead of spending this money on disarming the public we should spend it on health care. It would save lives and possibly save money too.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
I agree in general this freedom makes sense, but if you imagine a scenario like this baggage claim. Let's say a well trained and well intentioned gun owner is nearby, and close enough to his baggage to safely whip out his gun in an instant to help out.
When the police come in and see not one, but two or more civilians engaged in a firefight, they will now be forced to make a split second decision who to shoot: Which one is the target and which is merely exercising his second amendment right to self defense. That might prove to be detrimental in stopping the perpetrator.
(The same thing could happen with a second concerned civilian: once two people are engaged in a firefight it might be difficult to identify which is the criminal and the resulting confusion could lead to many more deaths.)