Hero Without a Gun ~ Antoinette Tuff

Decatur, Georgia, School Bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff is the personification of "courage under fire," only she didn't have to shoot back when an armed gunman ran into the school where she worked last week. Instead, this heroic lady used a combination of psychology, compassion and gentle persuasion to convince a mentally ill young man armed with 500 rounds of ammo to lay down his weapons and give himself up. Not a single child or teacher was injured. If only every scenario could end this way ~ Newtown ~ the Zimmerman Case. People like Anoinette Tuff are all too rare in this world! We need leaders like this to refute the NRA and show us a better approach.

Sign the MoveOn.Org Petition: Antoinette Tuff for The Presidential Medal of Freedom



Excerpts from the 911 Tapes, via NBC News

Tuff even mustered up the courage to talk Hill into surrendering — a one-on-one negotiation captured on the tape.

"Don't feel bad, baby," she can be heard telling the young man. "My husband just left me after 33 years. ... I've got a son that's multiple disabled."

Later, she can be heard reassuring him that "it's all going to be well."

After about 20 minutes, she won him over.

Tuff: "OK, he said that they can come in now. He needs to go to the hospital."

Operator: "OK, and he doesn't have any weapons on him or anything like that?"

Tuff: "He's laying on the floor. He's got everything out of his pockets. There isn't anything. The only thing he has is his belt. Everything is out of his pockets. Everything is sitting here on the counter, so all we need to do is they can just come in, and I'll buzz them in."

Only after the ordeal was over did Tuff reveal just how scared she'd been the whole time:

"I'm going to tell you something baby — I've never been so scared in all the days in my life," she told the unidentified operator. Then, she started crying and exclaimed, "Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!"

To which the operator told the courageous bookkeeper: "You did great. Hold on. Hold on"

Adam Lanza Warrants for Newtown Killings Released

Today shocking details were released about the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, including specifics about the warrants for the Lanza home.


From Gawker

Adam Lanza spent only five minutes at Sandy Hook Elementary School on the morning of December 14—from the moment he "shot his way into the school" to the minute he took his own life. But police found 154 spent casings from his Bushmaster rifle—and over a thousand rounds more at his home, authorities announced today.

According to search warrants newly made public, Lanza, who killed 20 children and seven adults before turning the gun on himself, had over 1,000 rounds of ammunition at his home, in addition to an arsenal of firearms and other weapons, including knives and a samurai sword. Also at the home and confiscated by police were journals, video games and computers, photographs of an unknown dead person "covered in plastic and blood"—and a holiday card made out to Lanza from his mother, including a check for "the purchase of a C183 (firearm)."

Aurora, Colorado ~ The "Legal" Arsenal of Killer James Holmes

The Preliminary Hearing for the Aurora "Batman Movie" shooting last year is going on in Centennial, Colorado, and disturbing details are emerging.

According to the Denver Post, here's the list of incredibly dangerous items that James Holmes, the mentally ill shooter, bought in the months before the massacre:

• four guns;
• 6,295 rounds of rifle, shotgun, and handgun ammo
• dozens of gun magazines
• ballistic gear
• weapon slings
• two laser sights
• two tear-gas canisters
• hundreds of practice targets
• explosive chemicals
• fireworks supplies
• handcuffs
• a military first-aid dressing

ATF agent Steven Beggs said the purchases — all from online retailers or the Gander Mountain and Bass Pro Shops sporting goods stores in the metro area — began May 10 and ended July 14. There were five purchases in the first week of July alone.

Did you catch that ~ almost 7,000 rounds of ammunition, and no one even blinked when he bought it. Tear Gas? No problem. Explosive Chemicals? Just some good clean fun for a young white man in Colorado.

Defense attorneys made it clear that all of that stuff was acquired legally under Colorado Law, and that there is no screening process for mental illness no matter how dangerous the purchase:

After prosecutors finished questioning Beggs, defense attorney Tamara Brady asked him whether it was illegal, for instance, to buy body armor or tear gas.
Beggs said it wasn't in Colorado.
"Is there any process in place in Colorado," Brady persisted, "to screen out whether a severely mentally ill person is purchasing these items?"
Beggs said no.

Also, police didn't test Holmes for drugs or alcohol, even though he was acting strangely and his pupils were dilated:

In afternoon testimony, Aurora homicide Detective Craig Appel testified that police did not request a blood sample from Holmes after he was arrested. He said Holmes' pupils were wide, but that "I saw no indication that he was under the influence of anything."
But under defense questioning, he said Holmes' behavior was at times odd while he was under observation. Paper bags had been placed over his hands to preserve evidence and Holmes played with them as though they were puppets, Appel said. He also tried to place a staple into an electrical socket, he said.

Obviously by then the police were as in shock as everyone else from the horrific shooting, and maybe they figured he was crazy so why bother with a drug test? The Defense is trying to protect their client from as many charges as possible, and the age old way to do that is to prove that the police and the state laws are somehow lacking or negligent. All well and good for Holmes, but what the testimony really does is damn him for playing the flawed system so well.

He knew that no matter how many weapons or scary substances he bought, alarm bells wouldn't go off in the stores where he bought supplies. No one could legally ask about his mental history even if his eyes were rolling around in his head and he showed schizophrenic tendencies. He knew the state laws allowed him to buy as much ammunition as his heart desired in order to carry out his vicious plot.

And on top of that, Holmes booby-trapped his apartment in a diabolical way that he hoped would cause a fire at the same time as the shooting, drawing away police resources so he could shoot up the movie theater. This is really over the top. If police hadn't realized the apartment was rigged, how many more lives would have been lost?



From NBC News:

There was a trip-wire leading from the door to a thermos filled with glycerine that was perched over a frying pan filled with potassium permanganate, Gumbinner said.
. . . On top of the fridge was a remote-controlled “pyrotechnic” box filled with 6-inch fireworks shells. Holmes left the remote for it outside, in a trash bag with a toy car and a boom box on a timer, the agent said.
His fantasy was that someone on the street would hear the music, open the bag, decide to play with the car, fiddle with the remote and detonate the explosives, Gumbinner said.
. . . "He said he rigged his apartment to explode or catch fire in order to divert police resources to his apartment,” Gumbinner said, recounting an interview with Holmes.
No one played with the toy car or banged on the door, though. And when Holmes was arrested outside the Century 16 multiplex – after allegedly killing a dozen people and wounding 58 – he quickly told police about his traps.

We may never know why Holmes wanted to hurt so many people in such a flamboyent and destructive way, and maybe there just is no answer. But something good can come of this if states like Colorado will begin to stand up to the NRA and create more hurdles. If government can't do it, then gun shops and sporting goods stores should realize they may be held accountable in the future if they don't support a screening process. Hey, if bartenders can be arrested for serving drinks that lead to deaths, then gun runners certainly can.