Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Update on the Burien "Hatchet Attack" Shooting

I shared this event here: Today's Heart Warming News Item; in case you missed it, a local was making his daily 7-11 stop for coffee (yes, people around here do get their daily java fix somewhere besides Starbucks) when sumdood went amok with a hatchet. He connected once, then Our Hero produced his pistol and stopped the attack.

Yesterday, the Seattle Times had some updates, including ID'ing the attacker.
The hatchet-wielding man fatally shot by a customer at a South King County 7-Eleven store on Sunday morning has been identified as ... a felon who had served time for assault and a drug offense.
(Here I follow a convention I've seen on other blogs by not naming the bad guy. That guy? Screw thta guy.)

Today, Dave Workman has an interview with a relative of the attacker.
Beware the Ides of March; exclusive update on weekend hatchet attack | Examiner.com. The relative, Susan Svensk
said in a telephone conversation that {the attacker's} death, while it came as a shock, did not come as a surprise.
“This has been an on-going problem for many years,” she stated.
She went on to say
“There are people on the street that are mentally ill, addicted to drugs,” she observed. “They’re ordered by state to do something about that but the state doesn’t do anything about it to enforce that.”
She talked about people with similar problems, noting that “any one of those people could be a Poncho.” And Svensk added, “The state doesn’t want us to be able to defend ourselves against people like that.”
Svensk contended that when an incident like this happens, many state and federal authorities “have this knee jerk reaction.” Instead of disarming and punishing offenders, she contended, gun control proponents decide what must be done is to take away everyone’s ability to defend themselves.
“They treat us all like criminals,” Svensk observed.
I don't know what the answer is.

I do know that disarming the law-abiding will not make them safer.

No comments: