Tis' the season to be jolly ...

"The Last 1800 Days ? HOOROO !" <sgdecember2...@yahoo.ca> wrote in messagenews:66055203-e1a8-4f98-afe6-efefa841f377@i29g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

Tougher gun laws in Seppoland might help !

HOOROO

UNCLE WALLY

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http://abcnews.go.com/WN/LegalCenter/story?id=3960056

Mall Insecurity: Targets for Threats?

Deadly Omaha Mall Shooting Raises Questions About Shopping Center
Safety

By PIERRE THOMAS
Dec. 5, 2007

Police have long worried that malls are the perfect target for
deranged criminals or terrorists.

9 Dead, Including Gunman at Omaha Mall There is ample evidence that
there is good reason for concern -- from a deadly mall shooting in
Omaha Wednesday, in which a shooter took nine lives, including his
own, to shootings at malls in Georgia and Texas just this past week.

Last February, an 18-year-old fatally shot five people and injured
four others during a mall shooting near Salt Lake City in Utah.

In April a mall shooting spree in Kansas City left three dead.

And in 2002, the D.C. snipers murdered at least two people outside of
strip malls.

"Malls are always going to be a soft target, but keep in mind they're
particularly busy around the holiday season," former FBI agent Brad
Garrett told ABC News.

"So for someone to go into a mall and commit the acts this individual
has committed, it creates a mindset in the public, are malls really
safe to go to?" he continued.

Last month, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent out a
bulletin warning of a plot to target malls in major cities.

The intelligence was determined to be of weak credibility, but
underscores how seriously law enforcement deems the threat.

Now the concern with the holiday season is that the latest tragedy in
Omaha will spur copycats.

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HOOROO

UNCLE WALLY

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Tis' the season to be jolly ... I've been expecting this holiday to be
particularly murderous and violent and "crazy." Just a hunch...but it seems
to be starting in earnest. The social environment here, after 6-7 years of
high tensions over an unseen enemy, bad leadership, a sharply ideologically
divided public, news of a falling economy, a seemingly rampant narcissism
and the disregard for lives that is inherent with it...are all brewing up a
cauldron of domestic anger and frustration.
I've not seen the USA is such a dire social-political state in decades. It's
like we're in free fall here, Wally.
It's a long depressing winter ahead and I think we're in for lots more of
this tragic behaviour that really jumped off to a bloody start at Virginia
Tech in May.
Foreign peoples can't really feel the ugly social environment here, of
course, but they do know the political one has reached a critical state --
and nothing much being done about our deepening woes.
I went back to watch Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine" documentary
lately and was again reminded of the pervasive social sickness of paranoia,
distrust, and anger in this society, especially when contrasted to Canada.
We're heavily armed, reactionary, scared, enraged, and turning inward on
ourselves and each other. I can *feel it* around me as I go about everyday
life here. America is in the throes of something historically frightening
and profound.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/us/10shooting.html?ref=us

December 10, 2007
2 Fatal Shootings at Colorado Religious Sites
By JEFF KASS
ARVADA, Colo., Dec. 9 -- Shootings at an evangelical missionary
training center here and a megachurch 70 miles away left three people
and a gunman dead and several wounded on Sunday, and the police did
not say whether they were connected.

The first shooting, about 12:30 a.m. in Arvada, about 15 miles
northwest of Denver, occurred at the offices of Youth With a Mission,
which trains missionaries. Two people were killed and two were
injured.

About 12 hours later in Colorado Springs, at least three people were
shot, one fatally, in the parking lot of the New Life Church, the
14,000-member evangelical megachurch that was founded by the Rev. Ted
Haggard, who was fired last year after reports of sexual impropriety.

Chief Richard V. Myers of the Colorado Springs Police Department said
a security guard had shot and killed the gunman in the church foyer.

Three people were taken to Penrose Community Hospital in Colorado
Springs, where they were listed in critical, fair and good condition,
a hospital spokeswoman, Amy Sufak, told The Associated Press.

The Rev. Brady Boyd, the church pastor, said he had watched the
shooting from his second-floor office.

"My heart is broken today for the people who lost their lives," Mr.
Boyd said. He said the church had a security plan in place, however,
and that "many, many" lives had been saved because of the security
guard's actions.

Youth With a Mission has a small office on the New Life Church campus,
The Associated Press reported, but the police did not say whether
there was any link between the shootings.

The Arvada police said they considered the gunman in that shooting
still at large.

The two Arvada victims were killed after the gunman was told he could
not spend the night, a mission official said.

The dead were Tiffany Johnson, 26, of Minnesota, and Philip Crouse,
24, of Alaska. The injured were Charlie Blanch, 22, and Dan Griebenow,
24, according to Youth With a Mission. One of the injured men was in
critical condition; the other was listed as stable.

At a news conference in Arvada, the police said they were sharing
information with the Colorado Springs police and the county sheriff.

Peter Warren, the mission director, said that a Christmas banquet at
the building ended around 8 p.m. on Saturday and that the doors were
locked at midnight.

Mr. Warren said the gunman was in his 20s, and that he wore a dark
jacket and a dark beanie.

The police said the man spoke with several people before the shooting
began. One was Ms. Johnson, the director of hospitality, Mr. Warren
said.

Mr. Warren added that he believed the manhad some knowledge of the
mission.

"I do think it's someone who knew what Youth With a Mission was," he
said.

"I don't know why this kid did this," Mr. Warren said. "But I think,
really, our perspective is God is the only one who can judge."

Youth With a Mission describes itself as an interdenominational
Christian movement that involves young people in short-term missionary
service. It reports having 16,000 staff members around the world who
train 25,000 people a year.

The police closed the road to the missionary center on Sunday. The
building was flanked by two tall, slim crosses about 20 feet high and
a police car with flashing lights.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms were assisting in the investigation.

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HOOROO

UNCLE WALLY

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