Apparently the FBI were aware of this guy already, which plays into my comment.
There was a recent story here in the news section where someone suspected another person was going to commit this sort of crime, because of a statement they overheard.
Person called the authorities and they arrested the potential shooter.
Two things happened...the person who suspected something was wrong did more than say - What can we do?....and the authorities used the information and acted upon it.
Just from a small amount of reading for this incident, there was more than enough warning signs.
Seriously man...did you read the article?
To do what...the kids in the school elected him as most likely to go on a school shooting rampage. That may be one indicator....he posted comments online that gained the FBI's attention and his Instagram account was full of comments and pictures that are considered precursors to crimes like this.
If you can't do something that's considered preventative, then you will keep cleaning up these messes after the fact. And there are too many incidents of this nature.
Not directed at you...but if people would stop whining about their rights for a moment and accept that law enforcement may have to act on suspicion, rather than act after the action is committed, we might be able to lessen instances.
I know what you're saying...thought crimes are a delicate subject and I'm sure if FBD was here I'd get a diatribe about how police shouldn't have the right to search houses, cars, school lockers, backpacks...because that's not the American Way! What next...will they have the right to actually prosecute based on intent only??? Oh my God!!!
If you prevent one event like this from happening, you've saved 20 lives. It's worth it in my most humble opinion.
Teh One Who Knocks (02-15-2018), The Monk (02-19-2018)
If the FBI is informed that someone is posting that they are "going to be a professional school shooter" on their social media accounts, and he appears to have an obsession with weapons and a teacher said that the kid was identified as being a potential danger to other students, then law enforcement needs to step in at some point. This kid was obviously mentally ill and needed to be, at the very least, under psychiatric treatment, and at worst, needed to be locked up, either in a psychiatric hospital or in jail.
If you saw something extremely suspicious going on in your neighborhood, reported it to authorities because you were afraid of something bad happening, and then they did nothing and later on something does happen and it was ignored even though you reported it, wouldn't you be pissed?
Hal-9000 (02-15-2018)
I agree in theory.. But the reality is (especially with the corruption we have down here) giving the police the right to kick down your door because some SJW was offended by your posts really opens the door to giving them a license to do anything. It would be like living in Nazi Germany.. YOUR PAPERS PLEEEESE.. We have to have our rights down here.. We fought a war for them (the rights) to get out from under the English.
I agree... But my point is "I'm not sure there is a whole lot they can really do".. You cant force mental treatments and you cant jail people unless direct threats were made.. I've had a few run ins with the law against people I've perceived as a threat and it all boiled down to "We cant do anything but talk to them if a crime has not been committed".
KevinD (02-15-2018), Teh One Who Knocks (02-15-2018)
I agree. I'm thinking of the gun owner too right now. By RBP's account this guy did everything the law deems you need to, to legitimately and safely own a gun. Who knows, we may find out there was some oversight that allowed the kid to get the weapon. I hope that's not the case. But now the gun owner has to go through life with the thought that his AR15 killed a bunch of kids.
Bunch of stuff on Imgur saying - We shouldn't talk about the shooter! We should talk about the heroes. I think we need to talk about both. If one fact comes out that can somehow make it more difficult for future shooters to be successful, then let's have the conversation. Just relenting and saying - He was mentally ill, there's nothing we could have done anyways is defeatist and short sighted.
If it takes rounding up some kids/people based on suspicion and holding them for 48 hours, then do it. Cops can search your car upon suspicion of being impaired because of your driving habits, and can enter your house upon suspicion of a felony being committed, why not at least ask the question when some of these wingnuts start bragging on social media about possibly killing people?
But you can hold someone involuntarily for a mental health exam. I believe every state has some form of the 72 hour involuntary mental health hold. And with the warning signs that were given about him (personally, I would consider "going to be a professional school shooter" a direct threat), I would say that would qualify and then the authorities could have explored deeper to see if he was a real threat or not. Now, there's no guarantee that he couldn't have faked his way through it, but at least the ball would have been rolling and he definitely would be someone to watch closer.
I do understand your point, but with the (seemingly) ever increasing mental health problem in this country and people not getting treatment, when it comes to things like this, I'm okay with giving law enforcement just a little more leeway as long as there are procedures in place to prevent abuse.
Muddy (02-15-2018)
Having a teen out of high school and one in middle school I will say that there is soooo much questionable shit that these little fuckers put on social media twitter etc that it really would be hard to manage all the leads.. imho..
KevinD (02-15-2018)
I'm not sure 'some SJW being offended by your posts' and what happened here are the same thing. I've heard this argument/defense, or fear about change in rights and the discussion gets muddied (heh heh..) when you ask - Will giving homicide investigators latitude in a potential attempted murder scenario lead to loss of your critical rights? Rights vs Potential loss of life...something in that sensitive balance has to change.
Florida school shooting February 14 2018 . Snapchat footage from inside classroom
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d3a_1518656040