Saturday, January 7, 2012

A 'Goblin' in a Beanie and Fake Moustache

Our gun lunatics, despite the empty and meaningless lip service they give to the inherent value of life --- well, SOME life, but not other people's life -- would be lying in wait to blow this woman away with their fetish objects, crowing over the license to kill given them by those Castle Doctrine laws which allow them greater leniency in executing people than the rule of law allows police or courts for the same actions.

Because this woman is not in any way a threat to life, no threat whatsoever of doing physical harm, has NO weapon of any kind apparently on her person, I applaud the actions of this homeowner in holding the neighbor accountable for what she did.


I have to wonder if this larcenous neighbor had watched too many I Love Lucy reruns for her disguise inspiration.

This story personifies the idea that we trust people, and expect the best, but we do not do so stupidly.  We trust, but we also take reasonable care to limit harm.  We trust the good in people, but we do not ignore the potential for temptation to bring out the worst that exists in all people alongside the good.  We especially should not do so when making a mistake about people could lead to the death or injury or threat to someone else, as in not running a background check on a private sale firearm purchaser.

I'm guessing right now that these neighbors wish they had checked out THEIR neighbor, about whom I assume they believed was a 'good person' a bit further.  The only loss in their mistake was money, not life or limb; the only person who was injured was themselves, not someone else.

One might argue that the burglary victims were better able to see the real inner person as good or bad ONLY when she was in disguise.

From MSNBC.com:

Police: Woman donned mustache, beanie to rob neighbors

A woman in Salt Lake City repeatedly stole from her neighbors, donning an oversized man's suit, a beanie and a fake mustache in an attempt to disguise herself while she entered their home, police said.
The Salt Lake City Tribune reported that the 31-year-old woman's disguise didn't fool anyone for long, though: On Thursday, she was charged with two counts of burglary and one count of theft for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars.
According to police, the victims had noticed several thousand dollars in cash missing from a box in their house, The Tribune reported. They checked the box a second time and found another $9,000 missing.
None of the people involved in the case were identified. It was not clear why the victims were holding such a large amount of cash in their house.
The victims had only given their house key to one person, a neighbor, and decided to set up a trap to see if she was the burglar, The Tribune reported. They put a small amount of cash in the box and set up security cameras, court documents state.
The security footage captured the woman, since identified as Manar Ahmad of Salt Lake City, in a very large man's suit, a beanie cap, and a fake mustache using the key to get into the home, the documents show.
Salt Lake City police searched her house and found her disguise inside, according to The Tribune.
All of her charges are second-degree felonies.

FPS Russia Demonstrates the AAC Honey Badger

via Nick Leghorn at TTAG, where as usual the Armed Intelligentsia revile this guy. Actually I don't see what's so irresponsible in this video unless no ear protection for outdoor shooting is bad enough to qualify.  Nick gives us a little insight into understanding all the animosity. It's envy, plain and simple.

I’ve never liked FPS Russia. He’s one of the most irresponsible firearms user we’ve ever seen, a terrible role model for safety, and the poster child for tinnitus. But the reason I dislike him the most is that while we spend hours on end researching and writing and working towards perfection with our articles and all this guy has to do is put on a fake Russian accent and the latest and greatest firearms fall into his lap.

Rare and Valuable Fetish Item - Bonnie and Clyde's Tommy Gun



Bonnie and Clyde’s Tommy gun.
Later this month, Mayo Auction & Realty of Kansas City will sell a .45-caliber Thompson sub-machine gun along with a 12-gauge shotgun, both supposedly left behind when the infamous duo shot it out with police in April 1933 in Joplin.
Gun rights folks continually strive to convince (themselves) us that they have nothing to do with criminal gun owners. I say the gun itself ties them together inextricably. They both want and need to own guns.

For one thing, they're related due to the fact that all guns start out legally owned and somehow a certain percentage of them flow off into the criminal world.

Well, here's another connection. The folks who will bid on the famous gun used by Bonnie and Clyde will be, presumably, lawful gun owners who want to own a criminal's gun. The article says they expect gun collectors and history buffs.

Just like Al Capone's gun and Lee Harvey Oswald's gun and the weapon used by Sirhan Sirhan, gun collectors love to own criminal guns.

Do you find that odd? Is there something wrong with an obsession like that? No, not really. It just goes to show that the connection between criminal gun owners and lawful gun owners is very strong, in spite of all the denial.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Show and Tell;
Another Avoidable Gun Death by one of those 'I'm Safe! I'm Trained! Guys

It's been a rough week with firearms for the U.S. Navy elite.  You'd think a Navy Seal of all people would know better than to do this.  This tragedy is one more instance of why it is guns do not belong in bars, and do not mix well with alcohol in private home situations either.

It could also be argued that this is another death caused not only by a firearm, but by the gun lunatic fetish culture that makes a firearm something to show off to other people as a fetish object of power.  This is all part of the same old, same old, tired monologue from the gun loons:
"I'm safe, trust me!  I know what I'm doing!  LOOK, I'm exercising my 2nd Amendment Rights!  No, really, I know what I'm doing!  Hey, why don't you trust me?  I don't have a fetish relationship with my gun.  It just makes me more powerful so I can shoot bad guys, but don't worry, I will only use my power for good, and to kill goblins and bad guys!  Whoooo hoo look at me with my gun!  NO NO, it's ok, I'm HIGHLY trained, and I only do things that are safe, and I'm in complete control of my firearm at all times, no really!   Why don't you trust me?  I KNOW what I'm doing, I DO! I DO!..... ~ BANG!"

Yup, I bet he was perfectly safe with guns and never harmed another innocent person.......right up until he blew his brains out to impress someone in a bar.

How many gun deaths are we up to now for the first week of 2012?  How many FEWER per capita deaths are there in other countries without so many guns and stricter regulation , in contrast? We'll have to wait for those numbersto be counted.


From MSNBC.com and the news services:

Cops: Navy SEAL accidentally shoots self in head

SAN DIEGO -- A 22-year-old Navy SEAL was on life support Friday after he accidentally shot himself in the head while showing off a pistol to a woman he met at a bar, police said.
San Diego Police Officer Frank Cali told U-T San Diego officers were called to a home in Pacific Beach about 2 a.m. Thursday on a report that a man had shot himself in the head while playing with a gun.
Cali says the man was showing guns to a woman he'd met earlier at a bar and put a pistol he believed was unloaded to his head. Cali says he then pulled the trigger.
A Navy spokesman confirmed to U-T San Diego that the sailor had completed SEAL training last week and was assigned to a West Coast-based team.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the shooting, a Navy spokesman told the San Diego newspaper.
Commodore Collin P. Green, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group One, released a statement saying, “On behalf of the entire Naval Special Warfare community, we are deeply saddened by this unfortunate incident and extend both our hearts and prayers to our teammate’s family during this very difficult time.”
This post includes reporting from msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press.

This was a terrible incident, but this was avoidable, and the simplest way it could have been avoided was by the victim being less cocky about his skills and assumptions about safety.  Those of us who oppose the prevalence of guns and gun violence do so because these are tragic, and preventable, and because neither firearms nor the violence tha results from them makes ANY of us more free, or safer.

WHY Should We Drug Test Before We Allow Someone to Own or Carry a Firearm?

I believe that we should make pot legal, regulate it, and tax the hell out of it.  Part of that regulation should address issues like driving safety while under the influence - direct, or residual, and also the changes in the brain as it relates to other safety issues, including firearm ownership, and activities that might put others at risk like hunting.

We need to be objective about all drugs and their effects, we need to understand what drugs do and don't do, in demonstrable, quantifiable ways, as we do with alcohol.  In taking a more objective approach we trust people to make their own decisions, and we hold them accountable for those decisions.

Decriminalizing pot would put a huge dent in the money in the coffers of the drug cartels.  It would remove a huge and expensive burden on our society and government, and it could be an excellent generative source for revenue.

Additionally, as we better understand the brain interaction of the active chemical ingredients, taking a page from the tobacco industry, which has systematically changed the chemical levels in their tobacco plants, it would conceivably be possible as a condition of regulation to require a very low level of any chemicals that have a destructive or negative or dangerous effect on our brains, while allowing or even encouraging higher quantities or stronger acting qualities of the beneficial effect producing chemicals.

We have the technology; we should use it rationally.  The advance in our understanding of so-called recreational pharmaceuticals should as well encourage us to make more and better use of drug testing for a range of actions where impairment or altered judgment is an affect, including driving privileges and firearms permits.  We see daily that people are routinely in denial about those things which alter their performance and their ability to act, from text messaging while driving, to driving or other activities while using alcohol, pot and other substances and activities.  If we seek to replace the subjective with the objective, then we must agree to the importance of implementing testing and measurement.

From MSN Health:
FRIDAY, Jan. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Smoking marijuana can mean different things to different people -- for some, anxiety and paranoia can set in, while others mellow out.
Now, a unique brain scan study suggests two ingredients in pot may work independently to achieve these effects.
British scientists who watched the effects of the two marijuana ingredients -- Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) -- on the brains of 15 young men say the research shows how the drug can either ease or agitate the mind.
"People have polarized views about marijuana," said study lead author Dr. Sagnik Bhattacharyya, a researcher in the department of psychosis studies at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. "Some consider it to be essentially harmless but potentially useful as a treatment in a number of medical conditions, and others link it to potentially severe public health consequences in terms of mental health. This study explains why the truth is somewhere in between."
The findings were published in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
According to Bhattacharyya's team, it's long been noted that cannabis can prompt the onset of psychotic symptoms, such as paranoia and/or delusional thinking, among otherwise healthy people.
"A number of studies have (also) clearly shown that regular marijuana or cannabis use in vulnerable individuals is associated with increased risk of developing psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, where one loses contact with reality," Bhattacharyya said.

Just how this occurs in the brain wasn't understood.
In the new study, the researchers used functional MRI brain imaging on 15 healthy men, roughly 27 years old on average and described as "occasional cannabis users."
On three occasions under fMRI monitoring, the men received one of three identical-looking gelatin capsules: one containing 10 milligrams (mg) of the marijuana ingredient THC (deemed to be a "modest" dose); another containing 600 mg of CBD; and a third filled with flour.
Testing was conducted in a highly controlled and monitored environment, in which no marijuana was actually smoked.
The fMRI scans (which track brain activity in real time) were conducted one and two hours after capsule administration. During the scans, the men engaged in simple visual-cognition tasks (such as pressing buttons to reflect the direction of a series of flashing arrows). Psychopathological assessments were conducted throughout the brain imaging process.
The team found that THC and CBD appeared to affect the brain in different and opposite ways.
Ingesting THC brought about irregular activity in two regions of the brain (the striatum and the lateral prefrontal cortex) that are key to the way people perceive their surroundings. THC seemed to boost the brain's responses to otherwise insignificant stimuli, while reducing response to what would typically be seen as significant or salient.
In other words, under the influence of THC, healthy individuals might give far more importance to details in their environment than they would have without the chemical in their brain.
THC also prompted a significant uptick in paranoid and delusional thinking, the authors said, and the more that "normal" brain responses were set off-kilter, the more severe the paranoid or even psychotic reaction.
The effect of the other main pot ingredient, CBD, was nearly the opposite, however.
Ingesting the CBD capsule appeared to prompt brain activity linked to appropriate responses to significant stimuli in the environment, the team reported.
According to Bhattacharyya, this suggests that, on balance, marijuana may play both a good and bad role in the context of psychosis.
The study also suggests that CBD, at least, may "have potential use for the treatment of psychosis," he said, even as marijuana's other principle ingredient, THC, raises the risk for developing psychotic complications.
Dr. Joseph Coyle, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said the current work goes a long way toward "connecting all the dots" when it comes to understanding the marijuana experience.
"What we're talking about here is the kind of perception, in this case prompted by marijuana, that leads a person to think that other people who are just talking in the subway are all actually talking about him," he noted. "Or people who are just tipping their hat for no reason are actually doing so specifically about him. And so this paper strikes me as important, because it actually looks at this kind of increased anxiety and increased hyper-alertness which are major factors in psychosis -- and then finds out what's going on in the brain among people who experience them.
"So I think this provides another brick in the foundation when talking about direct causality," he said. "It links the psychological state marijuana brings about with a specific psychophysical response in the brain. And that's very, very interesting."
More information
There's more on marijuana at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse .
SOURCES: Sagnik Bhattacharyya, M.D, Ph.D., department of psychosis studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London; Joseph Coyle, M.D, Eben S. Draper professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston; January 2012, Archives of General Psychiatry

Friday, January 6, 2012

Minnesota Follows a National Trend

For some frustrating reason, I could not get the video that accompanied this to load for this post, and could not find at all the longer version of the television interview that played on the midday news.   It elaborated on the statistics, including a statement from Minneapolis Mayor Rybak, stating:
"Whenever there is a shooting, the first question I ask is where did the gun come from?  We can't always answer that at the moment, but it IS the key to a lot of these issues.  When those three homicides happened in a row  [summer 2011] involving young kids in North Minneapolis, my biggest question's who's arming our kids?"
In addition to the Mayor's statement, the interview touched on actions by the city of Minneapolis in conjunction with the police department that were effective in reducing crime and removing guns from the hands of criminals and other prohibited persons.


None of the solutions which worked to reduce Minneapolis violent crime included more guns or more people engaging in either open or concealed carrying of firearms.

The answer to that question would appear to be people who don't keep their guns secured, like those who are not in control of their accessible weapons while they sleep. If they are routinely that casual about firearm security every night, they are likely just as sloppy and stupid about gun security the rest of the time.

But of course, just as some of the worst drivers insist they are great drivers, some of the least responsible gun carriers will swear up and down that THEY are safe, and we should trust them.

The evidence from incidents like these shows the contrary.


From KSTP News:







Updated: 01/06/2012 12:42 PM
Created: 01/06/2012 12:20 PM KSTP.com By: Colleen Mahoney

Minneapolis Officials: Violent Crime Hits 28 Year Low

The City of Minneapolis released crime statistics for 2011, Friday.
The city says violent crime is down 6.3 percent, compared to 2010.
The number of violent crimes committed in 2011 was lower than any year since 1983, for a 28-year low, according to the city.
Property crimes, which includes burglaries, larceny, arson, and auto theft, was up by 6.67 percent.
The number of homicides in 2011 were 32, down from 2010.
City leaders acknowledge that the death of 3 year old Terrel Mayes, hit by a stray bullet inside his North Minneapolis home in December, show that more work needs to be done.
The focus for 2012 will be on youth violence, and getting guns off the street.
Police took 515 guns of the streets, last year.

Swiss Guns under attack.

Switzerland is the best analogy to what the "gun culture" should be in that both were supposed to have universal amateur militaries (i.e., a militia system), yet the US has forgotten the true purpose of the Second Amendment which was to ensure the existance of that system. The Swiss have gone through a modernisation of their military. Almost two centuries have passed since Switzerland last fought in a war, yet the country's gun ownership rate remains the highest in Europe.

The Local, Switzerland's English Newpaper, has an article about Swiss questioning of their gun culture.
Every year, more than 300 people die in Switzerland in gun-related incidents. In many ways, the figure is quite low, when one considers the country has about 2.5 million weapons in private hands — giving it the highest per capita rate of gun ownership in Europe, and the fourth highest in the world.

In the last two months of 2011, however, shots rang out with alarming frequency in a country where around 30 percent of all households keep guns and rifles in their cabinets.

In early November, a 23-year-old man killed his girlfriend using his army assault rifle in the village of Saint-Leonard. The vicious crime sparked fervent debate about the lax monitoring of repeat offenders.

After that, the tragic tales began to tumble in thick and fast: Victim shot dead by stranger at Geneva shopping centre; Young man killed in accidental shooting; Evicted tenant kills neighbour with hunting rifle.

But in a country that cherishes its centuries-old firearms tradition, gun control is a touchy subject.

“The Swiss have this romantic idea of their culture, in the sense that they have to have the means to protect their independence, and everyone is like a citizen soldier,” explains Philip Jaffé, a Geneva-based psychologist who often works with the police in forensic crime investigations.

Interestingly enough, despite the Swiss attitude toward guns, their attitude toward gun violence is drastically different from the US.
The recent spate of killings has prompted Swiss politicians to rekindle the gun debate, and a parliamentary security commission is currently working on potential changes to the law.

“Every death is one too many, and every weapon that is lying around, whether controlled or not, is a potential danger,” says Christophe Barbey, political secretary of the Group for a Switzerland without Weapons (GSoA).

“How many deaths do we need before we change things,” he asks.

Amusingly enough, unlike the US, the Swiss demonstrate a more rational attitude toward firearms.
Experts agree that a surplus of army-issue guns is the most pressing problem, and many feel they should be kept in barracks. Every adult male must complete 260 days of military service before the age of 34, during which period he keeps his pistol or assault rifle at home.

“There is no strategic necessity anymore for soldiers to keep their weapons at home”, says Barbey. “Those times are over,” he adds.

After they are discharged, soldiers are entitled to keep the weapon for the rest of their lives for a small fee. Some 1.5 million of the estimated 2.5 million weapons in the country belong to, or have belonged to, the army.

All of the experts consulted for this article say Switzerland should institute a national gun register to replace the 26 cantonal registers.

The head of the Swiss Agency for Crime Prevention, Martin Boess, also stresses the need for improved information exchange procedures between social services, police, the judiciary, and the army. This would enable the authorities “to see what kind of people are in possession of weapons.”

I find it interesting that the Swiss, who are closer to the meaning of the "right to keep and bear arms" can express these sentiments without being labelled anti-freedom.

It's not anti-freedom, it's being sensible.

Gun Rights Advocate "Detained" at the Airport


The Los Angeles Times reports on the latest incident of a pro-gun guy "forgetting" he has a gun at the airport.
A California lawmaker who has been a vocal advocate for gun rights was detained by police Wednesday at Ontario International Airport after attempting to take a loaded gun onto an airplane.

Tim Donnelly, a Republican from San Bernardino and the Assembly's lone tea party member, was headed for a Sacramento-bound flight to attend the opening of the new legislative year. Authorities said screeners at the security checkpoint discovered a loaded .45-caliber Colt Mark IV pistol and an ammunition magazine with an additional five rounds in his carry-on luggage.
His big thing is immigration. The article says he's a former Minuteman, but I suspect the Minitemen are like the Marines. Once a Minuteman, always a Minuteman.

What's your opinion? Is this racist, ultra-conservative scofflaw politician a danger to others like your average terrorist or airplane hijacker? I don't think so. Do you think his attitude is that of many otherwise law-abiding gun owners who do what the hell they want: "bad laws be damned?" Or is it really possible that he's so nonchalant about his gun that he really did forget.

Whatever the true explanation, is it right that he should get just a slap on the wrist, a misdemeanor, which will enable him to continue on his merry way?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

More Law Enforcement Deaths and Injuries from Gun Violence
in only the first week of 2012
How many mass shootings are we at in our first week of 2012?

Firearms: too many of them, harming too many of our law enforcement officers trying to protect civilized society.  How many shootings have there been so far?  How many murder suicides, or cop killings/injuries, in just the past 30 days?

How many accidental shootings, like the idiot firing at a mouse in his kitchen, shooting one of his roommates in the adjoining bathroom?  People in civil and civilized societies don't do that kind of thing.

In more civilized societies where there is a greater reliance on fewer weapons and the rule of law, including law enforcement rather than individual vigilantes, there are far, far fewer incidents like this one. 

Looking at the equivalent data in the, their Police Roll of Honour in the UK shows  mostly deaths related to vehical accidents, a couple of heart attacks, and one death from leukemia.  The only death by any kind of criminal violence, as distinct from an accident or illness, was this one:

Ronan Kerr
Ronan Kerr
Constable
Died 2 April 2011, aged 25
PSNI Badge
Killed by a terrorist bomb, which exploded under his car outside his home in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, as he was about to set off to report for duty in Eniskillen.
Ronan entered the police training college at Garnerville in May 2010. He began his on the job training in F District in December 2010. He first joined the Neighbourhood policing Team in Enniskillen before moving to a response role at the end of March 2011.
He is survived by his widowed mother, sister and two brothers.
From MSNBC.com and the news services:

Cop killed, 5 colleagues shot during drug raid in Ogden, Utah

Married father of two young children dies; suspect also hospitalized 

NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 1/5/2012 9:22:34 AM ET
A police officer was shot dead and five colleagues were wounded as they tried to serve a drug-related search warrant late Wednesday, authorities in Utah said. 
Gunfire erupted around 9 p.m. MST (11 p.m. ET) after police converged at a residence in Ogden, police spokesman Lt. Tony Fox said.
In a statement released early Thursday, Ogden City Police Department said that Agent Jared Francom had succumbed to injuries.
"Agent Francom has served the citizens of Ogden City with honor for seven years," the statement added. It described Francom as a married father of two young children.
Authorities said that five officers "from multiple agencies" remained hospitalized with serious to critical injuries.
The suspect was also being held at a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said. Officials confirmed that no additional suspects were being sought.
Citing an official at the Ogden Regional Medical Center, NBC News earlier reported that one officer was listed in stable condition.
Chris Dallin, a spokesman for McKay-Dee Hospital Center, said that several off-duty doctors and nurses were called in to help in the aftermath of the incident.
The suspect was surrounded near a backyard shed, police said.
'Put your hands up' Witnesses said they heard three quick pops followed by a two- to three-minute pause, then a barrage of gunfire.
"We came running outside to see what was going on," Janessa Vanderstappen, who lives nearby, told the Deseret News. "Officers told us to go back in our house."
Vanderstappen said she went back inside, and minutes later heard yelling coming from the backyard.
She said she walked onto the back porch to see officers addressing a person hiding in a nearby shed.
"There's cops telling him to 'put your hands up, put your hands up,'" she said.
The Associated Press, NBC News and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Rick Santorum is as Bad as it Gets

Update on the Oklahoma Home Intrusion Shooting

However, the intruder's alleged accomplice has been charged with murder in connection with the death.
Sarah McKinley was in her mobile home with her 3-month-old son on New Year's Eve in Blanchard, Okla., when Justin Martin, 24, broke in with a large hunting knife,NBC station KFOR reported.
When she asked if she was allowed to shoot the intruder if he broke through the door, a 911 operator told her, "Well, you have to do whatever you can do to protect yourself ... I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby."
Oklahoma law allows the use of deadly force against intruders, and prosecutors said McKinley clearly acted in self-defense. According to court documents, Martin was holding a knife when he died.
"Our initial review of the case doesn't indicate she violated the law in any way," Assistant District Attorney James Walters told The Oklahoman newspaper
Prosecutors have charged his alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Dustin Louis Stewart, with first-degree murder. According to authorities, Stewart was with Martin but ran away from McKinley's home after hearing the gunshots.
"When you're engaged in a crime such as first-degree burglary and a death results from the events of that crime, you're subject to prosecution for it," Walters said.
Barricaded doorStewart was arraigned Wednesday and was being held in the Grady County jail. A bond hearing was set for Thursday. His attorney, Stephen Buzin, did not immediately respond to a message left at his office Wednesday night.
According to court documents, Martin and Stewart might have been looking for prescription drugs used by McKinley's husband Kenneth, 58, who died on Christmas Day after being hospitalized with complications from lung cancer.
McKinley said it took the men about 20 minutes to get through her door, which she had barricaded with a couch.

McKinley told KFOR-TV the slain intruder had also showed up at her door on Dec. 29, the day of her husband's funeral.
When he came again on New Year's Eve, she said she grabbed her son and "walked over and got the 12-gauge, went in the bedroom and got the pistol and put the bottle in his mouth and then I called 911," she told KOCO.
The 911 operator asked McKinley to confirm that her doors were locked. The young mother said yes, and asked if it was all right for her to shoot the man if he were to enter her house, KOCO reported.
 McKinley said she asked the dispatcher, "I've got two guns in my hand -- is it OK to shoot him if he comes in this door? I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?"
'I shot him'The 911 conversation lasted for 21 minutes. Then the door gave in. Martin charged at McKinley with his knife, but she said she shot at him before he could get to her.
"I waited till he got in the door. They said I couldn't shoot him until he was inside the house.  So I waited until he got in the door and then I shot him," McKinley told KFOR.
The decision to shoot was difficult, she told KFOR. "There's nothing more dangerous than a mother with her baby.  But I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for him."
The Associated Press, NBC News and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Update on the Mt. Rainier Shootist

There is a high correlation to suicides, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  However, not all behavior is PTSD related, nor should PTSD sufferers be given a pass for that behavior.  We need to do so much more than we do, to help those vets who suffer from this problem.  We need to understand how it contributes to the problems of these victims of PTSD; but we should not excuse these incidents which victimize others by failing to hold people accountable for their actions, or by attributing actions which are NOT from PTSD to that mental illness.

The legal - and I would argue moral - threshold for not being held accountable for one's actions because of mental incapacity or mental illness is for a person not to know their actions were wrong.  There is no indication that PTSD, which is classified as anxiety disorder, similar to acute stress disorder, prevents an understanding of actions being right or wrong.

From MSNBC.com:
Alleged Mount Rainier shooter's troubles may not have been service-related

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com
The man who authorities say killed a ranger before dying in Mount Rainier National Park was in turmoil over developments in his personal life after his discharge from the Army, friends say, suggesting that his alleged actions over the weekend may have had little connection to his military service.
The man, former Pfc. Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24 — who was found dead Monday, apparently of drowning in a creek after becoming hypothermic — shot and killed park Ranger Margaret Anderson, 34, on Sunday. He is also believed to have shot and wounded four people, two of them critically, earlier in the day at a New Year's party in Skyway, near Seattle, authorities said.
Army records show that Barnes served in Iraq before returning stateside to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle. He was discharged from the Army in 2009 for drunken driving and illegal transportation of a private weapon.
In July, the mother of Barnes' young daughter said in court papers seeking a protection order that he "has possible PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) issues." News organizations — including msnbc.com — noted the court filings and reported that Lewis-McChord is considered one of the most troubled bases in the U.S. military, with an alarming record of violent incidents and suicides among veterans returning from Iraq.
But as more has been learned about Barnes, it appears that his troubles may have had little to do with his service in Iraq or his having been stationed at Lewis-McChord.
Military records show that Barnes served in a headquarters communications job in Iraq. A spokesman at Lewis-McChord told The Seattle Times there was no record of Barnes' having received a Combat Action Badge, indicating he probably never came under fire in Iraq.
There are also hints that Barnes was already disturbed before he entered the Army. Growing up in Riverside County, Calif., he was sent to a community day school for expelled and troubled students as a teenager, the Press-Enterprise newspaper reported.
A reconstruction of Barnes' life since his discharge by The Seattle Times indicates that Barnes' erratic post-discharge behavior didn't seriously begin until this summer, when his relationship with his ex-girlfriend collapsed.
Claiming Barnes was suicidal and had threatened her, the woman won a protective order that required Barnes to be supervised whenever he was with his daughter, according to court records reviewed by msnbc.com. A civil trial had been scheduled for Jan. 31.

The Times, meanwhile, quoting a friend, said Barnes recently traveled to the Riverside area for the funeral a close Army friend who committed suicide in October.

Another friend told the newspaper that "everything just got to him. Life got so hard. He was so stressed. He would say, 'I feel like nobody's trying to help me. I feel like everybody's against me.'"
Brandon Friedman, an Army combat veteran in Afghanistan and Iraq and author of the highly regarded memoir "The War I Always Wanted," told msnbc.com that it was wrong to link Barnes' alleged behavior to PTSD or conditions at Lewis-McChord, noting that the military "kicked Barnes out for misconduct."
While some soldiers return from overseas duty with PTSD, most aren't diagnosed with it, and misconduct by other troubled soldiers at the base doesn't necessarily mean Barnes' misconduct was service-related, he said.
Even if Barnes did have PTSD, as his ex-girlfriend says, "having PTSD doesn't signify a propensity to murder Americans," Friedman said, adding that he was concerned that depictions of Barnes as a sufferer of PTSD could fuel public perceptions that all Lewis-McChord veterans are "dangerous psychos."
"The stereotype of the crazy vet is something vets have had to deal with for years, and it's simply not backed up with hard data," he said.

Update on the New Year's Day Mass Shooting in San Diego;
Turns Out, It Was Another ofThose Frequent Murder / Suicides

We have hugely higher gun violence statistics for both murder and suicides compared to other similarly developed FREE countries. 
Reliable estimates place the frequency at ten or more a week, EVERY week in this country.
We are not free when our fellow citizens are killing innocent people who do not want to die.  We are not free when we have to worry about who is carrying a gun, particularly when so many of the legal guns end up in the hands of those who use them illegally to intimidate, to victimize, to injure and kill.
I was particularly touched by this particular murder / suicide as my father was a naval aviator, having flown off of carriers.

from MSNBC.com and the News Services:

San Diego murder-suicide rocks Navy community

New Year's Day gunfire that left 2 pilots dead also killed aviator's sister and the man that group met hours before 

NBC News and news services
updated 1 hour 24 minutes ago
The two Navy fighter-jet pilots were in their prime, having made the cut into one of the military's most competitive programs.
Their deaths in a murder-suicide on New Year's Day has rocked the tight-knit community of Naval aviators as investigators try to find out what happened in the condominium on the picturesque peninsula of Coronado, an enclave of 24,000 just across the bay of San Diego that recorded only one homicide in 2010.
There were no eyewitnesses, investigators say, and they have found no motive yet for the eruption in gunfire that also killed one of the pilot's sisters and a 31-year-old man the group had just befriended at a nightclub only hours before the incident.
John Robert Reeves, 25, shot himself in the head, and the three others with him were murdered, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said, citing autopsy results. Fellow Navy pilot David Reis, also 25, was killed by a gunshot wound to the torso, and his 24-year-old sister, Karen, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and chest, officials said. Matthew Saturley, 31, of suburban Chula Vista, was shot multiple times.
Sheriff's Capt. Duncan Fraser said there were no outstanding suspects in the case, and police have found no evidence indicating there was an exchange of gunfire, although he declined to say if Reeves was the shooter, explaining that "we don't have forensic evidence yet to say that definitively."
Reeves, of Prince Frederick, Md., and Reis, of Bakersfield, Calif., were both training as F/A-18 fighter pilots assigned to the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101 of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing at nearby Miramar Air Station.
Retired Naval pilot Steve Diamond said the case is shocking because it involves such high achievers.
"The first thing that most people think of even within the Navy community is how could such an enormously tragic thing happen involving people ... who are the cream of the crop, highly trained, highly educated, national assets basically," he said.
It takes years of training to get one's wings as a Navy pilot, and fighter-jet pilots are considered to be among the top in that group. They undergo a battery of rigorous physical, psychological and background tests before finishing the highly competitive program, Navy officials said. Their top-notch skills and mental toughness were featured in Hollywood's "Top Gun" — parts of which were filmed at Miramar.
The two Naval officers were in the final rung of that training.
"The hardest thing you ever do in aviation is carrier landing aboard a ship at sea, so these guys were the pick of the litter," said Ernie Christensen, a retired rear admiral and former Vietnam fighter pilot who commanded the Navy's Top Gun fighter school for a time in the 1980s.
Story: Four killings in Coronado ruled murder-suicide "I will tell you that Naval aviation will hurt regardless of what anybody finds out about anything because they're all close, because you go through a tough, rigorous kind of a ritual," he added.
Reeves' family members could not be immediately reached for comment.
The two Navy pilots lived at the condominium with another Navy pilot who was out of town at the time. Friends and family members say they were not aware of any problems in the household, investigators said.
Military officials have been assisting the investigation but would provide no details on the two pilots or the training or psychological tests they had been undergoing, saying it was too early to do so in the probe.
Authorities were awaiting toxicology results to see if drugs or alcohol might have played a role.
Reeves moved in to the condo a few months ago, Fraser said.
Pilot ran inside when he heard gunshots The two Navy pilots and Karen Reis went out to a nightclub on New Year's Eve with another unnamed friend, Fraser said. At the club, they met Saturley and returned to Coronado shortly after 2 a.m., reported The Los Angeles Times. When gunshots rang out 20 minutes later, the friend was talking to David Reis outside the condo, Fraser said. Reis rushed inside and the friend stayed outside and called 911.
David Reis' body was found near the entryway, Fraser said. Officers withdrew and established a perimeter around the building, and the county SWAT team was called in.
A robot was sent in to the multi-apartment structure to determine whether there was an active shooting suspect on the first floor. When none was found, the SWAT team went in and found three more bodies were on the third floor of the condo, including two in the bedroom and one on a landing. Investigators seized four guns; none appeared to be a military firearm, Fraser said.
Only one weapon appears to have been used, but officials have not been able to identify a motive. Any suggestion that Reeves was jealous of attention shown by Karen Reis to Saturley is only speculation, Fraser said at a news conference, The LA Times reported.
"At this point we do not have a motive for these shootings," Fraser said. "There were no eyewitnesses."
The friend who David Reis was speaking with outside is not considered a suspect, officials said. He called 911 and did not enter the home, said The LA Times.
Saturley attended the University of Maryland, earning a bachelor's degree in economics, before studying for a master's at MIT's Sloan School of Management, according to U-T San Diego. He has a 5-year-old daughter and had filed for divorce from his wife of nearly six years just three days before his death, U-T San Diego reported.
The Reis siblings were close friends, their parents say. His sister, Karen, 24, graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 2009, and coached volleyball twice a week to children 12 and younger.
Karen's absence will be greatly felt by those who came in contact with the "selfless young woman" who loved to play sports and sing in her car. David was Karen's "knight in shining armor," the family said in a statement Wednesday.
"We will miss David tremendously, but take solace knowing that he is now forever flying in flawless formation across eternity, with Karen on his wing," the family said.
Funeral services for David and Karen Reis are scheduled Saturday in Bakersfield. A memorial for Karen is being organized on the UCSD campus next week.
This article includes reporting from Michelle Wayland at NBCSanDiego.com.