Gunman 'lying in wait' kills 3 Pittsburgh officers

[kiallamraptor]

"Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately"

"Poplawski had feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon," said Edward Perkovic, his best friend

Comments

[gman586]

My brother, who lives in the area of Stanton Heights said that it sounded like a warzone this morning. But yeah, people that have never had a problem with the law should have no problem with owning a gun. This just puts a bigger black eye on the gun owners community.

Apollo-

[sashowind]

I have no problem with some gun control, but i don't want any government agency in the US to take away what the founders gave us, the right to overthrow our own government if we believe it to become tyranical *at least thats how some scholars interpet the 2nd*

[shurhaian]

Do you really think that the small arms available to the citizenry would make a dent against a hypothetical outbreak of martial law?

The 2nd amendment made sense in that light in the early days of firearms, but even good body armour starts to limit its utility. As soon as you step up to armoured vehicles - what's needed to breach those is the kind of firepower I do NOT want my neighbours to have access to.

If you want to get rid of the government you have, find a candidate you DO want and get them into office. Changing government by coup d'etat is likely to cause massive amounts of bloodshed beyond the specific targets - and social inertia makes it hard for me to credit the notion that everyone in power will connive overnight to take away the voting process entirely.

In any case, there is no circumstance which justifies the response this man made - to something that hasn't even happened yet, to the best of my knowledge. (And in any event, limiting access to assault weapons is a far cry from a total 'gun ban'!)

[spikeblackfang]

If anything, have some kind of ink blot test or mental capability test. From what I understand in a discussion this morning while on at the station, he was released from the military for some mental issue.

[d_bandit]

If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have them! :(

They are supposed to keep guns away from the mentally unstable though. If this guy really was dismissed from the military for mental issues, then why in the world was he allowed to keep guns? :(

[kiallamraptor]

I dunno! That's the laws down there I guess.

[wolfekko]

This is a tragic event... And as Gman above said, it really does nothing to help the image of genuinely responsible gun owners. I admit, I've not even delved into any of the news articles around it because I'm not mentally prepared to sift through all the hearsay and associated debates about firearms at this time, but if the guy truly was discharged for mental instability, then there truly is a problem here, that he was allowed to have a gun.

For the record, I'm a supporter of firearms ownership, but I'm also a supporter of keeping them out of the hands of the mentally unstable.