Mass Shooting In Mass.

Received the following from the 'GOP News & Views'. I realize that it's too much to expect a general outbreak of common sense, but it's nice to see some political leaders expressing same.
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Another Senseless Gun Tragedy

Of course, details are still emerging from the mass murders in Wakefield, Massachusetts, but here are a few things we apparently do know...

* The murderer, Michael McDermott, had no prior criminal history ... which exposes the gun-grabbers' pursuit of background checks as the empty promise it is.

* McDermott's grievance appears to center around the IRS. Maybe we should recognize this "root cause" and ban the income tax instead of banning gun ownership.

* Frantic calls to 911 did nothing to save the victims from their fate.

* All of the victims appear to have been unarmed and unable to defend themselves in the absence of police protection.
 
Surprising story in the Boston Globe!

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/363/oped/What_we_can_do_after_Wakefield+.shtml


What we can do after Wakefield

By John R. Lott Jr., 12/28/2000


ITH A GUNMAN'S attack that killed seven people at a Wakefield Internet company on Tuesday, the question is simple: What can be done to stop similar shootings in the future?


For many the answer is more government regulation. The creation of gun-free zones, waiting periods, background checks, and safe storage regulations are just a few of the laws typically proposed. Yet, Massachusetts already has these restrictions and many more.


Surely the intentions of these laws are noble. The goal of preventing concealed handguns or creating gun-free zones is to protect people. But what might appear to be the most obvious policy may actually cost lives.


When gun control laws are passed, it is law-abiding citizens, not would-be criminals, who obey them. Unfortunately, the police cannot be everywhere, so these laws risk creating situations in which the good guys cannot defend themselves from the bad ones.


This point was driven home to me when I received an e-mail from a friend recently, telling me that he had just dropped off his kids at a public school and outside the school was a sign that said ''This is a gun-free zone.'' I couldn't help think, if I put up a sign on my home that said, ''This home is a gun-free zone,'' would it make it more attractive or less attractive to criminals entering my home and attacking myself or my family?


While horrible crimes like the one in Wakefield get the attention they deserve, rarely mentioned are the many attacks that are stopped by citizens who are able to defend themselves. About two million times a year people use guns defensively. Few realize that some of the public school shootings were stopped by citizens with guns.


For example, in the first public shooting spree at a high school, in Pearl, Miss., in October 1997 that left two dead, an assistant principal retrieved a gun from his car and physically immobilized the shooter for more than five minutes before police arrived.


A school-related shooting in Edinboro, Pa., in spring 1998 that left one dead, was stopped after a bystander pointed a shotgun at the shooter when he started to reload his gun. The police did not arrive for another 11 minutes.


But anecdotal stories cannot resolve this debate. A study at the University of Chicago by a colleague and myself compiled data on all of the multiple-victim public shootings that occurred in the United States from 1977 to 1999. Included were incidents in which at least two people were killed or injured in a public place; to focus on the type of shooting seen in Wakefield, we excluded gang wars or shootings that were the byproduct of another crime, such as robbery. The United States averaged more than 20 such shootings annually, with an average of 1.5 people killed and 2.5 wounded in each one.


So what can stop these attacks? We have examined a range of different gun laws, such as waiting periods, as well the frequency and level of punishment. However, while arrest and conviction rates, prison sentences, and the death penalty reduce murders generally, they do not consistently deter public shootings.


The reason is simple: Those who commit these crimes usually die. They are either killed in the attack or commit suicide. The normal penalties rarely apply.


To be effective, policies must deal with what motivates these criminals, which is to kill and injure as many people as possible. Some appear to do it for the publicity, which is itself related to the amount of harm they inflict.


The best way to stop these attacks is to enact policies that can limit the carnage. We found only one policy that effectively accomplishes this: the passage of right-to-carry laws.


With Michigan's adoption this month, 32 states now give adults the right to carry concealed handguns as long as they do not have a criminal record or a history of significant mental illness. When states passed such laws during the 23 years we studied, the number of multiple-victim public shootings declined by a dramatic 67 percent. Deaths and injuries from these shootings fell on average by 78 percent.


To the extent that attacks still occur in states after these laws are enacted, they disproportionately occur in areas in which concealed handguns are forbidden. The people who get these permits are extremely law-abiding and rarely lose their permits for any reason. Without letting law-abiding citizens defend themselves, we risk leaving victims as sitting ducks.


John R. Lott Jr. is a senior research scholar at Yale University Law School and the author of ''More Guns, Less Crime.''
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Hey longshot - I've also made that correslation. It's a big peeve of mine. The slighteset impleasantry in life now requires a "pill". I work in the medical industry and an alarming number of people I work with are on these "pills". A few months ago it was "national depression day" or some such thing, they stated that 1 in 5 people are mentally ill and "needed treatment" but were not seeking it. Gee, maybe they weren't mentally ill, maybe they know that time will heal. I read another article that stated 80 or 90 percent of teenage girls are suffering from something or nother, I forget if it's anxiety or depression. The medical industry is too quick to make us into helpless victims that cannot do anything without a "pill". They underplay the side effects and falsly claim these medications are safe. If someone has a side effect they go to great efforts to make sure the "pill" is not to blame. My mother had a stoke and was on several medications. In this case I believe the medications were needed but she also had side effects I did not learn untill her death that were from these medications. The doctors didn't even consider it and would could not tell use why these things were happening. I did some research on the web and found other pill takers having the same side effects.
I don't know of any case where an incident like this happened and the person had not recently sought medical help. The public sees this and thinks that the outburst is because of the mental illness. I now have a tendency to think the outburst is from the treatment, as untill recently mentally ill people were mostly just dangerous to thier self.
 
Neal Knox also weighs in regarding the potential for drug influence in this situation, and makes a very clear and valid point about logical problem-solving - look for the changed variable.

I'm always fascinated by the great attention paid to tracing gun(s) in such a crime - perhaps our LEO friends can expand on this. While I can understand an effort to determine the trail, it seems of very limited use in preventing or even solving (na in this case) such a crime. In actuality, it seems more like a fixation of the press, and less likely to be a critical LEO tool.

Regards from AZ

Dec. 27 Neal Knox Report -- Yesterday a 42-year-old man walked into the internet consultant firm where he worked, carrying a shotgun, a pistol and reportedly an AK-47 of some sort and systematically killed seven fellow employees.

It happened in Massachusetts. I have heard no discussion of the state's extremely restrictive gun laws, which were supposed to stop this kind of horror, and of course didn't.

There is a frequent thread through these mass murders that the press and the medical community has declined to pursue: Many or most of these mass killers were taking psychotropic drugs, as was the man in yesterday's slaughter.

So was Patrick Purdey and Joseph Wesbecker and Kip Kinkel and many other school killers. We don't know how many because the families and their doctors aren't talking, and these aren't the kind of drugs that are checked for during autopsies.

We've had people with mental problems for centuries, shotguns for centuries, semi-automatic high-powered, high-capacity rifles and pistols for just about a century.

But we haven't had psyciatric drugs, and we've had few of the mass murders that have horrified the nation in recent years.

I'm well aware that most people seem to be helped by these drugs, but it's a fact that all these drugs have five to 15 percent adverse side effects, including an increase in violence.

To find a solution to any problem, look for the variable that is new or has changed.

But no one seems to be looking at anything except "guns."
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Stunning New Details!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The IRS was planning on taking 90% of "Mucko's" pay!

I don't care what he did to piss of the IRS, they have NO RIGHT TO THIS!

If he had gone down to the Boston IRS office (with his AK-47 and his .460 semi-automatic-bolt-action-assault-rifle), would we be thinking of him in different light?


Face of evil: Prosecutor: McDermott methodically executed co-workers
by Jules Crittenden, Jose Martinez and Jack Sullivan
Thursday, December 28, 2000



The trail of bodies at Edgewater Technology indicates accused killer Michael ``Mucko'' McDermott carefully planned and cruelly carried out the execution of seven workers he blamed for a crushing IRS wage garnishment that would have left him nearly penniless, law enforcement officials said yesterday.

McDermott, 42, a bearish, bearded Marshfield native now living in Haverhill, was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in Malden District Court yesterday and held without bail, as police recovered explosive materials and bomb-making texts from his home.

Experienced investigators were stunned by what they saw at the Wakefield office where McDermott is alleged to have brought in an arsenal of high-powered weapons - a 12-gauge shotgun, a semi-automatic AK-47 and a .32 caliber pistol - and gunned down seven personnel and payroll workers at 11:10 a.m. the day after Christmas. The Edgewater massacre is considered the worst mass killing in recent Massachusetts history.

``It was eerie . . . surreal . . . terrifying,'' said one veteran law enforcement source who surveyed the death scene. ``It looked almost like a movie set.''

Horrified witnesses who hid from McDermott but saw the killings told police that one woman was cruelly disabled with shots to the legs before being executed with a bullet in the head. A man was murdered with three bullets to the chest as he tried to scuttle away on his back.

``Everybody had more than one bullet,'' the source said. After killing the seven, ``he stopped shooting. We don't know why,'' said the source.

Police believe that nearly every one of the more than 40 rounds McDermott allegedly fired hit its mark - either the victims or the locked accounting office door that he blew away with a shotgun.

``There were very little, if any, missed shots,'' said prosecutor Thomas O'Reilly.

McDermott allegedly bypassed some people while targeting others in accounting and human resources who apparently had been involved with his pending garnishment.

When Wakefield police arrested McDermott, the burly veteran's only words to officers were, ``I don't speak German.''


A convoy of vehicles transporting murder suspect Michael McDermott prepares to leave Malden District Court yesterday after his arraignment. (Staff photo by Mike Adaskaveg) Evidence is mounting that McDermott may have faced heavy stress as a result of his failure to pay back taxes and the IRS order to seize roughly 90 percent of his wages. Investigators say that is the strongest motive they have for the killings so far.


Sources told the Herald that acting on an IRS order, Edgewater payroll workers would be paying him only $275 every two weeks. Industry standards for software engineers like McDermott call for salaries between $50,000 and $75,000 a year, which means he would lose roughly $1,600 to $2,500 from each paycheck. IRS officials have refused to comment on the case.

When McDermott was told earlier this month about the garnishing, a co-worker said McDermott responded, ``I can't live on that!''

A former IRS agent told the Herald the extreme, impoverishing IRS step indicates McDermott had rejected IRS efforts to arrange a more reasonable payment schedule, and that he may have been deeply philosophically opposed to paying taxes.

``This is normal procedure for someone who is not cooperating,'' the former agent said about the heavy garnishment. ``He could have worked out very easy terms with them. He has pushed them (the IRS) to their limit.''

A law enforcement source told the Herald the IRS has not provided investigators with information about McDermott's case so far.

The search for McDermott's motivation is focusing in part on his computers; one source told the Herald that McDermott attempted to use a ``security wipe'' to destroy all the information on the disk of his work computer the day of the shootings.

``Yes, it was programmed, but it was noticed. It never happened,'' the source said. It was unclear last night what that disk contained.

With strong physical and eyewitness evidence against McDermott, his defense may have to be based on his mental state, sources told the Herald. In court yesterday, defense attorney Kevin Reddington said McDermott had been under ``treatment'' in the past and currently on ``medication'' but declined to provide details. A former neighbor told ABC News that McDermott had become depressed after splitting with his wife in 1997 and was on medication at that time. A source told the Herald that investigators have no information on McDermott's mental state or any treatment or medication. Neither Reddington nor prosecutors requested a psychiatric examination in court yesterday.

According to one company source, the firm knew ``absolutely nothing'' about McDermott's psychiatric history or any medication he was taking, or of his interest in weapons and explosives. The accused gunman, the source said, ``was very private . . . the first we heard of any of this is when we read it in the papers.''

McDermott was brought into Malden District Court yesterday under heavy guard with nine officers in body armor standing by with shotguns and assault rifles. McDermott, clad in a blue bullet-proof vest over an orange jail jumpsuit, scanned the courtroom packed with reporters, police and attorneys from the prison dock.

His parents, both highly respected retired Marshfield teachers, sat in the second row and declined comment.

``I speak on behalf of the family. Their hearts are with the victims and the families of the victims of this tragedy,'' Reddington said. ``They're devastated. As sheer human emotion, as you can well imagine - or perhaps you can't imagine - they express extreme regret and sympathy. What else can I say?''

Prosecutor O'Reilly's chilling description of the events of Dec. 26 suggested the work of a methodical gunman who executed his seven victims with ``deliberate premeditation'' and ``extreme atrocity.''

``He walked by individuals who were working and targeted others who he shot,'' O'Reilly said. Without naming names, O'Reilly gave a graphic description of the killings.

``Just behind the reception area lay a woman who had been shot dead as she stood. Just off to the side was another woman who was also shot in an apparent indication that she was trying to flee as the wounds were through her back and her head,'' O'Reilly said.

Down the hallway, police found more victims amid cubicles and offices.

``One was underneath his desk. He had been shot numerous times. Another of the young ladies was slumped over the keyboard of her computer. She had been shot through the back,'' the prosecutor said. ``Another individual was lying next to the photocopying machine. He'd been shot through the face with a shotgun.''

Three workers tried to hide under desks and behind the locked door of the accounting office at the end of the corridor, O'Reilly said. One woman survived.

With the 12-gauge shotgun, McDermott ``blew the door off and the door handle off the accounting office . . . He then went inside and he shot one man three times in the chest. Another woman was shot twice in the legs and then shot in the head with a shotgun,'' O'Reilly said.

But the third worker ``hid behind her coat and a chair under a desk and witnessed everything,'' O'Reilly said.

Another witness told police he saw McDermott carrying weapons into the reception area from a nearby office and actually spoke with the gunman. ``Where are you going with that?'' the witness said. ``I have to go to human resources,'' McDermott replied. Then the witness said he heard the repeated gunshots as McDermott allegedly hunted down his victims.

Those murdered were Jennifer Bragg Capobianco, 29, who was in marketing; Janice Hagerty, 46, a receptionist; Louis Javelle, 58, director of consulting in the company's Manchester, N.H., office; Rose Manfredi, who would have turned 49 Wednesday and was in payroll; Paul Marceau, 36, a development technician; Cheryl Troy, 50, human resources director; and Craig Wood, 29, who worked in human resources.

A search of McDermott's work area turned up shotgun shells in the wastebasket, a .460 Magnum bolt-action rifle and ammunition in a locker and two soft-sided gun cases under the desk.

The bomb-making materials found at McDermott's home included fuses, blasting caps and three gallon bottles of nitric acid marked, ``Dangerous. Do Not Move.'' Nitric acid is a chemical used to make nitroglycerine.

While there is no evidence he built or intended to use a bomb as yet, Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley said that investigators continue to search for further evidence of McDermott's intentions.

Meanwhile, friends from McDermott's past life and friends of the co-workers he killed yesterday struggled to understand the brutal whirlwind that struck on the day after Christmas. Bruce Joy of Carver, who served with McDermott in the Navy in the early 1980s, has watched the events of the past two days with horror and gloom.

``He was at my wedding - we were all young Navy guys back then and I saw him as just an average person,'' said Joy. ``When someone who does what Mike seems to have done, there is just no justifying it in any way . . . Even if he told us why, we wouldn't understand it.''

St. Joseph's Church will host a town-wide interfaith service tonight at 7 p.m.
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If he had gone down to the Boston IRS office (with his AK-47 and his .460 semi-automatic-bolt-action-assault-rifle), would we be thinking of him in different light?
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yes, I would.

edited, too wordy.

[Edited by scud on 12-28-2000 at 04:50 PM]
 
I'll believe the 90% story when the IRS speaks. I'll believe the IRS when they make public their policies.
when you're above the law such as the IRS there is no check and balance. I can see some IRS cowboy wanting to make an example out of him. In the meantime I'll believe nothing.
 
A sad and awful thing this Wakefield massacre.

No doubt the anti-gun contingent will find a cautionary tale in it but the irony is that it happened in a most gun-unfriendly state. One can't help but wonder what would have happened had this act been perpetrated in, say, Arizona. I suspect that three or four of those killed would still be alive, the gunman slain by a someone armed with a CCW permit.
 
May the Lord be with the families of the victims, and may He also assist this useless a**hole to speedily go to hell!
Isn't it amazing how effective Massachusetts law was in preventing this violence??? As a cop for over 20 years, I feel EVERY law abiding citizen ought to carry concealed, after proper study of the rules of engagement and range time. It would have been a pleasure to hear of this POS being capped by a co-worker. Then, only 1 or 2 may have fallen victim instead of 7. But alas, the liberal democraps will scream for control...of us. Since Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, hopefully some "honorable" con will do us a favor and shank this motherf***er from stem to stern...Also I would like to fire a broadside at the media. Everytime some yahoo does this kind of crap, it's plastered across the country. You see the POS face on every paper or TV screen. Instead, glorify the victim's and their gift to society and have a one line blurb about the POS that did it.
The more sensationalized this stuff is, the more some dumbass will want his 15 minutes of fame...MAY COMMON SENSE PREVAIL!
 
Never stop saying it, "Defend the 2nd Amendment"

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2000/12/29/75322.shtml


Tragic Shooting in Massachusetts - Lessons Yet To Be Learned

Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D.
Friday December 29, 2000

You never thought it could happen, of all places, in Massachusetts, but the latest tragic mass shooting took place within the liberal bastion of the Commonwealth itself.
Michael McDermott, a man who appears to have stepped out of a Byzantine monastery of the Middle Ages, has been the latest offender, only that the wild-eyed man was not a monk, but a madman.

He was upset and belligerent allegedly because of the garnisheeing of his wages by his employer to pay back taxes to the IRS. Shootings such as this, despite what you have been led to believe, occur also in places where guns are supposedly not easily accessible.

For example, last December, a Dutch student used a banned pistol to wound five people in a high school in the Netherlands, a country with markedly strict gun control laws.

Horrible shootings have also taken place in Dunblane, Scotland and in Port Arthur, Tasmania in Australia in 1996. Both of these bloody rampages resulted in even more stringent gun control laws in those countries with the regrettable consequence of drastic increases in crime.

In the latest episode, in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the victims, four women and three men, could, perhaps, have been saved if only one employee of Edgewater Technology Inc. had been legally armed at his workplace.

Unfortunately, Massachusetts is one of those states whereby it is difficult for law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for self or family protection. In Massachusetts, the right to carry a firearm is not easily granted. The law in that state is quite restrictive in whom it allows to own a firearm, not to mention to carry a concealed one. To apply for a concealed carry permit one must demonstrate a need for a firearm, and even if a need is demonstrated to the authorities, a license may not be issued.

In the home state of historic Lexington and Concord, firearm dealers must also keep records of all sales for tracking purposes. A license for a one-time permit to purchase a firearm is required, as well as an identification card. There is no state preemption, so that municipalities can implement even more restrictive local laws than the state itself. The city of Boston, for example, even has a ban on replicate firearms. Moreover, a purchaser of a firearm must register his/her firearm within seven days and report the condition of the sale in writing to the commissioner of public safety.

As if all of this was not enough, Massachusetts also has a seven-day waiting period for first time permit applicants. Thus, in Massachusetts, the Second Amendment appears to be more of a privilege of the few than a constitutional right of the citizenry at large.

Needless to say, McDermott did not have a permit for any of his guns, including the shotgun and the semiautomatic assault weapon with which he allegedly committed the shooting yesterday.

By definition, only the law-abiding obey the law, criminals don¹t. When the government passes restrictive gun laws, those laws interfere in the lives of law-abiding citizens. Yet, it does not stop criminals or the mentally deranged bent on breaking them.

While neither state waiting periods nor the federal Brady Law has been associated with a reduction in crime rates, adopting concealed carry gun laws cut death rates from public, multiple shootings (e.g., those that took place in Scotland, Australia, and now Massachusetts) by an amazing 69 percent, according to Prof. John Lott of Yale University.

The strict gun control laws in Massachusetts did not prevent McDermott from carrying out his heinous deed. It only prevented his intended victims from having the ability to protect themselves and their co-workers. McDermott¹s attorney told CNN that his client was a psychiatric patient taking medication. Not only had he disobeyed the law but also, more than likely, he would have been disqualified from buying or carrying such firearms legally.

The police, of course, cannot be everywhere all of the time, unless one lives in a police state, and even there, history teaches us, one only finds tyranny, not lasting security. Yet, as criminologist David Kopel and others have demonstrated, supported by the research of Professors Lott and Gary Kleck of Florida State University, even the fact that a citizen may be armed may be enough of a deterrent to protect those who are unarmed in a given locality and prevent crimes, shootings such as the one that took place in Wakefield Massachusetts during this holiday season marred and made tragic by this horrible event.
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Here come the gun grabbers...

http://www.goal.org/breaking3.shtml


Cellucci endorses gun sale limits
by Kevin John Sowyrda


December 28, 2000

In an emotional reaction to the tragic slaying of seven software company employees in Wakefield, Massachusetts, Governor Cellucci has abandoned the philosophies of his predecessor and joined forces with the state's best known gun control politicians.

The Associated Press reported on December 28 that Cellucci has endorsed a bill filed by State Senators Cynthia Creem (D-Newton) and Cheryl Jacques (D-Needham) which would limit firearms purchases to one gun per thirty day period per licensee. Creem filed the legislation earlier this year but has promoted various political proposals since the tragic shooting in Wakefield on December 26.

The Gun Owners' Action League has issued numerous press statements asking that politicians respect the bereavement period and not use the tragedy for political promotions.

Michael McDermott allegedly shot seven of his coworkers on December 26 at an office in Wakefield. He reportedly used a 12 gauge shotgun and an AK-47 rifle. McDermott was in violation of various gun statutes at the time of the incident.

Cellucci's endorsement of the Cream-Jacques legislation curtailing gun sales is yet another disappointment for sportsmen and sportswomen in the Commonwealth. Despite the fact that Cellucci served as Lt. Governor to William F. Weld, who often enjoyed broad support from firearms owners, Cellucci has been hostile to positions advocated by the Gun Owners' Action League.

Cellucci is a strong supporter of Attorney General Tom Reilly's controversial gun regulations. Earlier in 2000 Reilly implemented, absent legislative oversight, regulations which affectively banned a large number of hand guns previously sold in Massachusetts. The attorney general cited safety concerns, but was unable to produce data to show any record of safety problems with the makes and models in questions, which include almost all handguns used by state and local police, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Cellucci immediately embraced the Reilly regulations. In the aftermath, numerous gun dealers have either closed their doors or announced that the present political environment in Massachusetts may compel them to soon do so.
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Why did he shoot his co-workers, when his beef was with the IRS? The answer seems obvious to me: Federal buildings have armed people in them, while the stupid gun laws in Massachusetts guarenteed helpless victims in the office building.
 
Please let the Massachusetts Public Servants know...

Folks,

If you have some extra time today, we in Massachusetts would greatly appreciate a letter to some of the following public servants letting them know our side of this tragedy.

Thanks in Advance.

~USP

To the Honorable:

Governor Paul Cellucci
Lt. Governor Jane Swift
Room 360 Office of the Governor
Boston, MA, 02133
617.727.3666
goffice@state.ma.us

Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham
Room 332 State House
Boston, MA, 02133
617.722.1500
tbirming@sen.state.ma.us

House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran
Room 356 State House
Boston, MA, 02133
617.722.2500

Attorney General Tom Reilly
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA, 02108-1698
617.727.2200
webmaster@ago.state.ma.us


Here is the text of the letter i'm sending out this afternoon...
Feel free to use it if you like, or modify it or what ever, just start writing letters!!!

Please allow me to begin this correspondence to you by expressing my deep and profound abhorrence of the actions that necessitate this contact; the horrible actions of Mr. Michael McDermott on Tuesday, 26 December 2000. I wish you to know that in my prayers are all of those involved, the victims, injured and uninjured, their families, and the valiant Law Enforcement Officers and Medical Personnel who responded immediately and courageously.

However terrible this event was, I beseech you to put off any legislative or regulatory actions you may be considering. Stop and reflect upon the facts of this event, before you react to the emotions of it. Undoubtedly very concerned and good intentioned individuals demanding that you tighten yet the laws concerning firearms in Massachusetts have contacted you. I would submit that those demands, if made into law, would do nothing to prevent the homicidal actions such as those of Mr. McDermott.

It is still early, and there are many things that we, the public, do not know about the circumstances and actions of Mr. McDermott. But still, there are some glaring truths that must be acknowledged.

Mr. McDermott had apparently no criminal background before his actions that day. It is hard to imagine just how any laws would have affected his ability to obtain the necessary permits to own any of those particular firearms he chose. Nevertheless, Mr. McDermott was not properly licensed to own any of the firearms he possessed that ugly day. This unquestionably proves that the body writ of all firearm laws in Massachusetts would not have prevented him from carrying out his evil plans.

Indeed he violated a slew of Massachusetts’ gun laws; the strictest gun laws in the nation. Enough violations to assure him an exceedingly long prison term even if not a single innocent person was harmed. Once again, we are painfully reminded that felons and miscreants do not respect the word of law.

Reading from the Boston Globe (Friday, December 29, 2000), Mr. McDermott apparently had time to leisurely reload his firearms before continuing. Obviously, magazine capacity was of little concern to him. When the victims are completely defenseless, it matters not the number of shots available. Mr. McDermott took his time; he was in no danger at all.

Mr. McDermott used a common hunting shotgun, very similar or identical, to the thousands that were used during the recent Massachusetts autumn hunting season. A shotgun very similar indeed to one I’m sure that most of Massachusetts citizens, at one time or another, has used to participate in a hunt, or to enjoy target shooting with their parents or children on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Massachusetts newspapers have been rife with statements from fellow workers, eyewitness accounts of the violence. Every one of them describes the slow, methodical nature of Mr. McDermott’s actions. Clearly, the only action which could have prevented or greatly reduced the number of injuries, was an armed response. At this point we can only speculate as to what might have happened if, for example an upper management person took the responsibility to learn how to safely, effectively arm his or herself, and had a firearm on hand in the office, “just incase something crazy happens.” The end result could not have been worse, only better.

Indeed, when the end finally came, it was an armed response that finally brought Mr. McDermott into custody. It is always this way.

But we must also recognize that firearms are not the only instruments here. Mr. McDermott was experimenting with explosive materials. Further proof that he would have devised a way, any way, to execute his evil plans even if he did not have possession of any firearms. Apparently, he was very knowledgeable in the manufacture of explosives from common domestic materials. Items you simply cannot just ban.

When the news of Jeffrey Curley’s brutal murder demolished the public, we clamored for the Legislature to enact a proper punishment for his killers. We were told by many not to leap to emotional conclusions in demanding the death penalty. We were not leaping to emotional justice in demanding the death penalty. In this horrible event we find ourselves in, there is only one solution. It is assuredly not further reductions of the ability to protect one’s self from the likes of Mr. McDermott. It is only the salvation that comes to the victim’s families when they know that the callous actions of one cannot be repeated.

The events of Tuesday, 26 December 2000 teach us only two things. Every person needs the ability to protect him or herself, when no one else can, from the insane actions of a single individual. AND, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts needs to enact a capital punishment provision to give some relief to society from the single individuals who choose to cause such grief.

Sincerely,
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[Edited by USP45 on 12-29-2000 at 12:13 PM]
 
Thanks USP,

Always good to have those handy so I don't have to look them up. It's time to hit the state senators as well. Cream and Jacques have proposed 1 gun a month and Cellucci is backing it 100%.
 
I believe Albert Einstein said something to the effect, "Irrationality is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result."
 
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