From a video on the scene, the shots (if I'm hearing them correctly) sound like they are coming from a semi-automatic weapon[1].
Given that the mayor has stated that the weapon was acquired legally[2], I wouldn't be quick to rule out an AR-15 or similar kind of "assault" weapon. This certainly wasn't a bolt-action rifle (again, if I'm hearing the right things from the video).
1. After Uvalde, it's refreshing to see public safety officers running toward the danger instead of away from it.
2. As for blaming the media for not reporting the weapon type, have you ruled out the police themselves not yet releasing that information? The police spokesman is under no obligation to answer every question posed about an active investigation completely or at all.
3. Note that this wasn't even the FIRST mass shooting in Chicago yesterday. We kicked off the day just after midnight with one on the South Side[1]. If you want to talk about negative space in (national) reporting, that's probably a more fruitful avenue than the weapon type used by the Highland Park shooter.
#2: I have not ruled it out. I find it difficult to believe that the media would not ask and that if the police responded with “high-powered rifle” and nothing else that the reporter would not ask for clarification and report that the police are not saying. I may be wrong (as I wrote) but it would be a break from previous reporting.
Why even try Chris? Two take a ways, from the article (leaving the "monkey washing" out of the discussion. 1). It's the media's fault (with the rejoinder, "i could be wrong"). 2). More guns, if only we could get more guns on the streets we would all be safer. (Sorry, just my take on how the right sees solving the problem).
On a related point, apparently this jackass shooter has been on websites for years who delve and dabble in maniacs nattering about mass shootings. Who even knew they existed? And now that we do know, what are we going to do about them. Free speech isn't free when it results in dead people at the hands of those playing keyboard cowboys.
Nobody has the right to commit violence. Then again, if everyone who does memes on Discord (or 4chan or Twitter) was a serial killer in training, we’d have thousands of killers. We don’t, so picking through the haystack for needles is hard. It’s easy to say in hindsight “we should have known. The signs are all there.” But the signs are there for tens of thousands who don’t go out and kill people. How can we tell the difference? Either we limit actual free speech because it’s asinine or hateful or disagreeable, or we take guns from anyone whose rhetoric is “janky.” IF we can identify who is behind the keyboard. It’s hard.
I hate the word hindsight Steve, literally. Here's why; there is no hindsight, in the next weeks and months we'll hear and see more mass murders across the country. More families will wake one day and their lives will either be lost or ruined forevermore. We know this...and yet we do nothing.
What was most disturbing in this mornings article was this; does it really make a rat's ass worth of difference what the gun was that left 6 people dead in the streets of Highland Park? The simple reality is they are dead.
It has become terrifyingly apparent, this is now just business as usual. There are so many analogies that could be drawn about how we would respond if people were slaughtered week in and week out, and how we would take action to find solutions. In the case of gun violence, we point to the first or second amendment and say "oh well, that's just the price of freedom." One hell of a price tag.
I guess as long as its not one of your family members it's easy to be so cavalier. Nope, i haven' lost anyone to gun violence, i'm just, like so many. tired of hearing about thoughts and prayers. They don't bring anyone back, they just have to learn to live with the misery our "freedom" brings us.
Steve, looks like it was an AR-15 style rifle. According to police, the gun that was used to shoot dozens of people on the Fourth of July was a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle.
From a video on the scene, the shots (if I'm hearing them correctly) sound like they are coming from a semi-automatic weapon[1].
Given that the mayor has stated that the weapon was acquired legally[2], I wouldn't be quick to rule out an AR-15 or similar kind of "assault" weapon. This certainly wasn't a bolt-action rifle (again, if I'm hearing the right things from the video).
[1] https://youtu.be/-lj8mMk-3pw?t=69
[2] https://www.foxnews.com/us/highland-park-mayor-robert-crimo-weapon-shooting
Could also be an SKS or other magazine-fed semi automatic.
I may be late to the party here, but it was a Smith & Wesson M&P15 AR-15-style rifle.[1]
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/7/6/23197100/highland-park-mass-shooting-gun-mith-wesson-mp15-semiautomatic-rifle-fourth-july-parade-robert-crimo
Or dozens of other semi-automatics.
Three other thoughts:
1. After Uvalde, it's refreshing to see public safety officers running toward the danger instead of away from it.
2. As for blaming the media for not reporting the weapon type, have you ruled out the police themselves not yet releasing that information? The police spokesman is under no obligation to answer every question posed about an active investigation completely or at all.
3. Note that this wasn't even the FIRST mass shooting in Chicago yesterday. We kicked off the day just after midnight with one on the South Side[1]. If you want to talk about negative space in (national) reporting, that's probably a more fruitful avenue than the weapon type used by the Highland Park shooter.
[1] https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/teen-17-among-5-wounded-in-mass-shooting-in-chicagos-parkway-gardens/2872706/
#2: I have not ruled it out. I find it difficult to believe that the media would not ask and that if the police responded with “high-powered rifle” and nothing else that the reporter would not ask for clarification and report that the police are not saying. I may be wrong (as I wrote) but it would be a break from previous reporting.
When I get a chance after my calls (and job) today, I'll see if anything useful was said in any of the press briefings.
Why even try Chris? Two take a ways, from the article (leaving the "monkey washing" out of the discussion. 1). It's the media's fault (with the rejoinder, "i could be wrong"). 2). More guns, if only we could get more guns on the streets we would all be safer. (Sorry, just my take on how the right sees solving the problem).
On a related point, apparently this jackass shooter has been on websites for years who delve and dabble in maniacs nattering about mass shootings. Who even knew they existed? And now that we do know, what are we going to do about them. Free speech isn't free when it results in dead people at the hands of those playing keyboard cowboys.
Nobody has the right to commit violence. Then again, if everyone who does memes on Discord (or 4chan or Twitter) was a serial killer in training, we’d have thousands of killers. We don’t, so picking through the haystack for needles is hard. It’s easy to say in hindsight “we should have known. The signs are all there.” But the signs are there for tens of thousands who don’t go out and kill people. How can we tell the difference? Either we limit actual free speech because it’s asinine or hateful or disagreeable, or we take guns from anyone whose rhetoric is “janky.” IF we can identify who is behind the keyboard. It’s hard.
I hate the word hindsight Steve, literally. Here's why; there is no hindsight, in the next weeks and months we'll hear and see more mass murders across the country. More families will wake one day and their lives will either be lost or ruined forevermore. We know this...and yet we do nothing.
What was most disturbing in this mornings article was this; does it really make a rat's ass worth of difference what the gun was that left 6 people dead in the streets of Highland Park? The simple reality is they are dead.
It has become terrifyingly apparent, this is now just business as usual. There are so many analogies that could be drawn about how we would respond if people were slaughtered week in and week out, and how we would take action to find solutions. In the case of gun violence, we point to the first or second amendment and say "oh well, that's just the price of freedom." One hell of a price tag.
I guess as long as its not one of your family members it's easy to be so cavalier. Nope, i haven' lost anyone to gun violence, i'm just, like so many. tired of hearing about thoughts and prayers. They don't bring anyone back, they just have to learn to live with the misery our "freedom" brings us.
"God is great, beer is good, people are crazy." Country music is right again.
Steve, looks like it was an AR-15 style rifle. According to police, the gun that was used to shoot dozens of people on the Fourth of July was a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle.