Connecticut Elementary School Massacre

[FourthBase]

Obama claims Adam Lanza used a machine gun

Could very well be! Think arms dealers and entrepreneurship in the spunky old by-its -bootstraps USofA. I've met a few in life. Let's leave it at that. These dealers essentially from what I know, bought a shit ton off the old USSR stockpile and they've been selling that shit for decades. Yep. Just put that in the bank and I ain't saying anything else.

Shit, what's the name of that young dude who basically conned his way into becoming a big-time arms dealer, it involved a shit-ton of old Cold War weapons, thousands and thousands of guns, millions and millions of dollars, I think he operated out of...Florida? He wound up, with one buddy, from nothing more than a laptop, competing with fucking Carlyle for contracts, lol. Obviously, he was just an isolated example in a vast network. What was his name...I think I read about it in the Atlantic, but not sure.

[barracuda]

Obama claims Adam Lanza used a machine gun

Could very well be! Think arms dealers and entrepreneurship in the spunky old by-its -bootstraps USofA. I've met a few in life. Let's leave it at that. These dealers essentially from what I know, bought a shit ton off the old USSR stockpile and they've been selling that shit for decades. Yep. Just put that in the bank and I ain't saying anything else.

There's lots of cheap conversion units to fully and nearly-fully auto for the AR-15.

You're very good, and not unintelligent. Do you need a job?

In a dim enough room, I'm fairly handsome and a passable dancer, too. What did you have in mind?

[compared2what?]

The warrants impress me as possibly detailing a set of planted evidence. Two books on Aspergers sitting around, seems odd, as this was a theory put out right away, but I haven't heard much more about it--seems that people with Asperger's aren't the mass shooter types, but who knows.

It's true that they're not typically mass shooter types. But neither are people without Aspergers. Or, ftm, people. So you're definitely right to think that there's something wrong with the way the media's been phrasing it. It's really kind of a self-defeating way of trying to prevent stigma to single them out.

The books would be a suspiciously convenient confirmation of the early reportage if he didn't have that diagnosis, but not if not.

But that's just an observation. I have no opinion which, really.

--five serial numbers blacked out. Why?

Serial numbers on what?

Blacked-out passages: in several cases, names are blacked out but are not those of Nancy or Adam Lanza. Not sure about the blacked-out witness one, and why they blacked out Adam Lanza's name there, but not elsewhere, as the person who is considered a shut-in, etc.

The witness is FOIA exemption (b)(6), personal privacy

If it's obvious (or at least easy to see) that in one case, the redacted name is Adam Lanza's, that redaction is probably just a mistake. Although I'm just guessing blind on that one, I admit.

"Verizon Wireless cellular phone bills and contact bills for XXXXX and XXXX." For whom? Possibly the brother and the father? Can't be Adam or Nancy, can it, since they are mentioned by name in the same warrant?

I think it almost has to be. The warrant would have to have an affidavit laying out the grounds for service on the brother and father in very, very persuasive terms before a judge would sign off on it, under the circumstances.

The redactions are still (b)(6).

"One Visa Platinum debit card for Nancy Lanza-xxxxxxx" Would the blacked-out part here be the cc number?

Probably. That would also be exemption (b)(6). It's usually the only one you can semi-rely on them to make, for a case where they know people are watching.IMO.

But the thing about redactions is that they're almost always done by someone pretty low on the civil-service totem pole, just because redacting is tedious, time-consuming and unrewarding work. So there tend to be errors in both directions..

"Asbergers" -- spelled wrong

Good eye.

Timstar Shooting Range in Weatherford, OK -- will a connection be made to anybody else, at some point? Seems like a long way to go to practice. Would seem that all this evidenc eis meant to point to some crazy shooting club conspiracy. Thank goodness Connecticut got tough on these psychos...

Just wondering.

That level of t-crossing, i-dotting detail is supposed to be the standard, for both basic ass-covering and basic public-service reasons. But it's certainly true that they don't always meet it, in reality. So it might be suspicious. Or they might just have been expecting very close scrutiny. I guess that either seems plausible to me. But it's kind of a you-make-the-call type of judgment.. .

[Col. Quisp]

So they took away the stores license to sell guns but let 'em sell ammo in the meantime? The same kind of ammo etc. they said the shooter used? Nothing makes sense anymore.

Why take away the license in the first place? Sieg Heil!

[geogeo]

The warrants impress me as possibly detailing a set of planted evidence. Two books on Aspergers sitting around, seems odd, as this was a theory put out right away, but I haven't heard much more about it--seems that people with Asperger's aren't the mass shooter types, but who knows.

It's true that they're not typically mass shooter types. But neither are people without Aspergers. Or, ftm, people. So you're definitely right to think that there's something wrong with the way the media's been phrasing it. It's really kind of a self-defeating way of trying to prevent stigma to single them out.

The books would be a suspiciously convenient confirmation of the early reportage if he didn't have that diagnosis, but not if not.

But that's just an observation. I have no opinion which, really.

--five serial numbers blacked out. Why?

Serial numbers on what?

Serial numbers on XBox 360 game console, a Linksys wireless router, cable modem, laptop, laptop

[compared2what?]

Serial numbers on what?

Serial numbers on XBox 360 game console, a Linksys wireless router, cable modem, laptop, laptop

I don't know why those are redacted, but according to the newspapers, all of the redactions were specifically requested in a motion by State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky in late March.

While it's not unusual to see most of the personal-information-type stuff redacted under any circumstances, my guess would be that he probably decided to be extra-sure because he had Rodia and that other poor guy (whose name I forget) in mind.

It's a shame...

[barracuda]

EAST WINDSOR, CT (WFSB) -
Eyewitness News has learned more about a Connecticut gun shop that sold two of the weapons found at the scene of the Newtown school shooting.

The attorney for Riverview Gun Sales told I-Team Reporter Len Besthoff that in March of 2010, the shop sold Nancy Lanza the AR-15 assault rifle her son used at Sandy Hook Elementary School

In March of 2011, store officials sold her a Sig Sauer handgun, which also found at the school where 20 children and six adults were shot and killed on Dec. 14.

Those sales, however are not what caused the East Windsor store to lose its federal firearms license.

The reasons Riverview Gun Sales lost its federal firearms license were laid out in a 12-page document by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The ATF says losing the license is pretty rare and last year, it revoked only about 1 percent of them.

The document states the agency inspected and found violations at Riverview in 2007, 2009, and 2011.

During the one in 2011, "the licensee committed over 500 violations," ATF documents stated.

The ATF inspection in 2011 revealed that Riverview employees:

- Allowed a man who said he was a felon to buy ammo and handle firearms.
- Let someone buy a firearm and didn't do background check until the next day.
- Sold firearms to two people without checking if they were prohibited from buying.

The ATF though did find fault with Riverview Gun Sales Owner David Laguercia, who is the federal firearms license holder.

According to ATF documents, "between September 2004 and January 2010, the licensee received 11 separate instances of instruction from the ATF regarding how to comply with federal firearms laws and regulations."

"The large number of repeat violations demonstrates that, the licensee and his employees purposefully disregarded and/or were plainly indifferent to their Gun Control Act obligations," according to ATF documents.

Laguercia referred all comments to his attorney, Rob Altchiler.

Altchiler told Eyewitness News that he did not feel the license for Riverview Gun Sales should have been revoked as a result of those specifications.

"Future plans are being formulated," said Altchiler when asked if Laguercia was going to try to get another federal firearms license holder to sell guns at Riverview Gun Sales.

This is not the only recent issue at Riverview Gun Sales. Police arrested Jordan Marsh, 26, of South Windsor after he was caught stealing a 50-caliber long gun there on Dec. 15.

Later in the day, police seized an AR-15 with a scope that was found in a duffel bag at the Hartford Hilton where Marsh was staying. Police said that gun was stolen from Riverview Gun Sales.

The East Windsor Police Department said Riverview Gun Sales had no idea the AR-15 Marsh stole was missing. Management at the store also didn't know about another 11 guns that Marsh had stolen last year until they were notified by detectives.

Documents at link:

http://www.wfsb.com/story/21937184/docu ... st-license

[dbcooper41]

http://articles.courant.com/2012-12-21/news/hc-east-windsor-gun-shop-1221-20121220_1_gun-shop-adam-lanza-bushmaster-rifle

(John Krebs, Fox CT )December 21, 2012|By DAVID OWENS, EDMUND H. MAHONY and DAVE
ALTIMARI, dowens@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
EAST WINDSOR — — The guns used in the last two mass murders in Connecticut were
purchased at same East Windsor gun shop.

Records show that Omar Thornton, who killed eight people and himself at Hartford
Distributors Inc. in 2010, purchased both the Glock and Walthers pistols he used
at the Riverview Gun Sales shop on Prospect Hill Road.

Sources investigating the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown have said that the Bushmaster rifle used by the gunman Adam Lanza was
purchased at that same shop by his mother Nancy Lanza.

All three guns were purchased legally, according to police reports from the HDI
shooting and sources investigating the Newtown case.
On Thursday, agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, as well as local police officers, raided the gun shop and removed
records. ATF officials called the East Windsor raid a law enforcement operation
that is a spinoff from another investigation.
ATF spokeswoman Debra Seifert said Friday she had not information about the
raid.

Other law enforcement sources said Nancy Lanza bought one of several weapons she
owned at Riverview Gun Sales. But those sources said the interest of federal
agents in the store grew out of events at the store that are not related to
Nancy Lanza's purchase.
The sources said that Nancy Lanza's guns appear to have been purchased legally
and registered properly.
Lanza, who lived with his mother, shot her repeatedly in the head before driving
to the school and killing the first grade students and educators. Authorities
have said Lanza used a Bushmaster .223-caliber, semiautomatic rifle purchased by
his mother. Lanza shot himself as police arrived at the school.
Three law enforcement sources said Nancy Lanza bought the Bushmaster rifle at
the East Windsor store. But Seifert declined to discuss the purchase of the
rifle, and the owners of the store could not be reached Thursday. A telephone
recording said the store was closed in "respect" for the deaths in Newtown.
The arrival of ATF agents at the store Thursday was not the first time they have
visited it. Since the shootings on Dec.14, ATF agents have visited stores and
shooting ranges where Nancy Lanza is believed to have purchased guns, as well as
target ranges where she is believed to have shot with her son Adam.
Seifert said Thursday that neither Nancy nor Adam Lanza are believed to have
engaged in target shooting over the last six months.
Two law enforcement sources said that, on Thursday, ATF agents returned to the
store to re-examine records that they had examined on a prior visit.

On Saturday, a South Windsor man — who had received a suspended prison sentence
and two years probation in May on charges of stealing a dozen rifles and
shotguns from Riverview Sales — tried to steal a sniper rifle from the same
store, police said.

Jordan Marsh, 26, pleaded guilty May 10 to a single count of stealing a firearm
and received a suspended prison sentence and two years of probation.

According to East Windsor police, on Saturday, Marsh grabbed a Bushmaster
.50-caliber rifle from Riverview Sales valued at $5,000 and ran from the store.
When store employees confronted Marsh, he pulled a knife, then fled on foot.
Police officers eventually caught and arrested him.

In June 2007 a Somers man who occasionally worked at Riverview Sales was charged
with stealing 33 guns from the business. In that case the store's owner, David
E. Laguercia, contacted ATF after determining his store could not account for 33
firearms. Video surveillance showed the man taking two guns.

In March 2008 that man pleaded no contest to two counts of stealing a firearm
from the store and received an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
Courant reporter Hilda Munoz contributed to this story.

[barracuda]

[compared2what?]

So they took away the stores license to sell guns but let 'em sell ammo in the meantime? The same kind of ammo etc. they said the shooter used? Nothing makes sense anymore.

I know you have me on ignore, but since it's not reciprocal and I've got nothing but amiable feelings about you, fwiw:

I don't know what the logic behind it is, but the reason for that is that you don't need a license or permit to sell (factory-boxed, unreloaded) ammunition. So it's not something the ATF is in a position to let or not let them do.

Why take away the license in the first place?

Technically, it was presumably because of the several years of repeated and unremedied violations mentioned in the articles posted by barracuda and dbcooper41.

But my guess would be that in reality, it was probably because the fact of their having sold weapons to two mass murderers was a little too much of an advertisement for how lax enforcement of federal firearms law really is for the ATF not to feel like some gesture in the direction of doing its job was required, in this particular instance.

Sieg Heil!

I don't know about that. I mean, they're still in business selling ammo, after all.

John Krebs, Fox CT )December 21, 2012|By DAVID OWENS, EDMUND H. MAHONY and DAVE
ALTIMARI, dowens@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
EAST WINDSOR — — The guns used in the last two mass murders in Connecticut were
purchased at same East Windsor gun shop.

Records show that Omar Thornton, who killed eight people and himself at Hartford
Distributors Inc. in 2010, purchased both the Glock and Walthers pistols he used
at the Riverview Gun Sales shop on Prospect Hill Road.

From wiki:

The Hartford Distributors shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on August 3, 2010, in Manchester, Connecticut, United States. The location of the crime was a warehouse owned by Hartford Distributors, a beer distribution company. The gunman, former employee Omar Shariff Thornton (born April 25, 1976)[1] shot and killed eight people before turning a gun on himself.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

The shooting

Thornton, a 34-year-old African American man, was called into his place of employment for disciplinary purposes. Thornton had been recorded on surveillance video in the Hartford Distributors warehouse stealing beer on a previous occasion. Hartford Distributors is a wholesale distributor of Budweiser beer products and wine. Given the options of being fired or resigning, Thornton signed the resignation papers and was being escorted out of the building. Instead of leaving, he took two Ruger SR9 pistols from his lunchbox and opened fire.

At the time Thornton started shooting, there were around 40 employees in the building. In just a few minutes, Thornton murdered eight coworkers, and seriously injured two others. Many employees made calls to 911, with some callers identifying Thornton.[10] Police arrived on the scene just three minutes after the first 911 call.[11] Police entered the building 10 minutes after the first 911 call. Thornton hid in a locked office. As more police entered the building, Thornton called his mother and explained to her what he had done. He told her he planned on turning the gun on himself. As police closed in, Thornton called 911, saying his motive for the massacre was racism he had experienced in the workplace. He told the 911 operator that he wished he had killed more people.[12][13] Soon after hanging up on 911, he killed himself with a shot to the head.
Wikinews has related news: Nine dead in shooting rampage at Connecticut beer warehouse

Aftermath

Family members of Thornton have stated that he had complained to them that he was being racially discriminated against at his job. Thornton's girlfriend claimed that he had seen a picture of a noose and a racial epithet written on a bathroom wall.[14] Thornton was African American in a facility that had mostly white employees. Company and union officials as well as workers at the facility have denied the murderer's charges of racism.[15] The union notes that he never filed a complaint with the union or any government agency.[16] Forensic psychiatrist Keith Ablow stated, "I’ve evaluated plenty of murderers during my career... and I can tell you that people don’t commit atrocities because of name-calling."[17]

Like that's all there is to racism: Name-calling.



Not that it means anything wrt Thornton's motive, though.

A police probe did not find proof of racism at Hartford Distributors, with other minority workers at Hartford Distributors interviewed by the police disagreeing with Thornton's allegation that the company was "a racist place".[18]

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_D ... s_shooting

[dbcooper41]

http://hosted2.ap.org/NCBER/e28a81d332e24969a4356b622d3ea5d2/Article_2013-04-24-Newtown%20Budget/id-4ee28094ad0f457d81214565023fdaac

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — Newtown residents have rejected a budget that included
money for extra school security in the wake of the December school shootings.
Voters turned down the $72 million school budget by 482 votes and rejected the
$39 million town government budget by 62 votes Tuesday. Nearly 4,500 residents
voted on the plans, which would have increased spending by 4.7 percent next
fiscal year.
Officials put an extra $770,000 in the school and town budgets to hire extra
police officers, unarmed security guards in each of Newtown's public and private
schools. The plan was spurred by the shootings that killed 20 first-graders and
six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Jeffrey Capeci, chairman of the town's Legislative Council, and First
Selectwoman Patricia Llodra say the budget increase of 5.25 percent was a hard
sell to voters.

[Iamwhomiam]

Fish, long ago after Lanza's guns had been retrieved and he had been identified, a news report, I think it was the police official, said Lanza's gun had been modified, with 3 30 round magazines taped together. Taping clips together side by side, not end to end, cannot be considered to have modified his weapon. I mentioned this back here.

To me, a conversion kit to fire either 3 round bursts or fully automatic is the only meaning for "modified." So he may well have used a weapon that was modified from semi-auto to fully automatic. When one considers the multiple wounds each victim received, it makes more sense.

[barracuda]

Oh, I agree entirely, Iamwhomiam. I haven't read anywhere else that Lanza shot a modded weapon, rather, I think he bump-fired his semi. It's very easy to do. My best guess is that Obama misspoke, either mistakenly or to purposefully make a political point.

[Iamwhomiam]

I read it on a Yahoo news page, but later, when I went back to locate it I could not find it, though I searched for it. Bump fire I don't think would be all that accurate. The kick of an AR-15 with .223 barrel in fully auto mode is not so great. But we'll never see any photos from inside taken that day to see if his firing was all on-target or sprayed about. Who knows? Just another sad day in Amerika.

[barracuda]

Bill Drafted In Secret Would Block Release Of Some Newtown Massacre Records

The staffs of the state's top prosecutor and the governor's office have been working in secret with General Assembly leaders on legislation to withhold records related to the police investigation into the Dec. 14 Newtown elementary school massacre — including victims' photos, tapes of 911 calls, and possibly more.

The behind-the-scenes legislative effort came to light Tuesday when The Courant obtained a copy of an email by a top assistant to Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, Timothy J. Sugrue. Sugrue, an assistant state's attorney, discussed options considered so far, including blocking release of statements "made by a minor."

"There is complete agreement regarding photos etc., and audio tapes, although the act may allow the disclosure of audio transcripts," Sugrue wrote to Kane, two other Kane subordinates and to Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky, who is directing the investigation of the killings.

The bill that's being crafted has not been handled under routine legislative procedures — it hasn't gone through the committee process, which includes a public hearing, for example. Sugrue's email Tuesday indicated that a draft of the bill was being worked on by leaders in both the House and Senate, and might be ready as soon as the end of the day.

He wrote: "I just received a call from Natalie Wagner" — a member of the legal counsel's staff in the office of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

"She believes that draft language will be forthcoming today (the work of both houses) in the form of a special act. ..." Sugrue wrote that Wagner "will send me the draft in confidence when she receives it, and I will immediately forward it."

However, late Tuesday, the legislation proposed by Kane wasn't ready to be acted on in either legislative chamber, said Malloy's director of communications, Andrew Doba. He said he did not know when that might happen.

"A lot of people, including our office, have heard the concerns expressed by the families of Newtown victims, and are exploring ways to respect the families' right to privacy while also respecting the public's right to information," gubernatorial chief of staff Mark Ojakian said in a statement released by Doba.

A major question yet to be settled is whether the legislation would apply only to the Newtown case, or to documents from other criminal cases that are now subject to public disclosure. A report on the police investigation into the Newtown shooting is expected to be released in June.

As envisioned by Kane, the bill wouldn't be limited to the Newtown file.

"We are seeking legislation to protect crime scene photographs protecting victims and certain 911 tapes," Kane told The Courant Tuesday. "It is something that I have been concerned about for years and years and the situation in Newtown brings it to a head. I don't want family members seeing pictures of their loved ones publicized in a manner in which these are subject to be published."

He said as he sees the legislation, it would apply to "basically crime scene photographs depicting injuries to victims and recordings, 911 recordings displaying the mental anguish of victims. Things like that, of that category. And it seems to me that the intrusion of the privacy of the individuals outweighs any public interest in seeing these."

Sugrue said in his email that the "forthcoming" language would be "in the form of a special act, not an amendment to the [state's Freedom of Information Act]."

As originally discussed behind the scenes, the proposed legislation would have amended the state's freedom of information law by adding a blanket exemption to disclosure of any "criminal investigation photograph, film, videotape, other image or recording or report depicting or describing the victim or victims."

Colleen Murphy, the director of the state's FOI Commission, said Tuesday that her staff had argued against the idea of such a blanket change. She said a couple of weeks ago the office of House Speaker Brendan Sharkey provided her agency with a draft including the blanket exception. She said she was advised that this draft would not be put to a vote, but she knew nothing abut the contents of the "forthcoming" draft.

Murphy said she'd urged that lawmakers be "thoughtful and careful about any legislation" and to "not be reactive to one situation" by making changes that could have long-term, unintended effects.

Murphy was unaware of Sugrue's email when The Courant told her about it late Tuesday afternoon. She said she and her staff had not been receiving detailed updates. Asked if she would have liked to have been kept aware of developments such as Sugrue's email, she said yes.

The killing of 20 first-graders and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown has sparked a number of legislative proposals this year to protect the privacy of the victims' families and spare them further pain. One example is a bill that would exempt the death certificates of minors from public disclosure for six months.

On Dec. 14, Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home then drove to the school, where he used a semiautomatic rifle in the massacre. He then killed himself. Most investigative records have yet to be released concerning Lanza, including any psychological reports.

If the proposed legislation ends up blocking the release of victims' photos and tapes of 911 calls — on which Sugrue said "there is complete agreement" — it wouldn't be a significant departure from normal procedures with regard to photos, but would be a major departure with regard to tapes of emergency calls.

As a matter of long practice, Connecticut police departments do not release grisly photos of victims. These only emerge in public when placed in evidence during criminal trials, and when they do they generally are not published in newspapers or on television.

"Our concern is the media and the Internet and all the bloggers," Kane said. "If this stuff is FOI-able. ... You've seen these pictures, which are sometimes introduced as exhibits in court at a trial. The print media certainly doesn't print those. And normally the TV doesn't. But this case rose to a whole different level. Subject to FOI, any member of the public can get them."

Audio tapes of 911 tapes, on the other hand, are routinely released by police under FOI laws in Connecticut and across the country. Law enforcement officials have refused to release the 911 call tapes in the Newtown case so far. Those tapes were released after other recent major crimes, including the 2010 Hartford Distributors shootings in Manchester.

The release of such tapes are often used by the news media or lawyers to evaluate the police response to emergencies.

Sugrue's email on Tuesday discussed, in vague terms, potential "consent" provisions under which victims' family members apparently would have say over what information might be withheld or released. He mentioned a proposal to "allow the written consent of one immediate next of kin" – to accommodate one parent's "desire to obtain records that relate to her son." But, he added, that might be unfair to "the other families if one member thereof gives the consent."

Also unclear Tuesday was the question of which government officials would decide whether to release or withhold information under the bill.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut ... 6671.story