Gun Grabbers using Troy shooting for more anti laws

[Dan from MI]

And the media drumbeat has started.....
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/mich...3/1176435649323890.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

Turned down for handgun permit, accused shooter bought shotgun
4/12/2007, 11:30 p.m. EDT
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Last month, Troy police denied Anthony LaCalamita III a permit to buy a handgun.

But there was nothing to stop LaCalamita, 38, from buying a shotgun last Friday at Target Sports in Royal Oak.

Police say the general accountant, who had been fired last Thursday from his job with the accounting firm Gordon Advisors, used the gun Monday in a shooting spree that left a secretary dead and two executives wounded.

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So how could LaCalamita be denied a handgun permit but easily buy a shotgun a short time later?

The answer lies in the different requirements for purchasing the two types of guns.

Michigan and all but four other states — Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey — don't require a permit to buy a shotgun or rifle. Instead, buyers have only to pass a criminal background check performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

There apparently was nothing in LaCalamita's check that kept him from buying the shotgun, despite what his estranged wife's attorney said is a history of depression and mental health problems. The application for the background check includes a box asking if the buyer has any mental or psychological problems, but anyone can simply mark "no."

And Michigan, unlike some states, doesn't forbid selling guns to someone with mental health problems. Arkansas law forbids the sale of any type of gun to anyone who has been committed involuntarily to a mental institution, among other bans.

(snip)

Heads up folks.

 

[qlajlu]

So the problem here is the gun. I wonder if it crossed anyone's mind (now no jokes here or chuckling) if Mr. LaCalamita could have used a baseball bat, a rock, a knife, a Ninja sword or any one of a number of objects that can cause a person's death if he had been unable to buy the shotgun. If the intent is there, creativity is the answer and no amount of laws would have kept a gun out of his hands if he was dead set (pun intended) to kill some of the people who had made his life miserable.

 

[pdowg881]

I am so sick of this "If he didn't have a gun it would have been impossible for him to hurt anybody" crap

 

[ingram]

Personally... I would have preffered a shotgun to a handgun for that purpose anyways......... but to each his own........

 

[hexidismal]

Using this kind of thing is hardly surprising. You know what makes me particularly peeved about this article though ? The fact that it makes the ridiculous statement that the opinion and heresay of "his estranged wife's attorney" should have somehow been taken into account in his firearm purchase. In other words, the opinion and heresay of someone whose JOB it is to discredit him. I sure hope that they have some documented medical history to back that up , but it makes no mention of any such thing.

 

[Thain]

So, let's see... the only reason they give to be barred from owning a long gun his the second-hand report on his history of metnal health problems. Michigan law does not consider that a barrier.

They explain, in detail, about how he makes a legal purchase, of a legal product, from a legal vendor, in a legal manner... then he just happens to commit a henious illegal act... and its Target Sports' fault?

You know, I bet he drove to work that day. If he didn't have a car, this crime never would have happened!? Sue Ford Motor Company!

Sue MDoT for build the road!

Sue the IRS for making us need accountants in the first place!

 

[K-Romulus]

Helmke shows true colors again

From page 2 of the article:

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, said he'd like to see more background checks done by states rather than the FBI. Only 15 states do their own background checks on long guns buyers, while 26 do their own checks on people buying handguns, according to his organization.

"Generally the database that any state has, including Michigan, is going to be better than what the feds have," he said, adding if states think it's important to use their own records to check out handgun purchasers, they might want to apply the same logic to rifle and shotgun buyers.

"The bottom line is, we make it awfully easy in this country to get weapons," he said. "Everybody likes to say, `Let's keep them out of the hands of the bad guys and in the hands of the good guys,' but a lot of the potential bad guys are good guys until they do something wrong."

Gee, I wonder what sort of law we could pass that would eliminate that problem?

 

[Bezoar]

IF you read the original article as it apears in todays Grand Rapids Press, youll notice that california has no requirements/permit processing for the purchase of handguns or rifles,,,, thats from the brady bunch presidents mouth by way of default.

Well seriously, if you read everything about it, calamita was pissed about being fired right before the big crunch of the tax season. In earlier articles coworkers implied he was fired for being surely/unpleasent at a mandatory afterwork bocce ball party.