Shooting in Vermont

I was over at Jeff's place, reading his very good stuff, when I saw this post about a shooting in Vermont. It seems some goblin got upset after his girlfriend dumped him and decided to take a gun to the schoolhouse where she worked. Two people are dead, two more wounded. He couldn't find the girlfriend. When police drew close, he shot himself in the head, twice. He is expected to recover.

One wonders what might have been done to stop this tragedy. Jeff, of course, is all over this.

I'll repeat what I said, given his history of arrests on various charges over the last six years in Massachusetts -- at least one of them for violence, why was he NOT in jail? If we need more jail space, build more jails. That is the only way to really protect society -- by keeping these creeps in jail for meaningful lengths of time. It might not rehabilitate them but at least they can't terrorize the rest of us while they're incarcerated.

And you know Jeff is right. Massachusetts has been dinging Vermont for years about gun problems without doing anything to solve their own problems. Yet this goblin from Mass goes to Vermont, borrows a gun and shoots up a school. If Mass had locked this idiot away, none of this would have happened.

This isn't a gun control issue. The guy should never have had a gun, much less be able to commit murder with it. On the ATF 4473, this guy would have never been able to buy a gun. He was currently under information or indictment for a felony (block 12b), he is a fugitive from justice (block 12d) and he was the subject of a restraining order (block 12h). Anyone who would loan him a gun is a lunatic, and should be prosecuted as a principal to the crime.

All law abiding citizens nationwide would have been better served if the good people of Massachusetts had locked him away and kept him there. They failed miserably. Two people are dead and others injured over the failure of the Massachusetts criminal justice system. Now, the people of Vermont have to pick up the slack, to incarcerate this thug for the rest of his natural life.

One good lesson from this is that there are predators among us. Criminal deviants who have no sense of morality or decency or ability to abide by the rules of civilized society. They exist solely to prey on the decent citizens of society. I could make a list of them, people who have no desires except as relates to their own depraved needs. Many of them are locked away, but many of them are not.

In the final clutch, this goblin decided to commit suicide, but had neither the courage nor ability to complete the job. In addition to being a deviant, he proved himself a coward. Now, the good citizens of Vermont will be tasked with his upkeep.

That is indeed a tragedy.