Another tragic incident in America and this time the name attached is Chris Harper Mercer, a name that the Douglas county sheriff refused to say when making a statement, claiming that it would be glorifying the killer.
The standard process here is that despite his reluctance to give this information, the news would eventually come out in order to associate someone to the massacre and with that come heroic stories like that of Chris Mintz who blocked the door to keep the shooter out.
It's already public information that Chris is a survivor of the shooting but these details force us to examine the incident in more detail and think about the cause and effect of each decision, especially with what we know, that Mercer shot his way through the door and thus overpowering Mintz.
But as he's lying on the ground, he apparently said to the shooter, "It's my son's birthday today."
One report says:
He was shot in the back, abdomen and hands, and had two broken legs...
Another report says that after Mintz pleaded with Mercer, that Mercer shot him several times. Last time I checked, several means more than twice because another report says,
The Daily Beast
This could all be bad information due to rushed reporting (the only time when professional news media can have the unprofessionalism of a regular blogger) but if you read further in the last report linked, it reads:
once in each leg
If all of that information is correct, then there's some indication here that despite the way they're trying to paint this guy as cold-blooded and uncaring, might have shown sympathy for Mintz by shooting him in the legs. So, there's a possibility here that it might have saved him.
I can't help but think about those many reports about cops shooting unarmed people -- not unlike this situation if only for the pulling of one trigger as it comes down to the two men one gun scenario -- where they go for the killzone rather than go for a leg shot. Again, from what we can determine so far is that Mercer did this, twice.
Not to say that Mercer was an outstanding dude. He did end up killing a lot of people. And as much as I would like to make a generalizations about this guy -- as I do with gun rights activists, tea-baggers, Reich wingers and other extremophiles -- all it comes down to is a guy making a bold effort to show up at a public place with a bunch of guns they were able to get because his supporters let him. After all, they made the hard part easy, all he had to do was carry it out.
And since this post does mention cops, one thing to pay special attention to is Mercer's support of cops after the shooting of sheriff deputy Darren Goforth as mentioned in this New York Times article,
In case anyone’s wondering, I’m not on the side of the suspect, I’m on the side of the officer, and generally don’t agree with the black lives matter protests.
But going back to the statement made by Douglas county sheriff John Hanlin, making a decision to not name the killer under this idea that it would glorify the killer and influence other gunmen, is wrapped up in a point of view that is only his and needs the power of that conviction for itself to become influential enough for people with an ounce of intelligence to agree.
John Hanlin's point of view is in the same direction and even in league with Chris Harper Mercer but has the protection of law enforcement to be able to commit his shootings with little to no consequences at all. You can tell by his blatant support of extremist Reich wing ideas.
There's no doubt in my mind and in that of commonsense people that all the red flags neighbors saw in Mercer, combat boots, green army pants, white t-shirt (which he wore every single fucking day) and shaved head is just normal and patriotic to people like John Hanlin.