Oakland cops shoot, kill boy, say he was armed A 15 year old kid was shot and killed in Oakland yesterday. Apparently he had a sawed off rifle and aimed it at Oakland police who fired at the kid killing him in an area known for gang activity.
This is sad. There are too many guns in Oakland, there are too many guns in America.
In unrelated news, the Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed the right of individuals to bear arms for non military reasons by a narrow majority.
The right to bear arms is not a right to be a criminal. The fact that you lump the two together in this post makes me believe that you really haven’t tried to look at the issue from a legal gun owner’s point of view.
So you don’t like guns. We get it. I also don’t care to own any guns. However, I have no issue with law-abiding citizens owning them. What I detest is criminal behavior, not guns.
Boy, the Supreme Court–or at least a narrow majority of it!– sure moves quickly.
It was already against the law for this teenager to carry around this illegally modified gun, California already has the most restrictive gun laws in the nation.
Incidents like this serve to underscore the pointlessness of restricting gun ownership as a method to reduce crime & gun violence. As it is where guns are “banned” only the criminals and the police have guns and the innocent citizens can only hope they aren’t targeted by the criminals or caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs.
hey, think about it this way, maybe the kids family can sell his organs on the black market to a certain small country in the middle east. maybe then they can buy a new car, or a diamond, or something shiny and new with the proceeds! because we all know money solves all problems. at least they didn’t have to frame him for a crime or anything. a little black humor for you.
i don’t actually own a gun (though my landlord is an influential rich republican who has a gun collection and has taken me to the range to practice) but honestly i think the balance is people have to be able to defend themselves. the problem is in that our culture glorifies, instead of stigmatizes, violence. if we learned to treat life with respect and got rid of this sociopathic reality tv mentality and social injustice that pervades our culture the guns wouldn’t be so much of a problem.
We in Finland have a lot of guns per capita because of a long tradition in hunting. However gun related violence is very uncommon although we do have our share of other kind of violence. We get drunk a lot and use our fists and knives in worst case. I think we have different kind of relationship with guns. They are considered for hunting and for hunting only. No one caries a gun if not in a forest intending to kill an animal for food.
So let me get this straight…a few weeks ago you were upset because Oakland cops appeared to be soft on crime and innocent people were getting hurt. Now you are upset that the cops are stepping up and doing their job. There’s just no pleasing you. Really, I think the only reason you gave a crap about the shooting in Piedmont is because it was close to home and not down in the streets of West Oakland.
What’s more sad then that is the amount of swimming pools we have here in Phoenix Arizona.
On the news they have a count of “how many days without a drowning” Sometimes we make it a month or more, then some dump parent has to not watch their kids.
Why do we even let people own pools? Pools kill people! I say ONLY have pools @ the YMCA, or public pools where there are trained lifeguards on duty!
Makes sense right?
~Adam in Phoenix
To the anonymous poster who claims Thomas is upset about at the cops for doing their job, maybe you should read it again. Seriously.
Anyway, I side with William on this. Too many people lump crime and guns together. On NPR recently they cited two statistics:
* 90% of violent crimes are performed without a firearm
* only 7% of the remaining crimes involve legally owned firearms
So you do the math. According to these stats one might expect a gun outlaw to lower violent crimes by less than 1%.
Now you are upset that the cops are stepping up and doing their job.
Anonymous, Don’t put words into my mouth. I didn’t say that I was upset with the Oakland police. I said that I was sad over the shooting. There’s a difference.
If the 15 year old kid pointed a gun at the police as was reported then I have no problem with their actions. I’m certainly not upset with the cops for doing their job.
Regardless though, I’m still sad that a 15 year old kid is dead.
So you don’t like guns. We get it. I also don’t care to own any guns. However, I have no issue with law-abiding citizens owning them.
I’m far less concerned with law abiding citizens owning guns as I am criminals. I think penalties for illegal gun possession should be much harsher than they are today.
Good, that dead 15 year old won’t be committing any more crimes. Darwinism is a bitch…
The Supremem Court in fact has not done anything yet. Tuesday they merely heard Oral Arguments in DC vs Heller.
In fact I’d suspect we won’t hear a ruling on the case until mid-November, to avoid influencing the Election.
As to the issue of guns, you’ve got two major and one minor issues in California, the first is the overly restrictive gun laws, specifically the lack of shall-issue CCW’s. The presence of shall-issue CCW’s tends to make criminals somewhat leery of pulling a gun on a civilian, as you never can tell who is armed, and said civilians are typically much better trained with their weapon than the Police are (Most CCW holders shoot more at the range every month than Cops are required to do each year).
The second is, as you have repeatedly noted, overly lenient laws on illegal guns.
The third, more minor, issue is the 3 strikes law. While the law is mostly a good idea, it does need to be adjusted so that minor crimes don’t apply. As it is there’s been a 9% increase in violent crime by criminals who fall under it, as there’s no point in not being more violent for them, they’re going to jail for life if caught even if it’s just minor theft.
You know, Guns are outlawed in Mexico. That doesn’t prevent the gangs from shooting up the streets and citizens to the point that armed military personnel have to patrol the problem areas.
Whoever the fuck sent the message at 9:18 doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. Jose was my friend. you don’t even fuckin no him man. 1st off, he didn’t point a weapon, if u were there or if u had factual information rather than listing to the media, maybe you’d find that your statement would be very irrelevant. he didn’t commit crimes. I know because i saw him at school everyday from 9am-5pm. Don’t speak on the deceased because thats cowardly and the reason being, is that you know not much will happen. i hope you feel good about what you said. If you want to know who i am (because fear has never crossed my mind for another human being) http://www.myspace.com/east_o_boy if the person that wrote that comes back. send me a message, i would love for you to justify your Comment’s content. Goodbye.
“PS”: most of the comments above are so disrespectful and rude. its unbelievable how mean people can be. look at yourselves before trying to judge my friend Jose.