As Mass Gun Violence Rises, Debate Intensifies Over Strategy On How To Proceed In Active Shooter Situations
The recent shooting at a bar in California highlights how difficult it is to decide on how emergency responders should handle highly dangerous situations. Meanwhile, The Associated Press looks at California's gun laws, which are some of the strictest in the country. And a community grieves.
The Washington Post:
Ventura Shooting: Guard, Officer Killed, Stoking Debate About Active-Shooter Defenses
The gunman began his rampage by shooting an unarmed security guard outside a country-music bar in California, police said. After the attacker began firing on patrons inside, a sergeant with the sheriff’s office charged into the building to confront him and was cut down by gunfire. The Ventura County mass shooting that left 12 dead Wednesday became a grim test case in a persistent debate about how places such as schools, nightclubs and houses of worship should steel themselves against shooters and how police should respond to them. (Jouvenal and Horton, 11/8)
The New York Times:
A Look At California Gun Laws, Among The Toughest In The Nation
California, where a gunman killed 12 people in a bar in Thousand Oaks on Wednesday night, has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. It was the first state to ban assault weapons in 1989 after a shooting at a Stockton elementary school left five students dead. In the wake of several recent mass shootings — including one in February in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 students and employees at a high school — state legislators put forward at least nine new gun control bills in response. Here’s a look at the state of gun regulations in California. (Urbina, 11/8)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Gov.-Elect Gavin Newsom Criticizes Gun Rights Advocates In Remarks After Thousand Oaks Shooting
When asked about reports that the suspect, Ian David Long, was a former U.S. Marine who may have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, [Gov.-Elect Gavin] Newsom said that he had empathy for veterans with PTSD and that the country as a whole has failed to provide proper care for them. He called behavioral health a “sensitive topic” and stressed that the vast majority of people with mental health issues are not violent. Newsom noted that Brown signed a bill in September to impose a lifetime gun-ownership ban on people who have been hospitalized twice in a one-year period for mental health issues and deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. The measure does not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2020, but Newsom said there’s no evidence that it would have prevented the suspect from owning a firearm if it had already been implemented. (Willon, 11/8)
The Associated Press:
California Gunman Was Volatile But Passed Mental Assessment
Neighbors of Ian David Long described the man who shot and killed 12 people at a country music bar as distant in public but combative with his mother inside the suburban Los Angeles home the two shared. One ruckus in April was so extreme that they called law enforcement. Authorities brought in a mental health specialist who concluded that Long could not be involuntarily committed for psychiatric observation but worried the 28-year-old Marine veteran might have post-traumatic stress disorder. (11/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Mental Health Experts Declined To Commit Thousand Oaks Gunman Ian David Long After April Disturbance
PTSD makes people about three times more likely to commit an act of violence than those without any mental disorder, but that risk of violence jumps dramatically in people who also have a substance abuse problem, he said. There are other risk factors for violence, he said, including being young, male, impoverished or experiencing trauma and violence at a young age. (Karlamangla, 11/8)
California Healthline:
Deadly Shootings Are Rising In U.S. After Steady Declines
After steadily declining for more than two decades, deadly shootings are rising across the country, according to a new government report. The researchers also said that the number of suicides involving a firearm grew 21 percent between 2006 and 2016. The report, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at gun deaths around the country and in 50 major metropolitan areas. The researchers found a rise in gun homicides in 2015 and 2016, reversing a downward trend and bringing them to a level comparable to a decade ago. (Heredia Rodriguez, 11/9)
The Wall Street Journal:
Police Probe Motive In Southern California Bar Massacre
From Las Vegas to Parkland, Fla., Pittsburgh to Santa Fe, Texas, the nation has been shaken by the frequency of mass shootings over the past two years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says 30 active-shooter incidents in 2017 left in 138 people dead—both the highest totals since the FBI began keeping track in 2000. The FBI defines an active shooter as someone actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. (Lovett, Frosch and Elinson, 11/8)
The Wall Street Journal:
California Bar Shooter Had Domestic-Disturbance History After Serving In Afghanistan
Ian David Long, identified as the gunman in a mass shooting here, was a high-school baseball player remembered as a perfectionist who dropped the sport his senior year in part to focus on joining the military. When Long’s baseball coach sat down to write about him in a yearbook, one word came to mind: “Intensity!” (Berzon and Randazzo, 11/8)
KQED:
Thousand Oaks Shooter's Health Frayed In College, Roommate Says
Research on links between mental health disorders associated with military service and violent acts leaves an incomplete picture. Impulsive aggression, like getting into fistfights, has been tied to PTSD. But there was no higher likelihood for premeditated aggression in veterans suffering from PTSD. (Sepulvado, Jamali, Gilbertson and Denkmann, 11/8)
The Washington Post:
‘A Surreal Shock’: Las Vegas Shooting Survivors Live Through California Massacre
When the first shots were fired at Borderline Bar & Grill, David Anderson immediately knew he was in the middle of a mass shooting. He had lived through one last year. Anderson survived the attack at a country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017 that left 58 people dead. On Wednesday, he again survived a gunman indiscriminately firing at people enjoying country music, this time at college night at a well-loved bar. Twelve people were killed. (Zezima and Mettler, 11/9)
The Washington Post:
Thousand Oaks Parents: ‘I Don’t Want Prayers. I Don’t Want Thoughts. I Want Gun Control.’
Marc and Susan Orfanos awoke at 2 a.m. on Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to a call from a relative in New York. The groggy-eyed couple stumbled into a ritual that is familiar to parents in Columbine, Blacksburg, Aurora, Newtown, Orlando, Parkland — and, as of this week, also in the quiet outpost of Los Angeles. They waited to find out if their child, who had survived the deadliest gun massacre in modern American history last year in Las Vegas, had perished in another mass-casualty shooting. (Stanley-Becker, 11/9)
Los Angeles Times:
'We Have Been Drawn Into This Terror': At Vigils, Thousand Oaks Grieves For 12 Victims Of Mass Shooting
The wind that roared through Thousand Oaks on Thursday night threatened to drown out their voices, but the mourners still sang, channeling their grief, shock and anger into a familiar melody. More than 100 people fell silent as the strains of “Amazing Grace” wafted through the crowd and the light-wrapped trees on the lawn outside the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. (Gerber, Karlamangla, Newberry and Greene, 11/8)