a. Almost anything you do to prevent them will overwhelmingly hassle people who weren’t going to do anything.

b. There will almost never be a policeman who has ever actually successfully headed off a mass shooting involved in heading off another actual mass shooting. That is, individual policemen won’t get the kind of experience they get identifying drug dealers or whatever, because most will never see an actual mass-shooter.

The math works out here in the same way as it does with profiling for terrorists. Bruce Schneier has written some nice articles explaining the problem in more depth.

Heading off mass-shootings is incredibly hard, just as heading off terrorist attacks is incredibly hard. The local police probably overreacted, but it’s not clear what the right way to handle this was. At least they didn’t do anything irrevocable.

The unconfirmed rumor is that the local ODOT manager has ousted 3 people with a state cop walking them out. One main concern being brought up though is, how did the cops get that info about him buying guns? As in, he somehow got put on some Gov/Cop list after being walked out from his job and then OSP sent a teletype to Medford PD after the guy bought his guns (and they let the check be approved). Then they sit on his house for awhile and surround his house at 3am with a swat team. Its also hilarious that they brought in swat from frigging Roseburg, 90mins north.

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

There is your answer Reggie.

I’m in no way in favor of this sort of action but I’m just wondering if there is something that could be done other than wait for a tangible threat to be made or a shot to be fired?

All this being asked under the basic assumption that this is BS

#34 Windy

Dave, I play World of Warcraft (nearly every night for 2 hours per), I am an agitator for freedom (all over the web), I own weapons…

I am also a serious gamer, but not very often online. I find it interesting that some of the games I’ve played are actually illegal in countries that live under authoritarian tyrannies like Australia.

But, you know what I fear most? I think someday someone is going to take my sarcasm seriously and mistake me for a terrorist or a serial killer. With my luck I’ll probably make a wise crack standing in line at the security screening at the airport and some TSA goon will shoot me dead. He will subsequently be declared a hero because, after all, he manged to take out the terrorist before anyone else got hurt (assuming of course that the TSA guy didn’t take out a half dozen bystanders while aiming at me).

Since I don’t own any guns, I’m 7.3 times more likely to get killed by law enforcement than someone who does own guns. Cops fear guns.

Yeah I completely pulled that 7.3 figure right outa my ass. It could actually be much higher.

I’ve never played WOW. I’m a fan of mindless run-and-gun first person shooters.

I’ve had firsthand experience with some of these very same jackbooted shitbags (including a crooked judge in Ashland by the name of Alan Drescher) in the past.
Trust me: These boys have decades of experience in the art of covering up their corruption. Taking them down ain’t gonna be easy.

3-11-10 ODOT WORKER ASKS POLICE FOR RETURN OF SEIZED GUNS

David Pyle, the Medford man involved in Monday’s SWAT team action, is requesting the return of his seized firearms. In the Monday morning incident, Pyles was taken into custody for a mental health evaluation, and later released. His firearms were seized by Medford police, however no charges were filed.

Pyle was reportedly placed on administrative leave from his position at the Oregon Department of Transportation, and has been working from home. Law enforcement officials had expressed concerns regarding his mental state after the work action, and that he had purchased a number of handguns shortly thereafter.

Kevin Starrett of Oregon Firearms Federation tells KMED news that Pyle explained to him that he had received a tax refund, and had been in the market for the firearms for some time…(more)

Have you considered a career in carpet humping?

If there’s a silver lining to this nightmare, it’s that the comments on the story are scathing.

Yeah, you can always count on the Right to stand up for due process when white people are imprisoned indefinitely without charge because they might become a threat with the future.

Otherwise, Liz Cheney et al. would be demanding to know why we want to free this guy, an avowed terrorist, so he can attack America again instead of letting the police torture him to find out who else was involved in his mass shooting plot.