Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspectin Saturday’s shooting, was registered as a Republican voter, according to Pennsylvania records.

Already the republicans are dismissing his voter registration as meaningless. Here comes the “mental illness” angle.

Edit: apparently it’s not uncommon to register with the party you oppose in PA. This is going to be a fun ride.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    If law enforcement sees a guy on a rooftop with a gun threatening a crowd of people, though, that’s an acceptable situation for “shoot first, ask questions later”. That shot that killed the guy probably saved other lives.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        If you’re standing 20 feet in front of the guy, yes. If your only shot is across a field from one rooftop to another, you have much less control over where the bullet hits.

        • teft@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          At those distances (200-300 meters going by the map i saw) with professional shooters they can put multiple rounds inside of a spot the size of a dime. That isn’t the point though, you shoot to kill in those situations. Non lethal shots are hollywood shit.

      • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
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        5 months ago

        They also allow people to keep shooting.

        That is some Hollywood shit, in real life you shoot until the threat is neutralized, it could have been another las vegas

        • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Yes, one of the rules of gun safety is that you don’t point your gun at anything you don’t intend to kill.

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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        5 months ago

        Non-lethal shots are a fantasy.

        You have plenty of blood vessels in your limbs and it is very easy to bleed out via the femoral artery or whatever else. This is literally why tourniquets exist

        Assuming it is an actual threat and not a black kid with a toy train: Shoot to kill and then, when it is safe, have EMTs try to keep them alive.

      • teft@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        No one in the history of actual combat shooting is taught to take non lethal shots. Ever.

        • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Idk what your talking about. You shoot the gun out of the hand. Then you shoot the hat off for intimidation and the somewhere nearby you shoot the rope of someone getting hanged to free them to kinda balance things out. This is all common sense.

        • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          What do you mean with combat shooting? Because here in Finland police is trained to (and required by law) to try to minimize the damage and if possible, to stop someone without killing them, usually by shooting at the legs etc. But that’s more for knife fielding attacker and other situation where such shots are more possible and not when the cops or others are being shot at

      • constantokra@lemmy.one
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        5 months ago

        They’re less lethal, not non lethal, and they’re frequently used as an excuse to escalate violence needlessly. I’m very critical of the use of their use of force and would generally prefer police to be unarmed, but this is not a situation where I have any complaints. That threat needed to be neutralized as quickly and effectively as possible. Overwhelming force was the best way to do that.