"I've always been right in the middle on the gun control issue, and I'm not anymore."

[Robb]

Victim recalls 'hard, cold, intense' eyes of gunman who shot her during Santa Monica rampage

(snip)

Debra Fine was the first stranger shot by Zawahri. She was using side streets after her singing lesson to avoid traffic from President Barack Obama's visit three miles away when the gunman motioned at the car of the woman in front of her with his rifle, telling her to pull over.

Fine thought the man was providing security for the president's visit. Then he pointed the rifle at the woman and started to yell. Upset that he would yell at someone who cooperated, Fine accelerated.

"He looked right at me," Fine said. "Stared right at me and then shot. No hesitation."

Zawahri then walked toward her, shooting again. Fine was hit in the shoulder, arm and ear, and she lay on the passenger seat, pretending to be dead. Zawahri, meanwhile, carjacked the woman he'd stopped and directed her to Santa Monica College, firing at bystanders along the way and shooting up a city bus.

(snip)

"When I got ... into the trauma room and I heard one of the doctors say, 'Two more have arrived but they're DOA,' that's when I realized that this was part of something bigger, and that his intent had been to kill people," Fine said. "I'm just, I feel very, very lucky to be here."

"I've always been right in the middle on the gun control issue, and I'm not anymore," she added. "When are we going to get the guns out of the hands of the people who are mentally ill, or when is there enough proof that it's very dangerous to have those types of weapons out there?"

[BrotherIvan]

1. It seems far more likely to get shot by a gun nutter than blown up by a terrorist

So why can't we do anything about it?

[truebluegreen]

2. +100 nt

[CakeGrrl]

3. Because Congress is bought and paid for by the NRA lobby

If people paid more attention to what their "representatives" were voting or NOT voting for, the congresspeople who are impeding the path to meaningful legislation might finally be voted out.

It's too bad that something has to actually happen to some people personally to get them to understand the implications of inaction, but there it is.

[BrotherIvan]

4. Agreed

It must be pretty hard to be on the fence after the horrific mass shootings, but I guess some people need to be whapped upside the head to get it.

[Lizzie Poppet]

5. True...but both are very remote probabilities.

Terrorists and spree killers are rare. Garden variety criminals, on the other hand, are not. That's where the far greater probability of that sort of harm lies, and that's where the bulk of our efforts should be directed. Not that steps to inhibit access to weapons on the part of terrorists and the mentally ill shouldn't be taken, but when we have to spend political capital to get something done (as is the case with ANY gun-related legislation), let's spend it where it will do the most good.

[BrotherIvan]

6. I am MOST worried about some CCW idiot

discharging his gun accidentally in my face, not mass shootings or terrorist attacks. The more guns, the more "accidents". I have told my friend who just moved to Indiana to check with every single home her child might enter and if there is a gun, don't go, sorry. The kids can play at her house. I am not a paranoid person in any way, but the cavalier way these people treat their WMD is downright looney. The nutters on here argue against any and all safety measures because they are so paranoid that someone might break in and steal their shit. Property over people. There are a lot more of these dumbasses than "criminals" and they seem to do just as much harm.

[Lizzie Poppet]

7. I'm not.

Millions and millions of CCW permit holders (I'm one...), and an extremely low number of instances of criminal use by those persons. More common than terror attacks or spree killings? Yes...but a little. "Just as much harm" as the use of guns by habitual criminals? Not even close.

That said, I also just cringe at the way some boneheads approach the grave responsibility of owning a deadly weapon.

[BrotherIvan]

8. I appreciate you understand that it is deadly

Many people treat it as some cowboy toy.

[freshwest]

9. What a horrific story and injury. She's alive, but who knows how much more care she will need.