Here We Go Again
The tragedy came from nowhere:
At least five people were killed and three wounded in a multiple shooting in northwestern Wisconsin Sunday afternoon. After a confrontation over the use of a deer stand, a 36-year-old St. Paul man apparently chased some of the victims through a heavily wooded area, authorities said.
The perp? As usual, nobody would have guessed:
Chai Soua Vang, 36, was arrested early Sunday evening in Sawyer County, Wis., said Sawyer County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Hodgkinson. Vang lives on St. Paul's East Side, police spokesman Paul Schnell said...Vang, lives in an aging, two-story house on St. Paul's lower East Side.
He and his family apparently moved into the neighborhood earlier this year, said John Black, a lifelong resident of the neighborhood who lives across the street.
Black and his wife, Cheryl, said Sunday night that the family pretty much kept to themselves, rarely interacting with neighbors. They said they never spoke with the man, but described him as "real clean-cut" and "nicely dressed."
The media's response?
Predictable as Old Faithful
They were killed with an SKS assault-style rifle, he added.
Even more predictable? There'll be a Nick Coleman column on the subject.
Back in - I think - 1988, after the Stockton Massacre, Nick Coleman wrote a (typically snide, ill-informed) column about a day he spent haulting a civilianized "assault" rifle - an AK-series, if memory serves - around in the woods, musing on how inappropriate he felt it was as a hunting rifle. Expect a reprise, and a further spate of uninformed reaction.
Posted by Mitch at
November 22, 2004 06:10 AM
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I spent an unhealthy bit of Friday afternoon fisking one of Coleman's recent columns. Even for Coleman, it was a particularly bad column:
http://ramblingrhodes.mu.nu/archives/055628.html
Posted by: Ryan at November 22, 2004 10:29 AMTragedy? Mitch! Car accidents are tragedies. This was an atrocity, whether the guy was mentally ill or not.
Posted by: rick at November 22, 2004 01:05 PMI've been blogging about this myself, (http://darnfloor.blogspot.com) seeing as how it happened near my home town.
And yeah, it definitely is a tragedy.
But I expect the media to focus on the "assault rifle" aspect here, as well as the cultural issues.
The AP has also called the SKS semiautomatic a "common hunting weapon." Am I right in thinking that it's actually quite uncommon to use such a rifle for deer hunting?
What bugs me is how the media is calling this a "hunting dispute" and "apparent shootout over who could occupy a hunting platform." Reports indicate that the eight people who were wounded or killed had one gun among them. Not much of a shootout. More like a sniper-style execution.
Posted by: Drew at November 22, 2004 01:56 PMThe SKS has, actually, become quite a common deer-hunting rifle; the 7.62x39mm round used in the SKS (and AK-series) has about the same stopping power as the very common 30-30 cartridge, and is cheaper than dirt. And the SKS rifle, like most military rifles and unlike most hunting rifles, is breathtakingly reliable, very difficult to jam under sloppy, wet, muddy conditions, and a piece of cake to maintain.
Posted by: mitch at November 22, 2004 01:59 PMI stand corrected. Thanks.
Meanwhile, I still cringe about the "hunting dispute" characterization going on. But I guess when more details emerge, we'll maybe find out what really happened.
Posted by: Drew at November 22, 2004 02:10 PMChannel 5, the station that "broke" the story, kept going on and on about the "automatic" weapon that the perp used. Anytime there's any gun-related information in a story, it's usually wrong. The SKS is a relatively cheap semi-automatic rifle, that can be used for deer hunting, not an "automatic".
And, Channel 5, nobody actually cares who "broke" a story except the other news stations. Really, nobody.
Posted by: Big Dan at November 23, 2004 07:17 AMI'm amazed that they're so concerned about being the first to break a story like this. "Six people are dead, and we've got the scoop!" Shameless.
By the way, the renewed calls for banning "assault weapons" have begun already.
Posted by: Drew at November 23, 2004 08:34 AMChannel 5 actually interviewed a gun store owner about the SKS, saying it was a pretty common gun for use in deer hunting, and whoever was doing the voiceover for that segment actually said something to the effect of "it's sometimes mislabeled as an assault weapon." There is still hope. (This was during their late news broadcast after MNF.)
Posted by: Kris at November 23, 2004 08:59 AMEvery now and then I like to see a story where the people interviewed say "That man was crazier than all get out. Everyone knew it was just a matter of time before he went postal and somebody got kilt."
Posted by: Roger at November 23, 2004 03:00 PMSee also Ralph Peter's ringing defense of immigrants and how they make this country so much better.
Posted by: Lee at November 24, 2004 01:27 PM