The Betting Window Is Open
By Mitch Berg
There’s been a shooting at the Washington Navy Yard – headquarters for the US Navy’s procurement bureaucracy. Recent experience shows us that nearly every first report on these sorts of things is wrong – but current reports indicate 4-6 13 dead.
And nobody remotely close to being an “authority” has even begun to speculate on who the shooter/s were and why they did it; one dead shooter is apparently a former Navy employee (Nope, NBC retracted that)
I urge everyone to direct your prayers, or whatever thoughts your worldview admits, toward the victims, their families, and everyone involved in this tragedy.
Now: It’s time to place your bets. We’re taking bets in several categories:
The Obama Pool: How long until The One tries to link this shooting to the defeat of his gun-grab agenda?
Bobblehead Roulette: At what time will the first Twin Cities leftyblogger issue a post blaming the shootings on the NRA?
The Martens Parlay: At what time will Representative Heather Martens (DFL-67A) release a statement blaming the shooting on the failure of the Paymar gun grab bills and/or the Colorado recall? (UPDATE 6PM: She did it!)
Black Gun Bingo: At least one initial report says “assault weapons” were used in the shooting. Who will be the first lefty pundit to claim that if only “assault weapons” were banned, this (apparently) multi-party, coordinated assault would not have taken place?
The Elephant In The Room Pool: How many mainstream and left-leaning alt-media outlets will mention that a) the Navy Yard is in Washington DC, which retains among the most draconian anti-gun laws in the country, and that in addition b) the Navy Yard, like all military facilities, is a “gun free zone?” (Note: “Zero” is already taken. Pick a different number). Bonus question: how many will blame the shooting on Virginia’s more liberal gun laws, without asking why the atrocity didn’t take place in Virginia?
UPDATES: Adding a few as I go here:
Tea For Three: Current reporting says there may have been three gunmen (Nope. Just one gunman). Which media outlet will be the first to blame the Tea Party?
Numb3rs: How many reports will the major media have to retract about names of victims (1 so far), shooters (UPDATE 6PM: At least once), number of shooters (UPDATE: Twice!) , motives, number of victims (UPDATE 6PM: Many times)…
The “T” Word: Some early reports claim this might be a workplace shooting – as in “disgruntled workers”. But if there are indeed multiple shooters? The idea of a “team of disgruntled workers” doesn’t pass the sniff test, does it?
Place your bets!
September 16th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
I bet on one (if zero is taken)!
September 16th, 2013 at 1:16 pm
Q: A group of Muslims break into an elementary school and shoot and kill dozens of children. Whose fault is it?
A: Guns!
September 16th, 2013 at 1:19 pm
Some reports say handguns where involved as well. All we need if for one of the perps to have used a shotgun to have a 3G ban orgy by the MSM.
September 16th, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Bonus question: which MSM network will be the first to realize that if they actually had some military veterans on their reporting staff, they would increase their knowledge base exponentially during stories like these?
September 16th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
I agree that early reports are almost always wrong or incomplete, so I’m not paying much attention to this yet. But, one thing I did see said it was maybe a disgruntled worker.
Except, current info seems to say 3 gunmen were involved. How many “disgruntled worker” shootings involve three people?? None that I can think of. (Hey Bob and Sam, I got fired and I’m mad and I want to go shoot up the place. Do you want to help me out? Squeeze off a few rounds and face heavily armed authorities who respond?)
Multiple shooters at a US military-related facility just sounds strange.
September 16th, 2013 at 1:31 pm
There goes the lone gunman theory. And I guess it is already too late to place a bet on which MSM outlet will be ther first to wrongfully identify shooters.
September 16th, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Guess who this:
ANOTHER shooting in WASH D.C. PLEASE America do nothing to promote gun control .because thats how we roll until we have all shot each other
September 16th, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Since my information is just as good as anybody’s at this point, I’ll tell you that the gunmen, there were 4, were members of the DC Ca$h Money Crew, an offshoot of the Rollin’ 30’s Crips.
They got their hardware from a Mexican gun dealer in Nuevo Laredo. The guns are more of the Fast & Furious stockpile.
September 16th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
JPA, if I’m not mistaken (and I never am), that is the Fonz running his yap again…Ayyyy.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:02 pm
yep, jumping the shark… again.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:05 pm
2pm, 12 dead, one gunman dead but not named, alleged gunmen are of multiple races including black, and the chief of naval operations was very near.
OK, if I’m talking about three men from different races willing to risk near certain death by shooting up a military facility….and they may have gotten near the center of operations…hmmm….who would that be?
I’m wondering, ahem, if the names of the shooters are being withheld for a very PC reason, so to speak.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
It appears I may have been right about 3G.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
Special note for all of you North Dakotans in the audience, given our maritime heritage and the fact that the salt water is in our veins:
Anyone getting a laugh at the news organizations that are calling a Chief Petty Officer an “Officer”?
September 16th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Looks like it was just the one guy.
The killings are the fault of white, middle-aged NRA members. Clearly.
September 16th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
[…] http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=38402 […]
September 16th, 2013 at 6:53 pm
“The killings are the fault of white, middle-aged NRA members. Clearly.”
– Yes, by whatever torturous up-is-down, black-is-white postmodern pedantry, sophistry, and general piled-higher-and-deeper bullshit is necessary to establish this meme. We will see metric tonnes of such analyses from the usual suspects – Jonathan Chait, Ezra Klein, Tansy Coates, etc. in the coming days and weeks, with tiresome and utterly predictable echoes from their minor-league Amen Corner acolytes on the Red Star Op-Ed pages, City Pages, the MinnPost, Dogshit, etc..
September 16th, 2013 at 9:07 pm
Alright, let’s everybody just calm the fk down. The NRA is on the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoTzLLZMrKc
September 16th, 2013 at 10:43 pm
The other week we were discussing security at our facility. The daycrew manager, a Canadian, mentioned that his guys were . . . strong believers in the 2nd amendment . . . what was the word for that?
I told him “Patriots, by God!”.
Okay, I’m kidding. But just a little.