Not Even A Slap

It’s almost becoming a truism; behind every spree killer lies a judge, investigator,

prosecutor, psychiatrist or some other alleyway in the system that looked at someone who gave of warning signs…

… And did nothing.

So, naturally, with the case of Thomas Kinnunan, The man who tried to shoot up a church service in White Settlement, Texas a few weeks ago. He killed two people, before being shot by a parishioner on voluntary security duty.And yes, the system has blood on his hands:,

prosecutor, psychiatrist or some other alleyway in the system that looked at someone who gave of warning signs…

… And did nothing.So, naturally, with the case of Thomas Kinnunan, The man who tried to shoot up a church service in White Settlement, Texas a few weeks ago. He killed two people, before being shot by a parishioner on voluntary security duty.And yes, the system has blood on his hands:,

So, naturally, with the case of Thomas Kinnunan, The man who tried to shoot up a church service in White Settlement, Texas a few weeks ago. He killed two people, before being shot by a parishioner on voluntary security duty.And yes, the system has blood on his hands:,

Linden, New Jersey police arrested Kinnunen in September of 2016 for unlawful possession of a firearm.  Kinnunen had been riding a bicycle near a refinery while carrying a 12-gauge shotgun.  He told police he was homeless, traveling on his bike from Texas and taking photos of “interesting sites.”

Kinnunen’s trial took place in January 2017. At that time, he accepted a plea deal finding him guilty of criminal trespass, with no mention of a firearm. The misdemeanor was punished with time served at Union County Jail, totaling about 90 days.

The judge ordered him to forfeit his shotgun – but didn’t bother putting anything on his record that’d help any other jurisdictions deal with the guy.

New Jersey – tough on law-abiding gun owners, easy on criminals.

3 thoughts on “Not Even A Slap

  1. Not just psychiatric care, but no fewer than five states arrested him for felonies, and for whatever reason, none of those arrests ended up with a conviction. Any one of those would have disbarred him the use of arms.

    But we’re supposed to trust our safety to the government(s) that did this.

  2. Prosecutors are loathe to pursue felony convictions because the penalties for a felony conviction are permanent and can only be removed with great legal effort. If the penalties were reduced to 3 to 5 years after completing sentencing requirements, prosecutors might be more amenable to actually enforcing the law.

  3. JD, yes, but Kinnunen’s arrests include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, domestic violence, arson….isn’t there a certain point where we say “this guy repeatedly hurts people, we have got to take this seriously.”?

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