What about this fellow????

[Basementdweller]

Another AR style rifle.

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5haV0q9KW1gKvnD3W4sk-yxAVf_ew?docId=545f47cd49d7490495c87869825d9ee9

[NealOnWheels]

It will be interesting to see where he obtained his weapons. Being a convicted felon he could not legally purchase them.

[noname]

Shows how good more guns laws would work! Lets get more restrictions on buying gas as well, he did start a fire.

[perdidochas]

Out of prison after only 17 yrs for killing his grandmother with a hammer? Sounds like a criminal justice problem, and probably a mental health problem. He wasn't legally allowed to own those guns.

[gsdad]

Imagine that, a Bushmaster. Call me paranoid(some already have), but am I the only one who finds it intiguing that all of a sudden these killers are using Bushmasters? The media used to call everything an AK47, is Bushmaster the new media label?

[FScouter]

How would the media know what company manufactured the weapon unless that is what they were told by police? What difference does it make anyway?

[Beavah]

Upstate New York, I'd expect 'em to be able to identify a firearm, gsdad. Da Bushmaster .223 of course was one of da low-cost firearms to get around da previous assault weapons ban by careful use of technicalities, so it became quite popular.

 

Current news reports are that da best guess of law enforcement is that da weapons were stolen in some previous home invasions. Criminals get guns when law abiding citizens leave their firearms unsecured.

 

Here's a Scout Salute to da brave volunteer firefighters who came out on Christmas Eve to what they thought was da rescue of a neighbor.

 

God rest ye merry, gentlemen.

 

Beavah

 

[Basementdweller]

Ya used to be able to get AK's really cheap, then it was the SKS and then the Norieco varient.

 

I imagine it said bushmaster on the receiver. Brand is irrelevant it was an AR clone.

 

 

 

[perdidochas]

Bushmaster low cost? Hardly. I couldn't find a new one for less than $700 in my searchings on the internet. MSRP for the cheapest on the Bushmaster website was $850.

 

Bushmaster is one of the more successful of the AR manufacturers, and IIRC, I read they were the number one selling AR. That is probably why they are involved in more of these shootings.

[qwazse]

That's cheaper than some people's annual cable bill.

[Callooh! Callay!1428010939]

"Bushmaster low cost?"

 

The idea that that the Bushmaster is "one of da low-cost firearms" must be one of those "Old School Conservative" positions. As a modern progressive liberal, to me it seems rather pricy for what you get. It's a semi-automatic rifle. I've never used an AR-15, but I've used both the M16 and the M4; the AR-15 is a popular design and other than being limited to semi-auto, it's not so different from its military cousins, so I imagine it must be OK. But at the prices it sells for, it seems like no bargain to me. You can get a semi-automatic rifle that in all the most important aspects would provide you with similar performance (in larger or smaller calibers, depending on your intended use or preference). But if people want the Bushmaster rather than something I might consider more practical.... as a modern progressive liberal I say let them choose the semi-automatic rifle they like.

 

Another "Old School Conservative" position is that the Bushmaster's design is "to get around da previous assault weapons ban by careful use of technicalities." Even as a modern progressive liberal, I can see how that could be true, since the assault weapons ban itself was an exercise in technicalities...whether or not they were carefully used is less certain.

 

Another interesting "Old School Conservative" idea that modern progressive liberals will find harder to agree with is that having something stolen in a home invasion counts as having left that something unsecured.

[Beavah]

Yah, sure, Callooh Callay, I agree with yeh that there are lots of guns I'd prefer to da AR-15 knockoffs, includin' da plastic-parts types like da Bushmaster.

 

I'll definitely agree that da assault weapons ban was a silly thing, the same way the recent financial reform act was a silly thing. But both were a silly thing full of technicalities because that's what lobbyists do when they can't stop a bill, eh? They turn it into a confetti of goofy regulation. Da assault weapons ban was neutered by da gun lobby by makin' it a gibberish of technicalities.

 

Good tactics on their part, eh? But bad strategy, because da response to that sort of lack of responsibility over time is bigger-hammer regulation or restrictions. As in "we just had 20 little kids gunned down by that technically legal gun so that didn't work. We should buyback all rifles."

 

It'd be much more effective strategy to represent responsible gun owners and help write good, effective regulation in some areas.

 

Beavah

 

[RememberSchiff]

There is a report now that Spengler obtained the firearms through a neighbor and perhaps her daughter. Seems a straw-man purchase (which are illegal) and not a theft but we know more soon. This information Spengler left behind in a three page note. ATF stated they were doing a trace on these firearms.

 

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121227/NEWS01/312270039/William-Spengler-Jr-guns-Webster-firefighter-shootings-fire?nclick_check=1(This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)