Shootings

[Blackhawk]

I'm guessing that he'll make a claim of cognitive decline and get off with a good finger-wagging.

[Punisher]

I'm guessing that he'll make a claim of cognitive decline and get off with a good finger-wagging.

Then he sjpuld still get a life sentence and be admitted somewhere as a mental pt. Either he dies there or gets better then straight to jail.

[Victoria Raverna]

Blaming video games again? I guess it is understandable that the families of victims need to blame someone but why not blame lawmakers who are against gun restriction? Vote them out of office?

https://www.reuters.com/legal/families- ... 024-05-24/

Families of the victims of the 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, filed two lawsuits on Friday against Instagram's parent company Meta (META.O), Activision Blizzard and its parent Microsoft (MSFT.O), and the gunmaker Daniel Defense, claiming they cooperated to market dangerous weapons to impressionable teens such as the Uvalde shooter.

Together, the wrongful death complaints argue that Daniel Defense – a Georgia-based gun manufacturer – used Instagram and Activision's video game Call of Duty to market its assault-style rifles to teenage boys, while Meta and Microsoft facilitated the strategy with lax oversight and no regard for the consequences.
Meta, Microsoft and Daniel Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Entertainment Software Association, a lobbying group representing the video game industry, said many other countries have similar levels of video game playing but less gun violence than the United States.

"We are saddened and outraged by senseless acts of violence," the group said in a statement. "At the same time, we discourage baseless accusations linking these tragedies to video gameplay, which detract from efforts to focus on the root issues in question and safeguard against future tragedies."

In one of the deadliest school shootings in history, 19 children and two teachers were killed on May 24, 2022, when an 18-year-old gunman armed with a Daniel Defense rifle entered Robb Elementary School and barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms with dozens of students.

The complaints were filed on the two-year anniversary of the massacre by Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, the same law firm that reached a $73 million settlement with rifle manufacturer Remington in 2022 on behalf of families of children killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

The first lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Meta's Instagram of giving gun manufacturers "an unsupervised channel to speak directly to minors, in their homes, at school, even in the middle of the night," with only token oversight.

The complaint also alleges that Activision's popular warfare game Call of Duty "creates a vividly realistic and addicting theater of violence in which teenage boys learn to kill with frightening skill and ease," using real-life weapons as models for the game's firearms.

The Uvalde shooter played Call of Duty – which features, among other weapons, an assault-style rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense, according to the lawsuit – and visited Instagram obsessively, where Daniel Defense often advertised.

As a result, the complaint alleges, he became fixated on acquiring the same weapon and using it to commit the killings, even though he had never fired a gun in real life before.

The second lawsuit, filed in Uvalde County District Court, accuses Daniel Defense of deliberately aiming its ads at adolescent boys in an effort to secure lifelong customers.

"There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting," Josh Koskoff, one of the families' lawyers, said in a statement. "This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it."

Daniel Defense is already facing other lawsuits filed by families of some victims. In a 2022 statement, CEO Marty Daniel called such litigation "frivolous" and "politically motivated."

Earlier this week, families of the victims announced a separate lawsuit against nearly 100 state police officers who participated in what the U.S. Justice Department has concluded was a botched emergency response. The families also reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde.

Several other suits against various public agencies remain pending.

[Blackhawk]

Ask Jack Thompson how that all worked out for him...

[Isgrimnur]

Alex Jones asks to convert his bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked a U.S. judge to convert his bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation, giving up on an effort to settle massive legal judgments related to his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Jones believes that "there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization" of his debts, most of which stem from $1.5 billion awarded in defamation lawsuits, his attorneys said in a court filing late on Thursday. A Chapter 7 liquidation would not allow Jones to escape paying the legal judgments, but it offers a streamlined procedure for selling his assets under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee.
...
Jones had asked the Sandy Hook families to vote for a bankruptcy settlement that would have paid them $55 million, but they unanimously rejected the deal.

The Sandy Hook families instead offered their own proposal for liquidating Jones' assets, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez will consider approving the Sandy Hook families' plan at a June 14 court hearing.

Because the bankruptcy will likely result in the liquidation of Jones' assets, Jones would prefer to liquidate his assets in a lower-cost and more streamlined court procedure, according to the court filing.

[Isgrimnur]

Judge rejects bankruptcy plan for Alex Jones’ Infowars but allows him to liquidate his personal assets

A Texas bankruptcy judge has rejected a proposed liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ company Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, saying that a denial of the bankruptcy plan was, in his opinion, in the best interest of the creditors.

The judge in the case, Chris Lopez, said the process had dragged on and that it needed to stop “incurring costs” and let the families try to claim what they are owed through state courts.

Earlier on Friday, Lopez approved the liquidation of Jones’ personal assets after the conspiracy theorist agreed to convert his personal bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation last week.
...
In a statement, an attorney for the families said they would press on.

“Today is a good day. Alex Jones has lost ownership of Infowars, the corrupt business he has used for years to attack the Connecticut families and so many others,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families. “The Court authorized us to move immediately to collect against all Infowars assets, and we intend to do exactly that.”
...
The families argued to the court that there is “no prospect” the Jones’ company could produce a proper reorganization plan under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would allow the company to remain operational through its restructuring.
...
But the Sandy Hook families are hoping to seize Jones’ social media accounts, arguing they are a key part of his Infowars business that allow Jones to promote his brand. And Jones may not be welcome at some venues: He had been listed as a guest on the Milwaukee stop on Tucker Carlson’s live tour but was recently dropped from the lineup without explanation.

[Pyperkub]

Horror in Michigan

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/15/us/roche ... index.html

At least 8 people shot, including 2 children, at Michigan recreation center before suspect is found dead, police say

[LordMortis]

Having a hard time not taking political jabs when I see friends on FB and know so many living so close... again... Anecdotally, gun play violence just keeps going up around here. It's depressing and nauseating when I see local posters on telephone poles asking for details on shootings. So it's literally thoughts and prayers but also outrage and fear. I'm a good 15 miles from the inner city and less than two miles from what was the fastest growing suburban municipality during the reign of Bush the Elder and yet here we are.

[Isgrimnur]

Detroit News

Nine people were shot at a splash pad in Rochester Hills around 5:11 p.m. Saturday after a gunman got out of a vehicle and unloaded 28 gunshots from a handgun in a “random” act at the streetside park, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Sheriff's deputies later found the 42-year-old White male suspect dead Saturday night at a home in Shelby Township after police breached the home with a drone, Bouchard said.

The alleged shooter might have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police were surrounding the home, the sheriff said. Officers on site did not hear the gunshot.

The gunman drove up to the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad along Auburn Road in Rochester Hills, got out of a vehicle, opened fire with a 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun, reloaded, fired and then reloaded a second time, leaving three bullet magazines at the scene, the sheriff said.

Police later recovered the magazine and handgun, which was registered to the shooter, helping lead investigators to the suspect's home, Bouchard said.
...
The suspect had no prior contact with the Oakland County Sheriff's Department, had no criminal history and is believed to have lived with his mother, who was not home during the incident, Bouchard said.

[hepcat]

I had no idea what a splash pad was until today.

[abr]

I had no idea what a splash pad was until today.

Me neither. (Too bad learning it in such a context.)