Only One Mass Shooting Yesterday, Yay Cheer!

Also a thwarted mass shooting attempt in San Antonio. Hooray?

A gunman opened fire at a FedEx facility near the Indianapolis airport last night, killing at least eight people and wounding several more; he killed himself shortly after police arrived. It was the fifth mass shooting in as many weeks, the Washington Post helpfully informs us. As of yet, we know nothing about the shooter's identity or motives, just that he had access to a highly efficient killing machine, as do all Americans with a clean background check (and many who find ways to avoid such checks ).

Police say the dead were found both inside and outside the FedEx building, and that five people were taken to hospitals with "injuries consistent with gunshot wounds." One of those survivors was in critical condition . Other people with a variety of injuries were able to get themselves to hospitals as well, and two people were treated at the scene and released. Just to remind you, the wounds inflicted by a high-powered semiautomatic rifle, which appears to be the weapon used here, are often horrifying.

The shooting was all over in a minute or two, according to Indianapolis police spokesperson Craig McCartt, who also told CNN police believed the killer had a rifle, but it's not clear how many other guns he may have had as well. We're looking forward to the inevitable gun advocates' insistence that if only a bystander had been carrying their own handgun they could have sniped the gunman during the first few moments.

The Indianapolis Star   reported this morning that as of 7: 30 local time, eight hours after the shooting, family members of people who worked at the FedEx facility were still waiting in the lobby of a Holiday Inn Express to find out whether their loved ones had made it out alive.

"I'm just worried about my father," Ashlee Floyd said. "I don't know if he's OK. I don't know if he's injured. I don't know if he's gone. I'm just scared right now."

Floyd wore gray pajamas. A phone call from her nephew in New Mexico woke her up after he saw news of the shooting on TV. She grabbed her keys, her purse, the first shoes she saw and went to find her father.

Her dad usually calls his wife to check in around 11: 25 every night, she said, but she didn't get a call last night. He didn't answer a call routed to his watch (she knows FedEx doesn't let workers keep their phones turned on while at work), but maybe that's just because of all the chaos following the shooting.

A White House official confirmed this morning that President Joe Biden would be briefed on the shooting as well.

White House chief of staff Ron Klain has already been in communication with Indianapolis' mayor, and Biden's homeland security adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, is also in touch with law enforcement, according to the official.

With action on even the simplest enhancement of background checks seemingly stalled in the Senate, Biden recently announced several executive actions aimed at incrementally tightening up the proliferation of guns in the US. The next steps in the dance will be that gunhumpers will insist such small steps will endanger liberty while doing nothing to stop gun killings. Then gun control advocates will point to the low rate of gun violence in Massachusetts, whose strict gun licensure really could do something to stop the carnage if it was adopted more widely. Then the gunhumpers will cry tyranny and rush out to buy more guns, insisting that once all Americans are armed, everyone will finally be safe.

Also yesterday, an off-duty cop in San Antonio shot and killed a man who had been firing a gun outside an airport terminal, probably heading off what would have been another mass shooting, had the man made it inside the airport.

The shooter — who has not been identified — had "a full box of ammunition," according to [San Antonio Police Chief William] McManus. "He had a .45 caliber handgun that he was shooting in the direction of the terminal, at the police officer and behind him, indiscriminately." [...]

The man who was killed in the altercation is believed to be responsible for shots fired from an overpass along Highway 281 in San Antonio earlier in the day, McManus said. No injuries were reported in that incident.

Gun fans will no doubt point to the incident as proof that arming everyone is the solution to gun violence, and they'll once again overlook the detail that, as with most of the few cases where shooters have been stopped before doing more damage, the "good guy with the gun" was in fact a trained law officer. Civilians tend to stop more active shooters by just tackling them. Also, don't forget that if you try to be a good guy with a gun while Black , you may get shot by cops.

Still, good thing there was only the one mass shooting yesterday, so all in all, a great day in the news.

[ Indianapolis Star / CNN / Indianapolis Star / CNN / Vox ]

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