6 killed in California salon shooting

[Leatherneck 693]

Six people were killed and three critically injured Wednesday when a gunman opened fire in a packed hair salon in a small California beach town, police said.

The suspected gunman, a white male, was arrested a short time later about half a mile away from the Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, on the Pacific Coast Highway south of Los Angeles.

Local media reports said the gunmen had multiple weapons and was wearing body armor at the time of the shooting. Police could not confirm this, but said he was arrested "without incident."

"He appeared cooperative, and did not resist our officers when he was detained," said Sergeant Steve Bowles, adding: "We do feel confident at this point that we do have the single and only suspect in custody."

Police initially responded to a 911 call reporting gunfire at the salon, in a strip mall just across from the ocean.

"Upon arrival we found six confirmed deceased people, along with three critically injured parties, which were transported to a local hospital," said Bowles, spokesman for the Seal Beach Police Department.

"The officers identified the (suspect's) vehicle as it was leaving the location," Bowles told the TV station. "They followed it and made a traffic stop and took the driver into custody."

Multiple weapons were found in his vehicle, he said, adding that the motive for the shooting was still unclear.

The salon was packed at the time of the shooting, around lunchtime, with every hairdressing station apparently occupied, according to the police spokesman.

"We're unsure at this point if he shot from the entrance and people as they were shot ran in seeking cover or seeking shelter, but we have fatalities throughout the salon."

"There are survivors from inside the salon that escaped without harm," he said, adding that all but one of the victims was inside the salon. "There was one casualty that occurred on the outside of the salon.

"We're not sure if they were shot inside and went out to the vehicle," said Bowles.

Police were working on the assumption that the gunman had some sort of connection to the salon, he said.

"At this point in time we do not know what he said, or if he said anything at all during the shooting or what his relationship with this salon (was)," he said.

The shooting is the most deadly ever in Seal Beach, a small town of 25,000 people some 30 miles south of Los Angeles.

[Leatherneck 693]

Yet another example of why some of us in California want to conceal carry.

Just maybe one day people will wake up and realize living in a sleepy, quiet city like Seal Beach

does not make you safe.

In the mind of a crazed killer, a public place is a target rich environment of unarmed people.

Edited October 12, 2011 by Leatherneck

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Post should be moved to OT or P&R

[Leatherneck 693]

I agree, it should be moved. I blew it.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I agree, it should be moved. I blew it.

Don't worry. Charles! will move it sooner or later.

[Leatherneck 693]

Don't worry. Charles! will move it sooner or later.

Great...

[dekedwin 52]

These kinds of happenings are very sad. Often the reporting and the news has very few actual details in it, and it has everyone guessing what were the motivating factors, and why did he do it. People, and often including the news media people have very active imaginations, and they interject there own ideas about the happening which may be true, but often times are just their own ideas. Many times there is a hesitency on the part of the police officers to actually give out information as they feel it may affect a trial coming up, or may interfere with their success in gaining more information. My older sister and her husband lived in that area in the 1960s. This story just goes to prove that anything can happen anywhere, and we have no guarantee that we are safe no matter where we live.

[Penguin_ie 5,994]

**** Moved from Working and Travelling to Politics by request ****

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Too bad they do not allow law abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns there. This kind of thing would not happen.

When a similar incident occured in Texas in the 90s they promptly passed concealed carry and now it has moved on to California. Too bad, very tragic

Predictable when you require people to call 911 in order to get a good guy with a gun.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Yet another example of why some of us in California want to conceal carry.

Just maybe one day people will wake up and realize living in a sleepy, quiet city like Seal Beach

does not make you safe.

In the mind of a crazed killer, a public place is a target rich environment of unarmed people.

So Seal Beach is a "good neighborhood"? Leaving your gun at home would be as adviseable as leaving the spare tire in the garage because you aren't going to drive on any "bad roads"

I mean, really, who NEEDS a gun ina beauty salon in a good neighborhood? Anyone?

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Too bad they do not allow law abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns there. This kind of thing would not happen.

When a similar incident occured in Texas in the 90s they promptly passed concealed carry and now it has moved on to California. Too bad, very tragic

Predictable when you require people to call 911 in order to get a good guy with a gun.

When reality flies in the face of what one simply wishes were true:

Dangers of Permissive Carrying Concealed Weapons (CCW) Laws

Shall-issue laws permitting the carrying of concealed firearms (CCW) (where law enforcement has no discretion in issuing a permit or license) do not appear to reduce crime, and no credible statistical evidence exists that such permissive CCW laws reduce crime. There is evidence permissive CCW laws generally will increase crime.59

A National Academy of Sciences report reviewing existing data on the effectiveness of firearm laws, including research purporting to demonstrate that concealed carry (also called “right-to-carry”) laws reduce crime, found that the “evidence to date does not adequately indicate either the sign or the magnitude of a causal link between the passage of right-to-carry laws and crime rates.”60

An analysis of Texas’ CCW law, (a law adopted in 1995 that overturned the state’s 125-year ban on concealed weapons), found that between January 1, 1996 and August 31, 2001, Texas license holders were arrested for 5,314 crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping and theft.61

From 1996 to 2000, Texas CCW holders were arrested for weapons-related crimes at a rate 81% higher than that of the state’s general population age 21 and older.62

Since the Texas law took effect, more than 400 criminals – including rapists and armed robbers – had been issued CCW permits, and thousands of the 215,000 permit holders have been arrested for criminal behavior or found to be mentally unstable.63 The “largest category of problem licensees involve[d] those who committed crimes after getting their state” permits.64

Florida’s CCW system had, just in the first half of 2006, licensed more than 1,400 individuals who had pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies, 216 individuals with outstanding warrants, 128 people with active domestic violence injunctions against them, and six registered sex offenders.65

For additional information about the carrying of concealed weapons, including information on the dangers posed by carrying guns in public, see LCAV’s Report America Caught in the Crossfire: How Concealed Carry Laws Threaten Public Safety and our Carrying Concealed Weapons Policy Summary.

Source: http://www.lcav.org/statistics-polling/gun_violence_statistics.asp

[MyLittlePony 340]

Guns are annoying if in the wrong hands will lead to results like the story above that is the rights to own a gun is not acceptable.