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Gunman Opens Fire At LAX 520

McGruber tips news that today at 9:30AM PST, a man removed an assault rifle from a bag at Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire. The shooter moved into the screening area, and then further into the terminal. One TSA agent was killed; roughly six more people were injured. The gunman was a ticketed passenger. (Early reports suggested he worked for the TSA — this does not seem to be the case.) Police engaged him in gunfire, and he's now in custody. His motive is unknown at this time.
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Gunman Opens Fire At LAX

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  • Great... (Score:5, Funny)

    by TWX ( 665546 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:19PM (#45304363)
    Just what we need, now we'll have a security checkpoint before our security checkpoint to prevent you from bringing a gun into the security checkpoint.

    Turtles all the way down...
    • Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:21PM (#45304381)
      Yo, dawg.
    • Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Seumas ( 6865 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:35PM (#45304549)

      More like, prepare for this to look like a warzone as airports start to resemble third-world combat zones. Soldiers with assault rifles on their arms staking out every airport entrance and jeeps on patrol around the airport every hour of the day. This is exactly the sort of justification they needed to ratchet things up.

      That said, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I don't think even a TSA agent deserved to be murdered in cold-blood.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by zlives ( 2009072 )

        or we could have a rational discussion about gun control...Nah

        • Re:Great... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:48PM (#45304789)

          "Rational discussion" meaning "groups of people coming to the same conclusion I did."

        • Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by NoImNotNineVolt ( 832851 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:55PM (#45304891) Homepage
          Unlikely. They're already calling his weapon an "assault rifle", despite the fact that "a dozen" shots were fired.

          An assault rifle fires "a dozen" shots in about one second (automatic) or at most 4 trigger pulls (3 round burst).

          Unless the fire selector is set to single-shot. In which case I'd have to wonder why someone would go through the trouble of procuring an illegal firearm for themselves (assault rifles have been illegal since at least 1986) simply to use it in a manner that any legal (and easily obtained) semi-automatic rifle would suffice for.

          Maybe he's military, and it's his service weapon. Or maybe the news outlets are in a race to see who can offer the most hysterical coverage.
          • First, there is no such thing as an "assault rifle." There are bolt action, semi-auto, full auto, and (as you mentioned), 3-round bursts, trigger mechanisms, none of which are exclusive to rifles. Assault is something you can do with a firearm (or knife, or hands), not a characteristic of the weapon itself. Calling something an assault rifle is almost as ridiculous as calling a children "suicide bomb delivery platforms." I say almost because there's no question that the firearms people often think of as

        • Re:Great... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:56PM (#45304903)
          Not until you realize that guns cannot be uninvented, and/or that trying to circumvent the process by which the US Constitution is amended will come back to bite you in the ass regarding the amendments that you actually care about, will we be able to have a rational discussion about gun control.

          Until then, it's not a discussion, it's just you telling me "you don't need a gun because I said so", and me responding back with "fuck off".
        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          or we could have a rational discussion about gun control...Nah

          Don't waste your breath. Not even the death of tens of children has had any effect whatsoever in "kicking the second amendment right where it belongs". That is into the wastebasket of History.
          Americans love guns. Good for them. Have them deal with the aftermath of these anounced tragedies.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

          People here keep saying more guns held by people trained to use them would make things safer, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Why is that?

          • This happened in a state that doesn't have a shall-issue concealed carry law.

            My permit, OTOH, allows me to carry a weapon inside the passenger terminal of an airport. The TSA wouldn't let me past security with it, but I can carry it loaded until I check it for the flight, and if I forget it's on me and accidentally carry it in, it's not a violation of state law.
          • Airport = "gun free zone," just the same as schools and malls tend to be, which is where these "events" tend to happen.

            Since it was a so called "gun free zone," pretty much the only lawfully armed people there would be the police. (There are some very limited exceptions.) For some reason criminals seem to ignore both social convention and signs forbidding the bringing weapons into areas so marked. The law abiding, assuming they didn't overlook it, would disarm before entering such a place. I'm sure that

            • Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Friday November 01, 2013 @06:24PM (#45306723) Homepage Journal

              That's my point Airports are full of armed guards and police... At least UK ones are. Men and women, with guns, loaded, maintained, trained in their use and ready to act. Didn't seem to help here.

              • by TWX ( 665546 )
                I've been through Heathrow, in fact I was flying internationally the day that the Christmas Day Bomber attempted to blow up a plane, and a few days later for the return home.

                The experience in Heathrow was far, far different than any experience that I've had in American airports. It felt like there was a level of professionalism in London that I've never seen in American airports since the aftermath of September 11th. Honestly I felt like there was more professionalism before the Jihadis changed the sta
              • Airports are not full of armed guards. Security, yes, but not armed guards. And we're in favor of citizens carrying weapons, not just cops.
      • More like, prepare for this to look like a warzone as airports start to resemble third-world combat zones. Soldiers with assault rifles on their arms staking out every airport entrance and jeeps on patrol around the airport every hour of the day.

        What you meant to say there was:

        More like, prepare for this to look like a warzone as US airports start to resemble third-world combat zones. Soldiers with assault rifles on their arms staking out every US airport entrance and jeeps on patrol around the US airport every hour of the day.

        Flew out of an airport in Croatia a few months ago, a country that has about, oh, a million times more experience with violence and terror than the US. A passenger asked an airport staff member whether he had to take his shoes off during the check-in process. The staff member said no, but if he was carrying firearms he had to notify them.

        When was the last time you heard of a hijacked aircraft (or whatever the TSA are supposed to be dealing with) in Croatia?

    • Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rikkards ( 98006 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:35PM (#45304551) Journal

      I have been saying for the longest time, terrorists don't need to get on the plane. Now they just need to blow them selves up getting into the security line. What then is TSA going to do? It's a cat and mouse game and unfortunately the TSA isn't going to win

      • by zlives ( 2009072 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:47PM (#45304763)

        naked airlines... finally we can get the bible trumpeters on board in the name of war on terror

        • by TWX ( 665546 )
          Have you seen most people? Do you really want to see them naked?

          I'd guess that only about fifteen percent of people are in the right condition to look good while naked. That means most viewers would only want to see about seven to eight percent of people, in totality, naked.

          I really don't want to see Naked Airlines. For every Christina Ricci there'd be five Rosie O'Donnells.
          • by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

            And *nobody* really wants to sit in an airplane seat just vacated by the previous occupant, now matter how appealing they might have looked.

  • A leader of the union representing TSA officers deplored the incident.

    i agree it is deplorable... and so is the TSA.

    • "i agree it is deplorable... and so is the TSA."

      Isn't it just a bit curious that this didn't happen a long time ago?

      It's amazing sometimes what a lot of Americans will tolerate for the sake of letting the government "keep them safe"... especially given the government's terrible record of doing it.

      • It wouldn't be half as offensive if what the government did were in some way related to keeping us safe. The TSA is the least convincing theatre troupe I have ever encountered.

  • by N_Piper ( 940061 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:33PM (#45304529)
    My congratulations on the Police who did the difficult task of taking this man alive.
  • by onyxruby ( 118189 ) <onyxruby@ c o m c a s t . net> on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:38PM (#45304595)

    How many years have people been complaining that the only the thing the long lines at the screening areas do is make for a target rich environment? Attacking waiting points for security lines is a time honored practice in some parts of the world, the only surprising thing is that it took this long for it to occur here.

    Security theater isn't just an inconvenience, it's a security risk in and of itself. I used to travel for a living and I have easily seen times in major airports where there were thousands of people queued up to go through the security checkpoints. It's a target rich environment where you can't miss for trying in some airports.

    It's time to end security theater and demand real security.

    • After the big mall shooting in Africa, I'm surprised this hasn't happened on a bigger scale already.

    • How many years have people been complaining that the only the thing the long lines at the screening areas do is make for a target rich environment?

      There are innumerable other "target-rich environments" elsewhere, that don't have police and armed guards swarming all over the place.

      Shopping malls, movie theatres, ANY stores on Black Friday, or a few days before Christmas, restaurants during diner, the DMV, etc.

      • All of those areas are shown to have people with concealed carry. Who do shoot back. The airport is a self described gun free zone. Knowing where the police and security with guns on their sides are is different from having the innocent 70 year old man all of a sudden draw down on you when your back is turned.
    • It's time to end security theater and demand real security.

      Your solution is???? non-existent. It is very easy to point out problems but much harder to come up with a solution. Having checkpoints is much less dangerous than not having them. They could be faster but doing away with them is not the answer either.

    • You forget that the people waiting in TSA lines are not Important.
      Literally.

    • by Megane ( 129182 )

      Apparently in this case it was more of a "bystander-rich environment". All those passengers kept getting in the way of his objective of shooting TSA people.

      "He saw me. He looked at me with a quizzical look and said, 'TSA?' And I just shook my head. So he moved on," Saryan said.

  • Impossible! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ApplePy ( 2703131 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:39PM (#45304623)
    This could not possibly be real --

    a man removed an assault rifle from a bag at Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire.

    Assault rifles are illegal in California; therefore this could never have happened!

    • Assault rifles are illegal in California; therefore this could never have happened!

      Exactly! This person should have been caught at the inter-state border crossings. He was probably crossing over from Oregon.

    • Re:Impossible! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @05:07PM (#45305917)

      Assault rifles are illegal in California; therefore this could never have happened!

      So is murder, so not only did he not use a gun, but he didn't kill anyone either, right?

      So not only is 'gun control' moot since only criminals will have guns, but we may as well repeal murder laws since criminals will ignore those too, right? Indeed, why have laws at all, since it just means more things on the books for criminals to ignore?

      Is that argument you are making? Because that's what it sounds like.

  • DHS wants more funding, so they told this man "You do this or we kill everyone you know in the slowest, most painful way that no one will ever hear about"
    • by phorm ( 591458 )

      Locked in a room and forced to a Justin Beiber & Miley Cyrus singalong with William Shatner as a special guest?

  • Firearm Legal Status (Score:5, Informative)

    by awkScooby ( 741257 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:54PM (#45304883)

    An assault rifle, by definition is a machine gun. The gun used at LAX wasn't (as best we can tell from the available information). So the first sentence in the summary is inaccurate.

    There's speculation, based on a photo on Twitter that the rifle is a Ruger Mini-14, in which case it may not have qualified as an "assault weapon" as defined by Federal Law. Under Feinstein's last [failed] assault weapon ban, the Ruger Mini-14 with a collapsible stock was banned, but the other Mini-14's were ok. It would depend on whether or not the stock folds/collapses.

    Under California law, the pistol grip, and ability to accept a detachable magazine are sufficient to classify it as an "assault weapon."

    Looks like high capacity magazines were used, although they may have had inserts to render them legal (i.e. limit them to 10 rounds). If they are large capacity and he owned them before 2000, they're legal. Otherwise they would only be legal if they were limited to 10 rounds (or fewer).

    We can say with high confidence that a semi-automatic rifle was used. Under the previous Federal assault weapon ban, and the more recent failed Federal effort, this rifle may or may not have been considered an "assault weapon." Under California law this rifle is an assault weapon. The magazines may or may not have been legal.

  • There are many reasons why this fellow started to shoot people. Given how terrible service is on airlines these days in "cattle class", long lines, TSA agents who want to "touch my junk" (the pedophile who touched mine when I was a kid was enough), late flights, no-fly lists, and more horrors, it's no wonder that this guy goes nuts. He's probably a frequent flier on United.

  • How did he have a gun in the airport?
    Guns are banned there, the sign CLEARLY says so.

    I mean, that's why pretty much nobody else was armed, right?

  • Apparently; Tory Belleci from MYTHBUSTERS was there, and called in to CNN not that long after the incident was being covered by the network. Not sure if other Mythbusters were there also as I couldn't hear the entire conversation (TV is on low at work).

    So, could be an interesting next season???

  • ... the NEW Intel on this? If they are tapping everything they sure aren't finding the signal in the noise.
  • by Any Web Loco ( 555458 ) on Friday November 01, 2013 @06:22PM (#45306695) Homepage
    This is one of those stories where non-Americans sit back and watch, gobsmacked, as American /.ers rant on about gun-ownership, utterly unaware of what barking lunatics they all sound like.

    You guys have a massive cultural blind-spot when it comes to this stuff. It's incredible.
  • Whatever (Score:4, Insightful)

    by blackpaw ( 240313 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @03:57AM (#45309783)

    Another shooting in the USA ... yeah yeah whatever. I really don't care anymore. You guys shoot yourselves up and scream about the 2nd amendment to your hearts content, sure as the sun rises tommorrow there will be another shooting soon and you won't do shit to change it

    One thing for sure kiddies - it ain't news for nerds or stuff that matters, if it was, something constructive would be done. After all this time we have to conclude you idiots like it this way.

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. - Oscar Wilde

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