02/19/2013
I mentioned the gun control aspect of Ali Syed’s rampage earlier — he was rampaging in a county where it’s hard to get a CCW permit — and I’m glad to see it get some mention in the MSM. In a story with the uninformative headline O.C. shooting suspect identified as college student with no record, [February 19, 2013] the LA Times blog has this:
In Orange, financial planner Kenneth Caplin said he had a clear view of the gruesome drama that unfolded Tuesday on the street outside his office.
Although the street had been blocked, Caplin parked farther away and persuaded an officer to let him walk to his office. He arrived shortly before 7 a.m., about an hour after the shooting.
From a conference room window, Caplin saw the police investigators at work, a white work truck up on a curb, and the suspect lying dead on the ground, with blood streaked across the pavement.
"It’s scary … . This just happened right here," Caplin said hours later, as a team in biohazard suits scrubbed away at the street in an afternoon drizzle. "It’s ludicrous."
Caplin, 71, said he is a pistol instructor for the NRA. What happened Tuesday only affirmed for him the need to stay armed.
"He had no chance," he said of one of shooting victims. "The bad guys are armed; the good guys aren’t. If I was in that position — with a CCW [concealed weapon] — that wouldn’t have happened."
He added: "Innocent people — like what happened today — don’t have a chance."
He said he was relieved the perpetrator ended it by taking his own life. "That’s a bad guy," he said of the man he saw splayed on the street. "Doesn’t bother me at all."