Myers, who says he’s a licensed security guard, was sitting in his car Wednesday to conduct “overwatch” while his son trains because “he has seen numerous crimes occur” in the parking lot, according to the probable cause statement.

The surveillance footage shows Myers approach the teens with a gun in his hand, point it directly at them and then move quickly toward them, police said. One of the boys pulls a BB gun out of his pocket, lays it on the ground and extends his arms out as if to show he has nothing in his hands, police said in the document.

“Immediately after … it is clear that he has been shot because he abruptly jerks his body away from Myers and falls to the ground,” the document says.

  • SeaJ
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    15 days ago

    Myers said that when he first saw the boys, he thought one of them had a “Glock” by his side and that they were about to commit an armed robbery.

    He seems to be okay with open carry so I wonder why he thought they were going to commit a robbery.

    The 17-year-old shot and killed was identified as Hazrat Ali Rohani

    Oh. He was brown.

    Also, this guy is why an armed society is absolutely not a polite society. More people carrying around guns means more dipshits carrying them.

    • @Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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      15 days ago

      He seems to be okay with open carry so I

      Open carry for my, but not for thee.

      This is like a few months ago, when a gun rights advocate realized that “every body having the right of having guns” also included LGTB and they all lost their shared braincell.

      • SeaJ
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        3115 days ago

        Shithead Tucker Carlson did a piece a while ago fear mongering that militant trans people were arming themselves and that they should not be allowed to.

        • @sparkle@lemm.ee
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          14 days ago

          Conservatives when someone says people should have to go through a psychological examination and be proven to be mentally well to get a gun: 😡

          Conservatives when trans people have guns: “Th-they’re mentally ill! They shouldn’t have guns since they aren’t psychologically fit!”

          I think it’s cuz they realize constantly having fantasies of someone doing wrong that justifies you to shoot them and being extremely narcissistic, irrationally hateful towards certain groups, and paranoid makes them unfit to handle a weapon.

          That being said, I like oppressed groups being able to arm themselves, and I don’t trust the conservatives who have run where I live for centuries to enforce gun laws equally, so I prefer to keep my way-too-lenient gun laws… since I’m moving to a large urban area soon though, the only thing I’ll need a rifle to defend against is the landlord

    • @buttfarts@lemy.lol
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      1615 days ago

      The problem is that they will use lethal force in defense of their pride/ego. They will simply escalate any dumb situation just because they can

  • @voracitude@lemmy.world
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    19216 days ago

    Behold, Libertarians and 2nd Amendment nutters: Your “good guy with a gun”. Aren’t you proud of yourselves?

    • @Limonene@lemmy.world
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      4115 days ago

      What do you expect them to say? That they’re proud of this guy? Even though he’s clearly a madman?

      I know IRL gun nuts, and none of them would identify with this person. Also, none of them subscribe to the fallacy/straw-man of a “good guy with a gun”. The ones who carry concealed would remind you that they are carrying for themselves, not for you. If you find an active shooter in a mall, you can count on them… to run away.

      Skillful gun nuts know that shooting defensively is never worth the legal hassle unless it saves your life (or a family member’s life).

      The shooter in this article is nothing like any of the gun nuts I’ve ever met. This shooter is another Kyle Rittenhouse, someone anxious for a chance to kill a person and get away with it under the excuse of defense.

      • @Carmakazi@lemmy.world
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        7015 days ago

        I could be considered a gun nut myself but I will not pretend that this behavior is some abnormal outlier. There are plenty, plenty of American gun owners who think like this man does, they just haven’t had the opportunity for their malformed amygdala to get someone killed.

        You mention Rittenhouse but he’s a gun culture hero. Zimmerman and the like, all heroes. People who get to use their gun to lay down the law like the Earp posse are generally seen as heroes when they don’t completely fuck up like this guy, they’re not shunned as short-sighted and reckless.

      • @voracitude@lemmy.world
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        3215 days ago

        So, you know responsible gun owners - note I didn’t mention them. I’m happy they exist. But you don’t know every gun owner, or even a significant fraction of them, and if you believe nobody with a gun subscribes to the “good guy with a gun” fallacy then you’re delusional.

      • @sub_ubi@lemmy.ml
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        1615 days ago

        Yes, that’s what I expect. And then for the shooter to appear on podcasts and political rallies

      • @octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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        14 days ago

        I know IRL gun nuts, and none of them would identify with this person.

        Maybe not, but when they resist any and all legislation to control access to guns, don’t support mandatory training, red flag laws, etc, they accept that people like this can legally get them. That’s an acceptable tradeoff for them. Maybe your gun nut friends support reasonable legislation, it’s possible I suppose.

        Ultimately this is no true scotsman territory I think.

      • ObjectivityIncarnate
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        15 days ago

        This shooter is another Kyle Rittenhouse, someone anxious for a chance to kill a person and get away with it under the excuse of defense.

        Wow, tell me you don’t know anything about the Kyle Rittenhouse story without saying it directly, lmao.

        I love how the Rittenhouse story has become such an effective litmus test to easily distinguish between honest left-wingers/progressives, and ones who are either gullible enough to swallow the narrative that is clearly disproven by all of the evidence (up to and including publicly-available direct video evidence) and testimony, or malicious and dishonest enough to cling to said narrative out of solidarity for their political ‘team’, knowing that it is categorically false.

        • @GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          515 days ago

          All Kyle had to do to not have any of that happen is not show up. The odds of that dramatically increased when he decided to show up with a gun where he knew a bunch of people, some of whom would would be armed, would be out in force and opposing his views.

          Much like a lone women wandering late at night through a crime-ridden part of town getting raped, he may not have done anything wrong, but his bad judgement led to the expected consequences. And before we talk about defending his workplace, there’s a reason many places say to not try to stop robberies - the insurance claim is far cheaper than the cost of most outcomes of trying to stop the thefts, even the relatively positive outcomes.

          • ObjectivityIncarnate
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            -1314 days ago

            All Kyle had to do to not have any of that happen is not show up.

            Victim blaming.

            when he decided to show up with a gun where he knew a bunch of people, some of whom would would be armed, would be out in force and opposing his views.

            Open carry state, nobody gave a fuck that he was there while armed. He showed up while obviously visibly armed, and was there walking around while obviously visibly armed, for hours, with zero negative reaction from anyone. He gave some degree of medical assistance to at least 8 people there, according to the trial, and handed out water bottles on request, while walking around yelling “medic” and “friendly”.

            Nobody attacked him for “his views”–he wasn’t even counter-protesting (and literally stated he supported BLM in an interview, to boot)! Literally every action he took there, before he was forced to defend his left not once, but three times, was objectively altruistic/benevolent. Hell, we have evidence he was cleaning graffiti off a high school earlier that same day.

            The ONLY reason things started to go south is because he put out a particular dumpster fire that happened to be set by a literal homicidal maniac (someone literally released that day from a hospital, where he was held for a recent suicide attempt), whose horrific plan was to wheel said flaming dumpster into a nearby gas station (want to take a few guesses why he wanted to bring a big fireball into a gas station?), and said maniac decided to scream death threats at him (as well as calling him and a few other people (all of whom were white, far as we know) the n-word) for putting out his fire, and later, LITERALLY tried to make good on those death threats.

            If someone else had put out that dumpster fire, they would have been attacked instead. This argument is absolutely idiotic. What, are you going to try and tell me that putting out a fire is some sort of aggressive or provocative act?

            Kyle never aggressed on anyone, and his FIRST response to EVERY act of aggression against him, was literally TO FLEE. If any of the people he ended up shooting literally LET HIM RUN AWAY, they’d all be alive/not injured. But they INSISTED on attempting their murder, and chased him down, until they had him cornered, and then tried to kill him. He prevented them from succeeding and protected his life. End of story.

            Much like a lone women wandering late at night through a crime-ridden part of town getting raped

            You’d imply it was her fault by saying that her presence is the reason it happened, lol.

            his bad judgement led to the expected consequences.

            Bad judgment to put out fires, okay, lol. That’s the lesson everyone should learn from this, right? Don’t put out a fire with an unknown cause, just in case it happened to be

            • @BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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              614 days ago

              I AGREE with you! Kyle Rittenhouse had NO CHOICE but to Cross State Lines with a Weapon! Literally NO other choice!

              • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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                114 days ago

                He never did any such thing, that would have been illegal. He crossed a state line, then got a weapon …… see, perfectly legal

              • ObjectivityIncarnate
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                -414 days ago

                It’s hilarious how after so much time there are still people brain-rotted enough by their ideology to be this smug while saying something that’s literally false lol.

            • @GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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              114 days ago

              Assuming all of this is true, and I’m not saying it isn’t, how does that in any way refute what I said? Sure, call it victim blaming if you want. I’m very careful when I have to go into bad parts of town at bad times, and avoid them altogether when I can because, even if I’m not doing anything wrong, that’s cold comfort when I’m lying in a hospital or a morgue. So far it’s worked pretty well for me. I suppose that makes me a perpetual victim. Sure, it shouldn’t have to be that way, but I don’t think my being mugged or murdered is going to tip the scales and I don’t have any great desire to be a poster child.

              • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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                314 days ago

                It sounds really similar to what I teach my kids about driving - it doesn’t matter if you’re right but someone else crashed into you, you’re still the one injured or dead

                • ObjectivityIncarnate
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                  014 days ago

                  And if someone tries to run you off the road for no good reason, and your swerve to avoid them results in them missing you and crashing into the median and dying, it’d be pretty stupid to blame your presence for their death.

      • @voracitude@lemmy.world
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        Hahaha no, he’s not even a “diet” cop (but I love that term), though he clearly fuckin thinks he is. I actually took a security guard training course when I was a teenager, and this motherfucker did everything they tell you not to do. If he saw a suspected threat, he should have called the cops and gotten to safety, according to the training. Even with a gun, you’re not supposed to use it. We got that training because guards who can wear firearms get paid more, and the agency training is would make more on us if we had our certs.

        It was just middle-manager levels of power tripping, with a gun.

    • @barsquid@lemmy.world
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      1115 days ago

      No, no, if we had removed all regulations, like the libertarians want, this gentleman would have voluntarily formed a non-aggression pact with the teens and not shot any. The real problem is the regulations and laws preventing him from forming a pact. If we remove all laws and taxes it will work.

    • @Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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      1715 days ago

      Isn’t that the main argument? “I have a gun because you have a gun… And they want guns because we have guns”. It’s rednecks version of “assured mutual destruction”.

      The insidious part is a lot of people who don’t want guns end up getting them because those who want them have them.

  • @ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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    13816 days ago

    Myers, who says he’s a licensed security guard, was sitting in his car Wednesday to conduct “overwatch” while his son trains because “he has seen numerous crimes occur” in the parking lot, according to the probable cause statement.

    His son was taking a jiu-jitsu class next door. This guy is like peak gravy seals/tacticool wannabe.

    • @KredeSeraf@lemmy.world
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      815 days ago

      See also

      • 101st Chairborne

      • Cosplaytriots

      • Delta Farce

      • Fartilery

      • GI Sloppy Joes/GI Doughs

      • Goutlaws

      • Gravy Seals

      • Green Buffets/Beignets

      • Irrational Guard

      • Meal Team 6

      • The National Lard

      • O-Dunkin-30

      • Operation Dessert Storm

      • The ParaMealitary

      • Patridiots

      • Timid McVeighs

      • Veteran: Normandy Beached, Cold Cuts War, Vietnaan and Dessert Storm

      • Whisky Tango Foodtruck

  • @ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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    13015 days ago

    Wow, the article even has a section detailing why the boys were there with BB guns:

    The two surviving teens told police that they were at the store to return or exchange Hazrat Ali Rohani’s BB gun because he was having some issues with it, according to the police report. One of them also said that he had his own BB gun with him and brought it along so employees could check out a “magazine issue” he was having.

    Myers straight up murdered the kid. Fortunately the article also points out he was arrested and the video evidence shows clear 2nd degree manslaughter, so he’s going to jail, losing his guns, and most likely won’t watch his kid grow up. His kid has a chance to grow up without a bad influence in his life now, so that’s good.

  • @girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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    12416 days ago

    “Myers felt like he did not have time to call 911, and that he had a duty to act to stop the individuals from hurting someone innocent, and to protect his son, who was in the location next door,” according to the police report.

    No time to call 911 my ass.

    Fucking murderer didn’t want anyone else getting the credit for his kill.

    • @Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      You want to know what is even more fucked up. The Renton police King County Sherriff’s office was conducting an emergency response drill in the same parking lot less than 250 feet away from where his car was AT THE EXACT SAME TIME THIS HAPPENED. He didn’t have to “call the fucking police”, he could have literally rolled down his window and screamed for help, and they would have come running. Also the police station is literally like 3 blocks away from where this store is located anyway. Fuck this dumb cunt. If it was up to me he would be getting life in prison without the possibility of parole.

      Edit: (Source)

    • @buttfarts@lemy.lol
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      2015 days ago

      Justifiable homicide fetishist: “Today is my day”

      He probably imagined glowing headlines about his great heroism and vigilance

    • ObjectivityIncarnate
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      -815 days ago

      No time to call 911 my ass.

      Let’s be real, here. If those guys were intending to commit a violent crime, and were literally in the parking lot of the establishment they were going to commit a crime at, do you really think a call to 911 would have resulted in anyone on the scene any earlier than long after the crime had been committed?

      It didn’t justify his action, obviously, but come on. This isn’t Night City where cops magically materialize on scene the moment something suspicious happens, lol

      • @Zink@programming.dev
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        715 days ago

        I mean, if I’m going to go initiate an armed conflict with some criminals, I’d want backup on the way no matter what, right?

        But that wasn’t going through this maniac’s mind. He was way too excited about it being his time to act!

        • ObjectivityIncarnate
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          -314 days ago

          Try reading what I wrote again, you clearly failed on the first pass.

          I’m saying he shouldn’t have done anything, but also that he is definitely correct that calling 911 wouldn’t have prevented anything in the worst case scenario.

          • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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            214 days ago

            I think this is where most such efforts fail; this is the “good guy with a gun” fallacy. It’s usually NOT “the worst case scenario”, and people are bad at recognizing this (in both directions)

            • ObjectivityIncarnate
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              012 days ago

              Holy fuck it’s not that deep, the literal only point I’m making is that police response times are typically slow. That’s all.

              this is the “good guy with a gun” fallacy.

              From me? No certainly is not, because I’m not saying that the above fact justified his vigilantism.

              Can you guys stop ignoring that part of what I write? It’s getting obnoxious having to keep repeating myself.

  • NutWrench
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    10615 days ago

    It’s not the BB gun that got the kid killed. He literally put the gun on the ground and had his hands up.

    It’s because the “security guard” is a stupid, trigger-happy moron.

    • @klugerama@lemmy.world
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      4815 days ago

      I agree, but for clarification it was a different teen whom he shot, who still had his BB gun.

      There were 3 teens, two with BB guns. The first dropped his and was on the ground, straddled by Shooter McFuckhead when the second, still standing, was shot.

      Thank god there was a “good guy with a gun” there. Otherwise nobody would have died!

    • @papertowels@lemmy.one
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      15 days ago

      To make things clear (and worse), this man wasn’t even on the job! Nobody asked him to do this! He just dropped his kid off for a class nearby and decided it was his duty to shoot anyone he deemed suspicious.

  • @ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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    10215 days ago

    Licensed Security Guard = Someone who couldn’t meet the (absurdly low) minimum standards to be a cop.

    I definitely don’t trust those guys!

    • partial_accumen
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      12316 days ago

      “The 17-year-old shot and killed was identified as Hazrat Ali Rohani by Kent-Meridian High School Principal David Radford, according to the Kent Reporter.”

      And from another article:

      "According to court documents, Myers said he “had a duty to act to stop the individuals from hurting someone innocent and to protect his son who was at the location next door to Big 5 Sporting Goods.” "

      …and …

      "Myers reiterated to detectives that the teens would not follow his commands. It should be noted that Myers is not a uniformed law enforcement officer, and they did not need to follow his commands. " source

      …and…

      “Myers said he thought he saw a teen reach for something in his waistband, so he fired multiple times. According to court documents, he stood over the teen on the ground and continued to fire.”

      So Main-Character-Syndrome middle aged guy was pointing his gun and the teenager wouldn’t obey his commands, so decided to live out his vigilante fantasy and murder a teen. Lock this guy up for good.

      • @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7316 days ago

        God knows how long this fucking freak has been itching to kill someone. He thought being a security guard would get him the cop treatment for murdering someone in broad daylight.

        • @ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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          3315 days ago

          Probably tried to be an officer and wasn’t accepted. A lot of people who want to be a cop start out as security.

  • @Arbiter@lemmy.world
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    6615 days ago

    Jesus Christ, this dude freaked out seeing kids taking a BB Gun into a sporting goods store.

    Christ knows what this guy thinks seeing people go to a gun range.

    • Ranges (that have staff at all) mostly require guns to be cased or holstered, you’ll get kicked out waving one around all willy nilly.

      These are also a thing, very real looking BB guns.

      Though from the description given in the post it seems the kid was shot after he put the gun down? That’s a bad shoot if so.

      • @almar_quigley@lemmy.world
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        3115 days ago

        This is a bad shooting no matter what. HE approached the kids. He instigated the confrontation. He murdered a child. There is no room for any other narrative here.

      • @flerp@lemm.ee
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        314 days ago

        It doesn’t matter if it looked like a real gun, or even if it WAS a real gun. He had a real gun too, should he also have been shot for having a real gun that looked like a real gun?

            • @ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              -414 days ago

              Read the article.

              Another kid who also had a BB gun was shot after the first put his down.

              Dismissive and rude. Politeness isn’t a crime, feel free to utilize it.

              • @ripcord@lemmy.world
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                214 days ago

                You implied you only read the article summary in the post (since that’s what you used as your reference), and were missing key info that you then made a conclusion based on. I replied with the correct info (at least, according to the article).

                I guess I could have been more gentle, but it’s extremely common for people not to read articles they comment on, which is pretty rude and seemed to be the case here.

                So I apologize if I came across brisk, although boy, if you’re going to be this sensitive on the Internet you’re going to be fighting about it at some point in almost any discussion.

                • @ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  14 days ago

                  I went back to the source and read it to check, but still just missed the part where it said the one who got shot wasn’t the first kid. It happens.

                  And I could’ve just called you a cunt and moved on, but admonishment seemed to be the correct course. Though I see you’ve elected to continue by insinuating me calling you out is “being sensitive” and so I see now I should’ve just chose the “manly” option of insulting you back. My mistake. I forget half the people here are not adults.

    • @FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Every sporting store in my area specifically states to not bring firearms/guns into the store. I have seen many models of pellet/bb gun that look like real firearms until you handle them.

      I’m not defending the actions of the security guard but rules like these could help prevent a similar situation in the future.

      • @papertowels@lemmy.one
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        2115 days ago

        Point of clarification - yes, the individual may be employed as a security guard elsewhere, but he was importantly NOT a security guard in this situation. He’s just a dude who dropped his kid off for a class nearby and deemed it necessary to “patrol” the area to go on power trips. He’s a bully with a gun.

        • @ripcord@lemmy.world
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          214 days ago

          MAY be employed as a security guard too. At least from the article the guy claimed to be somewhere. At some point.

      • Flying Squid
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        714 days ago

        Every sporting store in my area specifically states to not bring firearms/guns into the store.

        So how do you return one of the guns you can buy in such stores if there’s an issue with it?

        • @FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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          -214 days ago

          You inform an employee and they escort your gun with you in the store. It is also important to note I am in Canada and we have different gun laws.

          • Flying Squid
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            914 days ago

            That’s really not at all how it works in Washington. Or anywhere else in the U.S.

            These kids were doing absolutely nothing wrong or even out of the ordinary.

              • Flying Squid
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                1014 days ago

                Your set of rules puts the onus on the victim to avoid getting shot. You’re putting restrictions on the wrong party.

                How many deaths would such rules prevent per year versus things like mandated safety lessons and training?

  • Myers, who says he’s a licensed security guard, was sitting in his car Wednesday to conduct “overwatch” while his son trains because “he has seen numerous crimes occur” in the parking lot, according to the probable cause statement.

    Well fucking congrats for contributing to the statistic.

  • @BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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    5614 days ago

    The ONLY way this could have been prevented is if the teen had an ACTUAL Gun and shot the Security Guard first! And the ONLY way to prevent THAT situation would be if the Security Guard shot the teen first! There’s LITERALLY no other way we could play this scenario out!

    • androogee (they/she)
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      3114 days ago

      I’m so tired of hearing this argument.

      Of course there’s a better way this could be resolved, no matter how much you try to pretend otherwise.

      A cop could shoot both of them and their dogs. And that’s peak freedom. Maybe think about that next time.

    • @grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      1014 days ago

      What if we put a sniper on a nearby roof, to shoot them both as they approached eachother, but before any crime had occurred.

  • @Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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    5615 days ago

    Radford, Rohani’s principal, wrote an email to parents and students that he was “deeply saddened to inform you of another tragic passing of one of our students.”

    I’m sorry, another?

    • @BURN@lemmy.world
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      3015 days ago

      I mean, my high school had at least 1 suicide a year, so it’s not too much of a reach to say that some other event happened resulting in the loss of life.

      • Flying Squid
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        314 days ago

        Maybe it’s different from when I was in high school in the 90s, but at least a couple of kids died each year because they were drunk and driving.

    • SeaJ
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      1015 days ago

      Kent is not the best school district…

    • @RunningInRVA@lemmy.world
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      015 days ago

      You would be surprised how many children die because of gun violence. It’s not necessarily at the school, but at the home or situations like this.