In a strange and gruesome incident, Greg Griggers, the district attorney for Alabama’s 17th Judicial Circuit, was shot in the face by a former Alabama state trooper early Thursday afternoon, reports AL.com.
The former state trooper, identified as Steve Smith, was shot to death by law enforcement at the scene.
“Griggers got shot in the face and they killed the ex-state trooper who shot him,” Michael Jackson, another DA, told AL.com Thursday afternoon.
“They say he’s going to recover,” Jackson said. “I got an investigator going down there [to Demopolis] right now, and they’re going to give me updates.”
WVUA 23 in Tuscaloosa reported that Griggers had been ambushed waiting in his car. Smith fired several rounds from a shotgun just after 12:45 p.m. on the main street of downtown Demopolis, Marengo County’s largest city.
Griggers was hospitalized after the attack but was released Thursday afternoon.
The motive for the shooting is unclear. Griggers, a Democrat, has served as district attorney since January 2003.
“It’s very, very shocking,” said Capt. Jason Roberts with Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation told Tuscaloosa News.
“We’re very early in this investigation,” he said. “All we know at this point is that the district attorney was fired upon in an ambush-style shooting and we will be investigating it as an independent investigation.”
"The whole building was freaking out,” one former employee told The Trace.
The report notes:
Perhaps the most vivid evidence of belt-tightening at the NRA was its drastically reduced spending on the 2018 midterm elections. The group shelled out just under $10 million on House and Senate candidates this cycle — less than half of what it spent on congressional races in 2014 and 2016.
According to one former staffer, the NRA is "draining money from general operations to push over to [lobbying operations]" because "[t]hey want the money to be able to push the agenda."
The NRA is also said to be losing money due to litigation over its Carry Guard insurance program in New York, where stiff regulations have caused the advocacy group to lose millions.
A part-time Texas firefighter has lost multiple jobs as a civil servant after proposing setting up feeders at the border and allowing hunters to shoot and kill desperate immigrants.
According to ABC7, Westfield Fire Department firefighter Chris Bush wrote on Facebook: "We should buy deer feeders fill them with pinto beans put them on the border and make a new hunting season. I wonder how many Texans will buy that hunting licenses and how many tags we would be allowed..."
After the post went viral, his employers got wind of it and took immediate action by firing him.
According to Bush's Facebook page, he was employed by the Westfield Fire Department, Bellaire Fire department and Harris County EMS.
The report states Bush lost his job at all three places of his employment.
In a statement, the city of Bellaire said: "Wednesday morning we became aware of an inappropriate and offensive social media post by a part-time firefighter. Upon learning of that post, we took immediate and appropriate action, and the individual is no longer employed with the City of Bellaire."
Mass shootings seem to have become a sad new normal in the American life. They happen too often, and in very unexpected places. Concerts, movie theaters, places of worship, schools, bars and restaurants are no longer secure from gun violence.
Often, and especially when a person who is not a minority or Muslim perpetrates a mass shooting, mental health is raised as a real concern or, critics say, a diversion from the real issue easy access to firearms.
Less is discussed, however, about the stress of such events on the rest of the society. That includes those who survived the shooting, those who were in the vicinity, including the first responders, those who lost someone in the shooting, and those who hear about it via the media.
I am a trauma and anxiety researcher and clinician psychiatrist, and I know that the effects of such violence are far-reaching. While the immediate survivors are most affected, the rest of society suffers, too.
First, the immediate survivors
Like other animals, we humans get stressed or terrified via direct exposure to a dangerous event. The extent of that stress or fear could vary. For example, survivors may want to avoid the neighborhood where a shooting occurred or the context related to shooting, such as outdoor concerts if the shooting happened there. In the worst case, a person may develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
PTSD is a debilitating condition which develops after exposure to serious traumatic experiences such as war, natural disasters, rape, assault, robbery, car accidents, and of course gun violence. Nearly 8 percent of the U.S. population deals with PTSD. Symptoms include high anxiety, avoiding reminders of the trauma, emotional numbness, hyper-vigilance, frequent intrusive memories of trauma, nightmares and flashbacks [https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/essentials/dsm5_ptsd.asp]. The brain switches to fight and flight mode, or survival mode, and the person is always waiting for something terrible to happen.
When the trauma is man-made, the impact can be profound: the rate of PTSD in mass shootings may be as high as 36 percent among survivors . Depression, another debilitating psychiatric condition, occurs in as many as 80 percent of people with PTSD.
Survivors of shootings may also experience survivor’s guilt, the feeling that they failed others who died, did not do enough to help them survive, or just because they survived. PTSD can improve by itself, but many need treatment. We have effective treatments available in form of psychotherapy, and medications. The more chronic it gets, the more negative the impact on the brain, and the harder to treat.
The effect on those close by, or who arrive later
PTSD not only can develop through personal exposure to trauma, but also via exposure to others’ severe trauma. Humans are evolved to be very sensitive to social cues and have survived as a species particularly because of the ability to fear as a group. We therefore learn fear and experience terror via exposure to trauma and fear of others. Even seeing a black and white scared face on a computer, will make our amygdala, the fear area of our brain, light up in brain imaging studies.
People in the vicinity of mass shooting may see exposed, disfigured or burned dead bodies, injured people in agony, terror of others, extremely loud noises, chaos and terror of post shooting, and the unknown. The unknown – a sense of lack of control over the situation – has a very important role in making people feel insecure, terrified, and traumatized.
I, sadly, see this form of trauma often times in asylum seekers exposed to torture of their loved ones, refugees exposed to casualties of war, combat veterans who lost their comrades, and people who lost a loved one in car accidents, natural disasters, or shootings.
A first responder after the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh Oct. 27, 2018.
Another group whose trauma is usually overlooked is the first responders. When we all run away, the police, the firefighters, and the paramedics rush into the danger zone, and frequently face uncertainty, threats to themselves, their colleagues, and others, as well as terrible bloody scenes of post shooting. This exposure happens to them too frequently. PTSD has been reported in up to 20 percent of first responders to man-made mass violence.
How does it affect those who were not even near the shooting?
There is evidence of distress, anxiety, or even PTSD symptoms among people who were not directly exposed to a disaster, but were exposed to the news, including post-9/11 . Fear, the coming unknown (is there another shooting, are other co-conspirators involved?) and reduced faith in our perceived safety may all play a role in this.
Every time there is a mass shooting in a new place, we learn that kind of place is now on the not-very-safe list. When at the temple or church, the club or in the class, someone may walk in and open fire. People not only worry about themselves but also the safety of their children and other loved ones.
Media: the good, bad, and the sometimes ugly
The Daily Telegraph front page of the shootings in Las Vegas on Oct 1, 2017.
I always say American cable news are “disaster pornographers.” When there is a mass shooting or a terrorist attack, they make sure to add enough dramatic tone to it to get all the attention for the duration of the time they desire. If there is one shooting in a corner of a city of millions, the cable news will make sure that you feel like the whole city is under seige.
Besides informing the public and logically analyzing the events, one job of the media is to get viewers and readers, and viewers are better glued to the TV when their positive or negative emotions are stirred, with fear being one. Thus, the media, along with the politicians, can also play a role in stirring fear, anger, or paranoia about one or another group of people.
When we are scared, we are vulnerable to regress to more tribal, and stereotyping attitudes. We can get trapped in fear of perceiving all members of another tribe a threat, if a member of that group acted violently. In general, people may become less open, and more cautious around others when they perceive a high risk of exposure to danger.
Is there a good side to it?
As we are used to happy endings, I will try to also address potentially positive outcomes: we may consider making our gun laws safer and open constructive discussions, including informing the public about the risks. As a group species, we are able to consolidate group dynamics and integrity when pressured and stressed, so we may raise a more positive sense of community. One beautiful outcome of the recent tragic shooting in the Tree of Life was the solidarity of Muslim community with the Jewish . This is especially productive in the current political environment where fear and division are common.
The bottom line is that we get angry, we get scared and we get confused. When united, we can do much better. And, do not spend too much time watching cable TV; turn it off when it stresses you too much.
In an interview KCAL, a former high school coach claimed that Thousand Oaks shooter Ian David Long attacked and sexually groped her 10 years ago, but that she never reported it, instead just kicking him off the track team.
Long is reportedly responsible for a mass shooting at Thousand Oaks bar that left 12 dead, and then turned the gun on himself.
Speaking with local reporters, Dominique Colell recalled the incident that began with a dispute over a cell phone and ended with Long groping her as he grappled with her over the phone.
“He attacked me. He attacked his high school track coach,” said Colell. “Who does that?”
According to Colell, she found the phone and was attempting to see who owned it, when Long blew up at her.
“Ian came up and started screaming at me that was his phone,” Colelle explained. “He just started grabbing me. He groped my stomach. He groped my butt. I pushed him off me and said after that — ‘you’re off the team.’ “
But Colell says she was encouraged by other coaches and officials at Newbury Park High School to accept his apology and not do anything that would ruin his future in the Marine Corps.
Jason Coffman, father of 22-year old victim Cody Coffman, memorialized his son and said “guns are in the wrong hands” at a Thursday press conference following Wednesday night’s mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California.
"I cannot believe it happened to my family. I don't know what to tell other people," Coffman said, his head hanging. "I am speechless and heartbroken. I have been talking to you for a little while, I am pooped out, I'm spent."
"Ever since my son was 3 years old, I coached him all the way up til when he played high school baseball. I was the coach," Coffman said. "He was my fishing buddy. I fished all the time and that poor boy would come with me whether he liked it or not. Fishing on the boat. That's the kind of stuff that I am truly going to miss."
Coffman said he felt sorry for the parents of the killer, and slammed America's lax gun laws.
"Everybody has their rights. We all live in a free world here," he said. "The United States of America is for everybody. Guns are in the wrong hands."
At a Thursday press conference addressing last night's mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, a foreign reporter asked Ventura County sheriff Geoff Dean why the United States is the only country where mass shootings happen on a regular basis.
"Sheriff, why do you think this keeps happening in the United States of America and not in comparable rich democracies," asked the reporter.
"That's a pretty challenging question. I think we see unfortunate, horrific actions that happen all over the world," replied Dean. "I don't know if it happens more in the United States or doesn't. I would have to read the stats."
"It does," shot back the reporter. "Why do you think that is?"
"I don't know," said the sheriff, clearly frustrated. "If I knew the answer to that, I would do something to stop it."
Police are responding to another mass shooting, this time in Thousand Oaks, California, inside a Borderline Bar and Grill.
Local ABC affiliate KABC said during morning footage that at least of the survivors at the event was also in the Las Vegas shooting just two years ago during the country and western festival.
At least one sheriff's deputy was shot multiple times after being the first law enforcement official to appear on the scene.
Thousand Oaks Mayor Andy Fox said some of the victims suffered very serious injuries, and the shooter was "neutralized," but he didn't have any specific details about the status of the shooter or injured people.
Survivors said that the shooter was wearing all black. One woman said she believed it was a handgun and that the shooter reloaded at least once. Witnesses said the shooter used smoke bombs, which caused chaos.
The evening was a college night a few miles from California Lutheran University.
At least a dozen people, including a sheriff's deputy, were killed late Wednesday night in a mass shooting at a California bar and grill.
The gunshots were reported around 11:20 p.m. at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, which is about 40 miles west of Los Angeles.
"I can't tell you much about the shooter at this point. We are still looking for the shooter. We can't confirm the shooter is in custody at this point," said Ventura County Sheriff's Office Capt. Garo Kuredjian during a news conference.
Shots were still being fired when deputies arrived at the site. The first deputy to arrive on the scene was shot, and the sheriff confirmed the sergeant later died from those wounds.
He was identified as Sgt. Ron Helus, a 29-year veteran and father of one who was set to retire next year.
At least 10 other people were injured.
Borderline is a western-style bar and grill that regularly hosts a college night between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. and is located not far from California Lutheran University.
"It was chaos, people jumping out of windows, hopping over gates and just trying to get out," said student Nick Steinwender. "From what I heard, the gunman started shooting at the front desk ... Students were hiding in the attics, bathrooms and stuff like that."
Steinwender was in the bar with friends when the shooting began, he told KABC.
It's been less than two weeks since 11 people were murdered at a Pittsburgh synagogue during a mass shooting.
The U.S. Supreme Court for a second straight year refused on Monday to hear a challenge to California’s limits on carrying handguns in public, dealing another setback to gun rights proponents.
The court’s action underscored its continued reluctance to step into a national debate over gun control roiled by a series of mass shootings including the one at a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people on Oct. 27. It has not taken up a major gun case since 2010.
The justices, declining to hear an appeal by two gun owners, on Monday left in place a November 2017 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding California’s restrictions.
California law generally bars people from carrying firearms outside the home but local sheriffs can issue permits to carry a concealed gun in public places if applicants show “good cause.” It is left up to individual sheriffs to determine what constitutes “good cause.”
The Supreme Court in June 2017 declined to hear a similar case challenging California’s policy toward carrying guns in public.
In the case acted upon on Monday, gun owners James Rothery and Andrea Hoffman - who wanted to carry their weapons in public - sued the state and Sacramento County in 2008, saying the process for granting permits for carrying a concealed handgun was “arbitrary and capricious” and violated their right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
They also said the law violated their 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law.
Like the case turned away by the Supreme Court last year, this one was an appeal of a lower court decision upholding a local sheriff’s refusal to issue a permit.
In its landmark 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller ruling, the Supreme Court held for the first time that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to bear arms for self-defense in the home. In 2010, the court said that ruling applied nationwide.
The action Monday was the first on a gun rights issue since conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by President Donald Trump, joined the court last month. In his previous role as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Kavanaugh backed expansive gun rights.
The court did not disclose how individual justices voted in the California case.
Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham
A Georgia pro-militia gun range has vowed to take action if Democrat Stacey Abrams succeeds in her bid to become the state's next governor.
In a Facebook post over the weekend, a group calling itself "III% Security Force Intel" called for "guns up" in order to protect the state from Abrams, who they accuse of being a "flag burning, gun grabbing, socialist beeotch."
The group says that it will outline its plan to protect President Donald Trump in a Monday election update, which had not been posted by the time of publication.
"Monday you will see III% Security Force tell the world that We have President Trump's 6," the group writes. "If commies win Tuesday and go forward with usurping and impeaching, you gotta come through III%. We will defend our President."
"We want President Trump to kick the shit out of deep state / police state," the group adds. "And Stacy Abrams for Governor in Ga, you flag burning, gun grabbing, socialist beeotch. we will defend our state and the second amendment."
III% Security Force Intel describes itself as a "campground, political organization and gun range." It's charter suggests the group was formed to defend militias in the U.S.
In a Sunday night post, one of the group members complained that liberal activists from Antifa had visited his page.
"Anyone who bans semi auto rifles is signing a Declaration of War," he insisted. "Tell the #FBI I said that any law banning semi auto rifles is a Declaration of War."
"You will never find your communist utopia here," the group member remarked.
For her part, Abrams told CNN on Sunday that she is supportive of "a number of approaches" for "getting dangerous weapons off the streets."
Watch a promotional video for ""III% Security Force Intel" below.
In a shocking and horrific segment during the CBS show "60 Minutes,' Scott Pelley met with ballistics experts who could illustrate the impact on the human body an AR-15 has.
Pelley explained that right now the handgun is the gun most commonly used in robberies and crimes, but when it comes to mass shootings, the AR-15 is an outright killing machine. The guns couldn't be more different in their impact on the human body.
The lab experts Pelley interviewed used a ballistics gel created by scientists to best copy the density of human tissue and muscle. What they illustrated is that a handgun bullet easily fires a direct path in and out of the body. The AR-15 is seen literally exploding the moment it hits the body.
While doctors have explained that the bullet explodes inside the body, the ballistics gell shows how the explosion happens and that the force that it hits the body also impacts the body like a baseball bat, shoots through the body, explodes and then exits in a completely different way.
“Bones aren’t gonna just break, they’re going to shatter,” explained USC professor Cynthia Bir.
Pelley closed his segment with the creator of a first aid "bleed kit" designed to help in the event of a mass shooting.
“My son today has a bleeding kit on his person,” said Broward County medical director Dr. Peter Antevy. He noted the day after the Parkland shooting, he made sure his son had one in his school bag. The boy is 12.
Tech policy reporter Tony Romm posted screen captures as the so-called "free speech" social media site Gab came back online Sunday.
Gab had gone dark after investors, vendors and the host pulled away in wake of the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue last week. Prior to opening fire on the crowd at Tree of Life Synagogue services, the shooter announced to Gab that he was "going in." He was an active user of the site, particularly when it came to railing against Jewish people and doxing reporters.
Gab CEO Andrew Torba posted a new message to users, saying he hoped the users of the site could show the world how wonderful the Gab community is.
"We want to see nothing but positivity, peace and love. It's time to show the world that we have the best community on the internet," he said.
The first comment replied: "The jews [sic] will probably be paying for taking this down I'm guessing."
"It was the jews [sic]," another comment said in the reply.
"Well looks like I'll have to park the car for a while now that Gab is up. Thanks jews [sic]," said another user with a middle finger emoji.
Kyle, another Gab user, told the community that during the Gab outage he was watching tweets about the site and concluded, "twitter jews [sic] are the scum of the earth and they will never believe in free speech and cant [sic] wait to take it away from all of us."
