“A man fired from his job at a Minneapolis sign-making business pulled out a handgun and began shooting up its offices, fatally wounding the owner and four others before turning the gun on himself, police said Friday.” Andrew Engeldinger had been fired from Accent Signage Systems and, according to huffpo, had struggled with mental illness for years. He shot eight people Thursday, killing five before saving the taxpayers of Minnesota a fortune by turning his gun on himself . . .
But it probably didn’t have to be that way. At least, not as bad as it was. One of the five killed was the company’s owner, Reuven Rahamim. From WaPo:
Rahamim grew up on a farm in Israel and served in the Israeli army before coming to the U.S. after the 1973 Arab-Israel War, said his son-in-law, Chad Blumenfield.
Rahamim founded Accent Signage Systems Inc. in the basement of his Minneapolis home in the early 1980s, according to local business publication Finance & Commerce. With a patent for a method of making Braille signs for the blind, the company specializes in signs that meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
As a former IDF soldier, it’s a safe bet Rahamim knew how to handle a gun. If he — or any of his other employees, for that matter — had been armed, the deaths at Accent Signage caused by an armed wacko might have been reduced. Maybe even eliminated.
Our gun-grabbing friends will, as night follows day, blame what they consider lax gun laws for this too-familiar tragedy. They’ll claim that mental health screening could have and should have prevented Engeldinger from getting his hands on a gun in the first place.
But criminals and madmen will always find a way to get firearms. They do it every day, whether it’s here in the “permissive,” relatively gun-friendly U.S. or in one of Sarah Brady’s common sense gun control utopias like the UK.
Have no illusion — killers will always get their hands on guns. The responsible, sane response is to acknowledge that reality and make it as easy as possible for free people to exercise their natural right to armed self defense. But you knew that.
Gun grabbers believe (whether they are mental health care professionals, politicians, or private citizens) that any private citizen who wants to own a gun, for any reason, must be mentally sick and therefore should not be given the right to own a gun. It’s circular politically correct thinking err make that pc emotionalizing on their mental hamster wheels that go around and around sort of like Linda Blair’s head in the Exorcist.
The family tried for two years to get him help, but MN has no way other than going to court to compel someone to get a mental evaluation and you need a lot of info as the bar is pretty high.
While I agree someone who was CC could have stopped him, the system in place is also to blame for not having an easier way to get him help to avoid the whole problem in the first place.
I also see a disturbing trend, maybe I am just noticing, but the media seems to go out of its way now to find out how rounds of ammo the shooter has ever since the CO shooting where the number of rounds and internet sales took center stage.
I thought you believed knife crime increased in the UK due to the gun restrictions. You’re contradicting yourself _ again.
mikey#s, all he said was that the bad guys in england still manage to get guns, despite the nearly complete ban on guns in their country. Moral of the story: bad guys will always have a way to get guns, dont restrict the good guys ability to do the same.
Also, the bad guys in england that dont bother getting a gun do fine without them it seems. Who woulda thunk, violent criminals didnt just up and abandon crime when you take away one of their tools. They just moved on to a different tool.
All types of violent crime using different methods or tools increased in the UK: gun, knife, beatings, etc. In London, teenage girls/young women now account for 25% of the street attacks. It is your modern social politically-correct thinking that is responsible for this violence. Yes, mikeb your voting contributes to bad politicians making bad policy that results in the thugs ruling the streets.
I don’t think this is our beloved village idiot mikeybnumbers. He’s changed his heading if it is. And he didn’t pull any halfbaked facts out of his ass.
As for the shooting, the company owner was a veteran of the IDF and the yom kippor war. He may have been one of those vets that would never touch another gun and ran his company accordingly. Just guessing.
@Aharon… Then there is this little gem for MikeyBnumbers to peruse!
“in Chester Pa. Six teenage girls are in jail for beating a 48 yr old mentally handicapped woman on her front porch Just for Fun”.
All six girls stated that they beat the woman up just because it was fun”
Not a complete quote but is the basis of the story! So if we did get rid of all the guns then when something like this occurs how will the general public be able to defend theirselves then???
“Wait a minute ladies before you beat me up I need to call the police”!! Yea I can see that doing some good for the victim.
This little tidbit too: in Batesville Ar a man pumping gas at a station Friday morning was jumped from behind and beaten by an unknown number of men. They grabbed him and threw him in the backseat of his vehicle and beat him unconscious!!! Thursday night in Batesville a man reported hearing his front door bang open and going into his living room he was attacked by a masked man who cut him across his stomach and neck before the victim grabbed a gun and chased him out of the house!
Now the slashing victim grabbed a pellet gun but the BG thought it was real and off he went!
Crimes like this and worse are becoming more and more common on places that are “Gun Free Zones” and where people are too poor to own a firearm.
So MikeyBnumbers what is your solution now? Call the police!?? Both victims did. Case 1 it took police 9 minutes to get there, from across town. Case 2 it took 6 minutes and the Vic lives in town. Small town of barely 10,000 people by the way.
If you think or believe that outlawing guns in the US will cure the violence you are dead wrong!! BG’s will just find a different tool of destruction to use!!
Having worked in ER at the local hospital I have seen cases come in with both gunshot wounds and ones after being beaten with a baseball bat!!
The gunshot wounds are for the most part easier to treat simply because the damage is somewhat confined to a certain area whereas the victim of the bat was literally beaten from head to toe and to this day has serious physical and mental disabilities. The gunshot victim has two small wound scars in his lower abdomen where a 9 mm went through and through and has no resulting permanent injuries.
So to end my rant: demonizing guns and gun owners accomplishes nothin more than giving the bad guys more free rein to do as they please since they know they can’t be legally fired upon while committing a crime in most situations!!! But it really shouldn’t matter to you Mikey since you have no stake in the US. You are still livin in Italy right?? And still trying to get our guns taken away. Why? So you can come back and feel safe here in the Us again?? Hope you never meet the business end of a 34oz Rawlings Slugger then!!
We need to find a way to keep the mentally deficient out of gun stores and Congress.
Amen!!! Our government needs to do something to help those that do have serious legitimate mental or physical disabilities.
Without the person or family having to jump through so many hoops that they make Ringling Bros circus look boring!!!
Once it was enacted tho we could legally get rid of Congress, The House and Senate and probably the CIC!!!
I wonder if we could file a class action lawsuit against all of the anti gunners in politics and the SCOTUS since they are legally discriminating against gun owners???!! Just a thought.
Depends on how things went down. People in a setting they’re used to being safe in might not be able to react quickly enough even if they did have guns. Often enough, people think “Oh, that’s Bob, I know Bob, I’m sure he won’t actually pull the trigger.” And they realize they’re wrong too late.