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Question of the Day: When Do You Call the Cops on A Potential Murderer?

Robert Farago - comments No comments

“I always knew you were going to shoot up the school,” murder victim Sam Strahan told killer Caleb Sharpe just before he was shot, according to court records. “You know that is going to get you in trouble.” spokesman.com reports that there were plenty of other warning signs that Mr. Sharpe was mentally ill and potentially violent:

Sharpe bragged of owning multiple guns and knew how to make improvised explosive devices, according to one of Sharpe’s classmates . . .

According to Sharpe’s mother, he had written a suicide note a week prior. Sharpe’s school counselor knew he was suicidal, according to court documents.

Freeman student Christina Morrison said she knew Sharpe well. He was suicidal, had “mental problems” she said. She never expected him to be violent, however.

Once again, we have a killer whose behavior prior to the incident clearly indicated the potential for trouble. We don’t know if law enforcement was aware of Mr. Sharpe, but I’d like to know if and when you’d call the cops to report someone you considered possibly homicidal.

What would it take to make you drop the dime? And is that the right answer, anyway?

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Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

0 thoughts on “Question of the Day: When Do You Call the Cops on A Potential Murderer?”

  1. If my vote was a hate crime, their very existence is a crime against humanity. I am not a Christian, I do not turn the other cheek, you are testing my patience, I am not a tolerant individual. Fair warning.

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  2. Good for the cafe. As private property owners, they’re free to enjoy and extend the benefits of their property to whomever they choose. If that means excluding mild mannered, lightly armed, albeit it baguette-loving mofos, then so freakin’ be it, no matter how moronic that is.

    Persona non grata at the neighborhood pussified pâtisserie? Oh well. C’est la vie.

    What’s disappointing here is that a lying, law breaking, property rights violator wasn’t duly punished under the law and ticketed. Just another day in “I’ll do whatever I feel like” America, where we make new laws promiscuously and enforce them selectively. Private property owners be damned in the process.

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  3. Gee I don’t know…but in rebuttal it’s pretty EZ these days to drop a dime on some disturbed cretin. ANONYMOUSLY too. Swatting for realz. Plenty of “see something-say something” narc on your neighbor(or “bullied sissy classmate” avenues…

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  4. When the police would have cause to charge him/her with a crime. Otherwise, what are the police going to do about it? Ring his doorbell and ask him if he’s a homicidal maniac?

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    • “When the police would have cause to charge him/her with a crime.”

      Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner!

      Freedom is sometimes messy. Along with freedom comes free will — and the potential for people to abuse their free will. THAT is why we should be prepared to defend ourselves at all times.

      Reply
  5. Guys, Tungsten is a very heavy material. In metal there is a cobalt and carbide hardness factor (Rc) and then there are tough materials Rene 41 with lots of nickle and etc. All of these are heavy and not desired to carry on your chest period. Stick with kevlar, cloth and synthetic materials. Compounds are generally better. Hell Plastic will draw and absorb most energy from bullets. try penetrating a 45 acp through 3/8″ – 1/2″ acrylic. They use it in 7-11 stores and banks usually 1″ thick to mag. proof.

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  6. I think this all points right back to the Morons who sit on the Supreme Court. They have ignored the problem of hate speech and threats for years while other civilized Industrial Countries have taken the moral high ground and completely outlawed it. Now California instead of passing an anti-hate speech law only decided they could kill two birds with one stone and outlaw both gun ownership and hate speech at the same time. To the them it is a dream come true. Meanwhile since their new law which will confiscated all semi-auto rifles within two years has been ruled by the courts to be constitutional the lower courts in California will only two willingly support this new law but not because it bans hate speech so much but rather that it is tied to taking away the right to own a firearm. Once this law is sanctioned by the courts it will of course be extended to say spitting on the side walk or playing music at a private party to loudly or having a burned out tail light bulb assuming the person stopped is not executed by some made dog cop on the spot for such a heinous crime.

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  7. I’m sure his parents must have had some clue as to his mental state which should have had some response to his free access to their gun safe.

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  8. I’m from the kind of places where you don’t nark on people. Ever.

    If someone’s a problem you deal with it when it gets there. Especially given random murders are so rare as to not really be a ‘thing’. After all the anti’s have to scavenger the nation day in and day out to find a handful of individual example that can just barely fit their narratives.

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  9. I guess it depends on how much of a conscious you have. Is keeping your mouth shut when you know someone may be going to do something terrible easier to deal with than the regret of not saying anything. It comes down to morality and guilt. I know some will say you’re being a narc. Put yourself in the shoes of the victims or even worse put yourself in the shoes of their families. I’ve heard it said be the change you want to see. Choices are hard and have consequences. Even if you decide to do nothing you have still made a choice. Can you live with the consequences?

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  10. Patronizing an anti gun chi chi left wing joint that advertises their hatred of the Bill of Rights on the freakin door and surprised you got called for it? LOL at least there are plenty of other leftist owned gun hating commie d bag chow shops in liberal bung hole Austin to visit with your chrome plated sissy pistol.

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  11. And to think they thought we “colonists” were wimps to run from the Redcoats. Where they would stand in lines and take bullets. Took them a short amount of time to get rid of their own freedom. They never had liberty being the subjects they are, but becoming a nation full of Hoplophobes…. It is getting to the point where you can defeat most of Europe by saying “BOO”

    During a terror attack they had beer mugs to fight back with….

    Glad we are not subjects, though there are a lot who seem to want us to be, it is not a majority; Yet.

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  12. The crocs in Nuevo Vallarta scared the shit out of me. When I first got there I thought they were exaggerating and I did work on the bottom of my boat in the marina. Once a friend showed the crocs to me I never went in the river or marina water again. Terrifying creatures. If one ambushed you as they are like to do, I doubt you’d get a chance to take a shot.

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  13. Liberals believe that the placation of aggressors will do away with violence. They believe that disarming law-abiding gun owners will make criminals less violent or nonviolent.

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  14. Yeah, this shit is getting old having to fill in name and email every freaking time I want to comment. It’s been going on for weeks on my iPhone. And my laptop.

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  15. This Tim Ralston guy is a loser. Met him at a tradeshow and he showed me a new firearm he said he invented called Scavenger 6.. Tell me that any idiot is allowed to put a firearm into the marketplace!

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  16. This is your school system on feminism. In my day, you took the kid that was bullying you and kicked him right in the crotch followed by an elbow to the back of the head. That bully never bothers you again. In modern feminist run schools, the bully’s victim would be in trouble.

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    • That’s one reason. When I was in school in the 70’s and eighties, we were allowed by the teachers and the principal to stand up and fight back against the bullies. The teachers all knew who the bullies were and when a kid fought against one of the bullies, the bullied kid was not punished, and even given an atta boy, with a wink and a nod, for standing up for themselves.

      Now? There is no acceptable outlet for a bullied kid to defend themselves, because they will be punished equally with the bully. What an abomination! What injustice!

      Modern school children are being pushed out naked into a lions den during feeding time, left with no ability to defend against predators, whether from fellow students, or by mass murderers from outside.

      But this is just a symptom of a society that has turned from the authority of G-d’s word and the authority of intact families over the raising of their own children, and giving that authority to the state. And we see the result.

      Reply
  17. If someone says they want to kill someone, they have shown the physical ability to do it, they expressed a clear plan on how they will do it, and they can reasonably enact that plan and have taken steps to accomplish the plan, call the cops.

    Reply

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