Press Stumbles Yet Again In Navy Yard Shooting Coverage

The reportage on the massacre of twelve people at the Washington Navy Yard betrayed the agenda of the MSM again.  I have previously written of the stereotype portrayed in the press of their typical temptation to show that any shooter must somehow be associated with the military.  Not only are the vast majority of these shooters non-veterans, but those who are veterans have a military background that has nothing to do with use of firearms against multiple targets (see link above).

So it is with the reporting about Aaron Alexis, widely introduced within the first few words as a "Navy veteran" or "former Navy reservist".  He enlisted in May 2007 and was discharged January 2011 as an Aviation Electrician's Mate 3rd Class (at pay grade E-4, equivalent to an Army Specialist or Marine Corporal).  His record indicates several failed inspections, and that he was subject to Non-Judicial Punishment for unauthorized absence (UA), insubordination, and disorderly conduct.  As a result of a civilian disorderly conduct charge in Georgia, he missed muster at a reserve drill and was demoted one rank and had to forfeit pay.  (An NJP punishment of this sort is typically a result of several previous incidents adding up to it.  Upon appeal, the punishment was overturned, but the details are lacking at this point.)

The 3½ year mark of his service would be when he would have been evaluated for the possibility of promotion and a continued career, for which he clearly was not qualified.  He therefore was placed on a fast-track for discharge, characterized as 'honorable' by the rules that had him squeak just under the requirements as opposed to a more drawn-out process – a sort of administrative 'plea bargain', if you will. 

Nothing in his record or specialty indicates that he received any weapons training beyond the standard familiarization that he and all other recruits would have been given in Boot Camp.  He was stationed primarily at the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base (NAS-JRB) Fort Worth (formerly Carswell AFB), with a brief stint in Illinois.  He never deployed, particularly overseas to a combat area.  His naval experience never went beyond that of a rear-area, technical 'IBM in blue' assignment. 

His military experience had nothing to do with his insane actions, but the press insists on leading with that tidbit. 

The media also has egg on their collective face for the expected rants about his use of an AR-15 in the commission of this crime.  Piers Morgan, Anderson Cooper, the New York Daily News, and the usual cast of characters railed on the subject of these 'assault rifles', but reports now show that there was no AR-15 – he instead approached the building of the Navy Yard, to which he had access as a Navy civilian contract employee, with a shotgun he had legally purchased, and then began to open fire once inside.  He further acquired two handguns from security personnel whom he shot.  CNN went on to compound the meme and their public admission of ignorance by branding the weapon as an "AR-15 shotgun".

 

 

There is no such thing.  The AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle (one trigger pull, one shot).  A shotgun is something else entirely.  Yet the public is supposed to believe the press as subject-matter 'experts' on these topics.

Ironically, the shotgun is the weapon that Vice President Joe Biden encourages people to buy so that they can defend themselves by firing off shells illegally.

 

"Buy a  shotgun"

 

Alexis was clearly mentally deranged, as shown by his history.  In 2004 he shot out the tires of a car belonging to construction workers in what he claimed was an anger-inspired "black out". 

He fired a round through the ceiling of his apartment into another in 2010, but he claimed that his pistol discharged accidentally, so the police dropped the inquiry.  His neighbor nonetheless said that she was "terrified" of his angry outbursts and the landlord started eviction proceedings. 

He also claimed to have PTSD as a result of being an active participant during the 2001 terrorist attack on New York City.  While he may have been present in the city, there is no evidence to indicate that he was as active as he claimed. 

He recently had a profound psychotic episode in a Rhode Island hotel where he had auditory hallucinations and claimed that he was being attacked by three men with vibratory rays. 

His access to the Navy Yard as a contractor was due to the fact that he had a security clearance as a result of two background checks which apparently did not uncover the derogatory information.  This is another example of fear of litigation and protection of mentally unstable people as a result of the ACLU drive to protect the rights of such people.  Unfortunately, that is a two-edged sword.  Any loosening of that easily results in spurious claims lodged as vendettas, such as in divorce proceedings, and other forms of harassment that can result in loss of rights and employment. 

A common denominator in the perpetration of such crimes is mental instability or terrorism, not the inert firearm.  If we are to address the need of keeping the mentally deranged from committing such crimes, we must devise a better way of protecting them and ourselves by directly addressing their real needs, such as the system that existed in the 1970s.