Obama urges gun control after Colorado Springs shooting: 'Enough is enough'

[umbertino]

• Officials name suspect as Robert Lewis Dear, 57, of North Carolina
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• Police say ‘items’ suspect left at scene are ‘no longer a threat’
•  
• Republican criticizes Planned Parenthood as search for motive goes on
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• Colorado Springs: a playground for pro-life, pro-gun evangelicals

 

 

 

Josiah Hesse in Colorado Springs and Martin Pengelly in New York

 

Saturday 28 November 2015 15.25 GMT

 

 

 

Robert Lewis Dear, a 57-year-old from North Carolina, has been named as the suspected gunman behind a standoff at a Planned Parenthood health clinic in which three people died and nine were injured.

 

After he was named, Barack Obama said on Saturday the US had “to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them”.

 

“Period,” the president added, in a statement released by the White House. “Enough is enough.”

 

Officials speaking off the record gave the suspect’s identity to news outlets late on Friday. On Saturday morning, the city of Colorado Springs confirmed Dear’s identity and released a booking photo taken at the El Paso County criminal justice center.

 

No other detail was immediately available, as motive remained unclear in the attack, which police said on Friday was carried out with a “long gun” – usually a reference to a rifle or shotgun.

 

“We don’t have any information on this individual’s mentality, or his ideas or ideology,” Colorado Springs police lieutenant Catherine Buckley told reporters.

 

On Saturday, a police spokesperson said unspecified “items” left at the scene by the suspected gunman had been “secured and and processed, and are no longer a threat”.

 

The crime scene perimeter around the Planned Parenthood clinic had been reduced significantly and those whose cars were parked in a grocery store parking lot nearby were able to take their cars home.

 

“It is still a crime scene,” said the police spokesperson, “and the area around Planned Parenthood is still closed off.”

 

In his statement, Obama said: “We don’t yet know what this particular gunman’s so-called motive was for shooting 12 people, or for terrorising an entire community.

 

“What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect. We know that law enforcement saved lives, as so many of them do every day, all across America. And we know that more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them.”

 

Planned Parenthood has, however, been at the centre of a fierce political storm – as fierce as that over the gun control measures for which Obama continues to call – over videos released by an anti-abortion group which purport to show officials discussing the sale of foetal tissue. Calls to defund the organisation have proliferated among Republicans in Congress and on the 2016 presidential campaign trail.

 

The organisation, which provides access to a wide range of women’s healthcare, has denied any wrongdoing by its employees.

 

On Friday, Planned Parenthood said all of its staff at the clinic – which is equipped with “safe rooms” and an extensive security system – were safe and that it did not know the circumstances or motives behind the attack

 

However, the Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, criticised Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood in the Rocky Mountains, for a statement released on Friday afternoon. In the statement, Cowart said that though the motive for the attack was not known, “extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country”.

 

Speaking to CNN, Kinzinger said the statement “was very premature”.

 

“We may find out that this person was targeting Planned Parenthood,” he said. “If we find out that he was not targeting Planned Parenthood, I would fully expect an apology from the Planned Parenthood director for saying that.”

 

Kinzinger also said if the gunman was targeting Planned Parenthood, “he has taken a legitimate disagreement with the practice, and turned it into an evil response, which is to go in and shoot people”.

 

 

The leading Democratic presidential candidates, Hillar-y Clinton and Bernie Sanders, expressed their support for Planned Parenthood.

 

As in the case of the gunman who attacked a roomful of churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina in a racially motivated attack in June, debate quickly welled up around whether to consider the Planned Parenthood gunman a “terrorist”.

 

According to Mashable, the wording of the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains statement was later changed, when a version was issued in which the phrase “domestic terrorism” was replaced with “acts of violence”.

 

Lynn Young, a resident of Colorado Springs, was education programme manager for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood’s southern region from 2003 to 2007. She also worked as an employee in a Minnesota Planned Parenthood from 1977 to 1979. At that time, she told the Guardian on Saturday, it was normal to receive training about security measures to be taken in the event of an attack.

 

In her time with Minnesota Planned Parenthood, the clinic was burned to the ground and rebuilt, then later attacked with a pipe bomb.

“You would think things would have changed,” she said, with a sigh, “but they haven’t all that much.”

 

Young, who moved to Colorado Springs in 1989, said there was a strong sense of community among those who did not fit the town’s typical identity: wealthy Republican evangelical.

 

“I’m a minority, but not an outsider,” she said. “This is my community, so I’m an insider. I share my life with neighbors who have different views than mine, and we’re deeply supportive of each other. This is my town, our town, and we chose to live here. People from the outside ask, ‘How can you live there?’ But this is our home, our community.”

 

In the violence on Friday, Garrett Swasey, a 44-year-old officer with the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs police, was killed. No immediate details were released about the two civilians who died in the attack. Five officers and four others were hospitalised in good condition, police said.

 

“Certainly it could have been much, much worse if it were not for the heroism of our police officers to corner the person in the building,” Colorado Springs fire chief Chris Riley said.

 

In his statement, Obama said: “May God bless Officer Garrett Swasey and the Americans he tried to save – and may He grant the rest of us the courage to do the same thing.”

 

Witnesses described a chaotic scene when the shooting started just before noon. One, Ozy Licano, was in the two-story building’s parking lot when he saw someone crawling toward the clinic’s door.

 

“He came out, and we looked each other in the eye, and he started aiming, and then he started shooting,” Licano said. “I saw two holes go right through my windshield as I was trying to quickly back up and he just kept shooting and I started bleeding.”

 

While police evacuated the clinic and put the surrounding area on lockdown, Licano took refuge at a nearby grocery store.

 

“He was aiming for my head,” he said. “It’s just weird to stare in the face of someone like that. And he didn’t win.”

 

 

1 2

Robert Dear is shown in a police booking photograph.

Photograph: Handout

 

 

 

2 2

Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers, second from left, talks to media after a deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Photograph: Daniel Owen/AP

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/28/gunman-named-colorado-springs-planned-parenthood-attack

 

 

[dog53]

Blah Blah Blah.

 

Clean up chicago Berry  until then shut the F up

[bohica]

I figured it would not take long for our maggot and chief to use this (and the speed and timing does smell of false flag) to his anti gun agenda.

[George Hayduke]

Blah Blah Blah.

 

Clean up chicago Berry  until then shut the F up

 

Exactly - PERIOD! 

[Whatshername]

Blah Blah Blah.

 

Clean up chicago Berry  until then shut the F up

 

[Peace]

yep smells def like false flag, when i tuned into to CBS the shooter was "active" but cbs had time to mention pro-life extremist movement...and i called it then, and said it was going to be a old white guy and ill be, here it is an old white guy...im really starting to hate crisis actors.

 

how did they now anything about the guys motives...he was still inside...don't buy the BS people. 

 

 

there trying to demonize white men specifically it seems...remember the gifford shooting in arizona, another false flag her husband is like the captain of astronauts or something like that for nasa, and i know there full of beans. fema actually has applications to be a crisis actor.

 

don't buy into the fear porn.

its all fake

Edited November 28, 2015 by Peace

[bohica]

This shooter identified himself as a female as per his/her voter registration.  Maybe instead of gun control we need more transgender control.

[uncirculd]

Cracks me up that the left wingnuts are asking why the rep's are not speaking out in condemnation of these attacks.  These wingnuts have told media that the republicans are in charge of planned parenthood.  Where is the outcry from the losers defending it?  And what part of "PRO LIFE" don't those idiots get?  Why are they only talking about a woman's right to kill and not the babies right to life?  So here is what we have, a female pleasures herself at will with any given male she pleases and not taking into consideration what happens from her pleasure if not protected.  

 

 So the consequences would be to conceive.    So now the woman is put in charge of this consequence and she becomes: judge, jury, and executioner for the consequences of her pleasure.

 

She decides this baby will take away from her future pleasure.  This baby would also be a cramp in her style, and a total sacrifice she is not willing to accept, so the consequences of unprotected sex is death.  Not to the pleasured female, but the innocent BABY who had nothing to do with her pleasure.

 

 

As for the murder at the baby chop shop:

 

Mr o wants to take guns away and somehow this will be the fault of his opponents.  How is it that it's all about putting down your opponents.  That right there tells me they are STUPID.  Can't use their brain to outwit, so they tear down their opponent with lies, and name calling.  What's really bad is, there are so many kids indoctrinated they ain't got a clue what I am talking about.  They are anything but free thinkers.  

Edited November 30, 2015 by uncirculd

[uncirculd]

Mr o wants to take guns away every time someone spits on the sidewalk. 

Beware of this guy who has NO SUBSTANCE in his words.  All bs

[Shabibilicious]

I haven't heard one presidential candidate from either side of the aisle claiming this is a false flag event.  Is it possible they are all in on it?    

 

GO RV, then BV

[George Hayduke]

Sheesh - a ruby for sarcasm - what has this world turned into...?

[Shabibilicious]

Sheesh - a ruby for sarcasm - what has this world turned into...?

 

I guess I wasn't "PC" enough.    

 

GO RV, then BV