Four Marines killed in shooting at Tennessee military facilities

[Valigarmander]

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/16/shooting-at-tennessee-college-reportedly-injures-police-officer.html

A gunman opened fire at two military facilities Thursday in Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing four Marines, according to law enforcement officials. The suspect also was killed.

Two others, a soldier and a police officer, were wounded, officials said.

“This is a nightmare for the city of Chattanooga,” said Mayor Andy Berke.

FBI officials in Knoxville identified the shooter as 24-year-old Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez. He was believed to have been born in Kuwait, and it was unclear whether he was a U.S. or Kuwaiti citizen, a U.S. official requesting anonymity told The Associated Press. He resided in Hixson, Tennessee, which is a few miles across the river from Chattanooga.

Although U.S. attorney Bill Killian initially called the killings an “act of domestic terrorism,” FBI officials said authorities were still investigating a motive.

A military official said the Marines were slain when shots were fired in a Navy reserve center in the city. The wounded Marine was hit by gunfire fired at an Armed Forces recruiting center not far away, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“Lives have been lost from some faithful people who have been serving our country, and I think I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this,” Gov. Bill Haslam said.

Witnesses and local media reports said the gunman, driving an open-top Ford Mustang, fired at two locations including a military recruiting center and a U.S. Navy Reserve center about six miles apart. Witnesses said they heard scores of shots.

Sgt. 1st Class Robert Dodge, 36, is the center leader for U.S. Army recruiting at the facility on Old Lee Highway. He said four Army personnel were in the office at the time. He said the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and National Guard all have their own offices right next to each other. Around 10:30 or 10:45 a.m., Dodge and the others heard a gunshot, “which kind of sparked our attention,” he said.

“Shortly after that, just a few seconds, the shooter began shooting more rounds. We realized it was an actual shooting,” he said. They then got on the ground and barricaded themselves in a safe place. Dodge estimated there were 30 to 50 shots fired.

He did not see the shooter or a vehicle.

Marilyn Hutcheson, who works at Binswanger Glass just across the street from the U.S. Naval Reserve building on Amnicola Highway, said she heard a barrage of gunfire around 11 a.m.

“I couldn't even begin to tell you how many,” she said. “It was rapid fire, like pow pow pow pow pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew, there were police cars coming from every direction.”

[Solitary]

Just like Charley, it was based on his Islamic religious belief of love.   

[TomFoolery]

It angers me how moments after photos were posted of the crime scene people were instantly jumping on the sign prohibiting firearms. Recruiting centers are run by federal personnel, just like it's unlawful to carry firearms into federal buildings. Had they been armed, odds are they would have still been slaughtered because let's face it, four people sitting at their desks still aren't fast enough to draw on someone who already has a weapon drawn. People are also criticizing the Army personnel for failing to do something. What they hell were they supposed to do? The way they responded to it is exactly how we were trained to handle an active shooter situation. I may need to stay away from social media for a while.

[Solitary]

I watched a show last night that showed the amount of deaths by guns in three months that amounted to 8,000 deaths, most were accidental. With every Tom Dick and Harriet running around half cocked does not in anyway make us safer. I have  45 Para ordinance with blue tip glaziers for protection if I ever need it, but the odds are almost nil I will need it where I live, but I don't sleep with it as a security blanket either. I don't believe there is a bunch of people out there that are gunning for me, and if they want anything in my house, nothing is worth living after killing someone for it. It's not fun living after killing someone that most likely has loved ones that need them. Your brain is your best weapon to keep you safe.

[FaithIsFilth]

it was based on his Islamic religious belief of love.   

The funny thing is, this might be kinda true (not that I think Islam doesn't say it's ok to kill non-Muslim civilians. It can be interpreted either way I guess, but he didn't kill any civilians and acted fairly gentlemanly. No cutting off heads and no civilians bothered). The shooter showed more compassion than we usually do towards them. I have to at least respect that.

Not much to say other than that. Suck it up and take it like a man. The United States geopolitical gain does not come without a price. A few dozen dead Westerners is a pretty damn good deal for us here in the West, considering we've displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands. Why are we acting like such victims when an attack like this happens? We are the aggressor and these Marines signed up to die. What's the big deal here? What am I not understanding? We should shrug our shoulders at this news and appreciate how good we have it. Couldn't ask for a better deal, other than the Patriot Act obviously, and C 51 here in Canada which is our version of the Patriot Act that was just passed.

I love my country and I'm very grateful to have been born here, but at the same time I can admit that we are a bully, and from time to time a bully is going to justifiably get hit back. I've never had a problem with us white folks taking over the US and Canada from the Native Americans because that was a long time ago, but I grew up being taught in school that that's not the way the world works anymore, and that we are only concerned with helping people around the world, and that we're a country that is all about peace and love and all that BS. I now realise that the world isn't as different from hundreds of years ago as I thought it was. The United States went into the Middle East (with our help) and destroyed the lives of millions for a small geopolitical gain. I'm kind of learning to accept that this is just the way humans work, and that any other country would probably do the same if they had the power that the US does. I guess the US feels like they need to do these things to stay the most powerful country in the world long term.

So the US is probably just doing what it thinks it needs to do to stay on top. Does that mean our wars are not immoral? No. Our wars are very immoral. We are the reason that ISIS has become what it has. We are the cause of a great deal of suffering and in a way the United States really is the "Great Satan". The US can't help but be that. It's what any country with the most power would probably be. I guess that's just human nature and there is no way around it, and this will probably never change.

[SGOS]

The funny thing is, this might be kinda true (not that I think Islam doesn't say it's ok to kill non-Muslim civilians. It can be interpreted either way I guess, but he didn't kill any civilians and acted fairly gentlemanly. No cutting off heads and no civilians bothered). The shooter showed more compassion than we usually do towards them. I have to at least respect that.

Not much to say other than that. Suck it up and take it like a man. The United States geopolitical gain does not come without a price. A few dozen dead Westerners is a pretty damn good deal for us here in the West, considering we've displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands. Why are we acting like such victims when an attack like this happens? We are the aggressor and these Marines signed up to die. What's the big deal here? What am I not understanding? We should shrug our shoulders at this news and appreciate how good we have it. Couldn't ask for a better deal, other than the Patriot Act obviously, and C 51 here in Canada which is our version of the Patriot Act that was just passed.

I love my country and I'm very grateful to have been born here, but at the same time I can admit that we are a bully, and from time to time a bully is going to justifiably get hit back. I've never had a problem with us white folks taking over the US and Canada from the Native Americans because that was a long time ago, but I grew up being taught in school that that's not the way the world works anymore, and that we are only concerned with helping people around the world, and that we're a country that is all about peace and love and all that BS. I now realise that the world isn't as different from hundreds of years ago as I thought it was. The United States went into the Middle East (with our help) and destroyed the lives of millions for a small geopolitical gain. I'm kind of learning to accept that this is just the way humans work, and that any other country would probably do the same if they had the power that the US does. I guess the US feels like they need to do these things to stay the most powerful country in the world long term.

So the US is probably just doing what it thinks it needs to do to stay on top. Does that mean our wars are not immoral? No. Our wars are very immoral. We are the reason that ISIS has become what it has. We are the cause of a great deal of suffering and in a way the United States really is the "Great Satan". The US can't help but be that. It's what any country with the most power would probably be. I guess that's just human nature and there is no way around it, and this will probably never change.

I don't know.  ISIS may or may not exist right now without us.  There have always been factions in the Mid East ready to grab power.  We did create a power vacuum by getting rid of Saddam who did not tolerate such factions in Iraq.  Mid East tension has always been hard for me to explain without considering simple human greed for power and money.  I agree our foreign policy can be pretty fucked up, and I don't think we've helped the Arab world at all, but some of the shit they do is pretty fucked up too.  The Arab world and it's politics is very complex.  It's hard to sort it all out, and I don't think our leaders are bright enough to understand Arab politics, or to understand the dynamics of our relationship with it.

I agree that four deaths by a terrorist is not much considering the sum total of all our own gun violence.  We kill more of our own than terrorists do.  I've pretty much decided that I have little control over our government and it's policies.  I don't make enough money to be taken seriously.  No one listens to me, and my vote doesn't count for much.

Religion is of no help at all.  Fucked up politics and religion are failures.  What else is there? 

[drunkenshoe]

... considering we've displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands. ...

Hundreds of thousands? Where did you get that estimate, from iraqbodycount.org? 

[TomFoolery]

I've never had a problem with us white folks taking over the US and Canada from the Native Americans because that was a long time ago, but I grew up being taught in school that that's not the way the world works anymore, and that we are only concerned with helping people around the world, and that we're a country that is all about peace and love and all that BS.

Except do you realize that an exorbitantly disproportionate amount of Native Americans live in poverty on reservations as testament to a system that happened "a long time ago"? Even though a few decades has passed between now and then, there are still very real effects of it in present day, along with resentment.

At this point, it still isn't confirmed that that the shooter had ties to a terrorist organization, though it seems likely. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Kuwait who grew up in Tennessee. That being said, America isn't the only country confronting radicalization of its youth.

[drunkenshoe]

Here. The real Irak body count. They did everything to discreet most of the researches been done, esp this one. They even removed the charts and the title pointing about 3 000 000 civilian deaths, around half a million children.

There is also researches on comparison of the general death toll before the invasion in the regions and after the invasion in the site's pages.

The scandalous underestimation of Iraqi civilian casualties

http://www.brussellstribunal.org/article_view.asp?id=803#.Vak7vPntlBe

[pr126]

One would think that Americans are taught to hate their country and themselves.
Pride in their country and patriotism is completely removed.
Anything bad happens to them is their own fault.
So what will you do about it?

[drunkenshoe]

One would think that Americans are taught to hate their country and themselves.
Pride in their country and patriotism is completely removed.
Anything bad happens to them is their own fault.
So what will you do about it?

Yeah... right.

[Solitary]

Hundreds of thousands? Where did you get that estimate, from iraqbodycount.org? 

Scientific surveys of Iraqi deaths resulting from the first four years of the Iraq War found that between 151,000 to over one million Iraqis died as a result of conflict during this time. A later study, published in 2011, found that approximately 500,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict since the invasion. Counts of deaths reported in newspapers collated by projects like the Iraq Body Count project found 174,000 Iraqis reported killed between 2003 and 2013, with between 112,000-123,000 of those killed being civilian noncombatants. Keep in mind these numbers are all estimates.

[FaithIsFilth]

Hundreds of thousands? Where did you get that estimate, from iraqbodycount.org? 

I have no clue what the real number is. Everyone has a different answer to that it seems. I hear most atheists go with hundreds of thousands though, so that's what I go with.

[drunkenshoe]

Scientific surveys of Iraqi deaths resulting from the first four years of the Iraq War found that between 151,000 to over one million Iraqis died as a result of conflict during this time. A later study, published in 2011, found that approximately 500,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict since the invasion. Counts of deaths reported in newspapers collated by projects like the Iraq Body Count project found 174,000 Iraqis reported killed between 2003 and 2013, with between 112,000-123,000 of those killed being civilian noncombatants. Keep in mind these numbers are all estimates.

I already posted one. Sorry that I won't take any main stream sources seriously. Esp. American ones. You shouldn't either.

[drunkenshoe]

I have no clue what the real number is. Everyone has a different answer to that it seems. I hear most atheists go with hundreds of thousands though, so that's what I go with.

I don't get it. What does atheism have to do with this?