By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
July 17, 2007
Let’s begin with the obvious. Aaron Snyder, the man who entered the Colorado Capitol Monday carrying a handgun, wearing a tuxedo and calling himself “the emperor” was crazy.
Let’s jump now to the not so obvious. As insane as Snyder was, he was still able to legally purchase the loaded seven-shot .357 Smith and Wesson stainless steel revolver he took to the governor’s office.
Unless a court had judged him a threat to himself or others and involuntarily committed him to a mental health facility, Snyder could have legally purchased as many firearms as he wanted from federally licensed gun dealers in Colorado.
In other words, Snyder, who was dangerously delusional, could have had an endless cache of weapons without breaking the law. He could have done so even if he was in the care of a psychiatrist, even if his parents knew that he was mentally ill.
That answers the first question that always gets asked in tragedies such as the one that traumatized workers at the Capitol. Snyder was a nice, smart young man, neighbors said of the fellow a state trooper shot to death as he tried to lay claim to his throne in the governor’s office. But the 32-year-old Thornton man was “not well.”
How, neighbors and others wondered, could a person like Snyder get a gun?
In the United States and in Colorado, the real question is “How could a guy like Snyder NOT get a gun?”
Snyder bought his .357 Smith and Wesson in a sporting goods store in Northglenn in April, Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman said. The purchase was legal. So were the 20-plus extra rounds Whitman said Snyder carried in his pocket at the time he died.
Colorado places few limits on who can buy guns and no limits on the number of firearms that a qualified individual can legally purchase, Colorado Department of Public Safety spokesman Lance Clem confirmed Tuesday.
Anyone who is 21, hasn’t been convicted of a felony, isn’t subject to certain restraining orders and has not been judged a danger to himself or others and involuntarily committed may procure a personal arsenal.
But even if Snyder had been hospitalized against his will at some point, the man who hoped to take over the government could have purchased as many guns as he wanted from private, non-licensed gun sellers.
Private gun sales require no checks of any kind.
“There is no control over private purchases,” Clem told me.
When it comes to guns in America that means there is no practical control at all.
Need a gun? Hit the Internet.
At this moment, I’m looking at a website that links me to private sellers who will provide me damn near anything I want in a people killer. Here’s a Cobray M-11 semi-automatic pistol with an extra 30-round clip for 380 bucks. Here’s a $650 pre-assault-weapons-ban TEC-9 with two 30-round clips and a threaded barrel on which to screw a silencer. The current owner promises this semi-automatic “can burn through a 30-round clip extremely fast … Also you can keep the gun under control, without any worries of burning your hands, when you’re firing rounds from the hip.”
Snyder could have bought these weapons, no questions asked. So can anybody else, crazed or criminal.
This country refuses to prevent gun violence; we remain content merely to react to it.
Until that changes troubled souls can turn themselves into killing machines the way Harris and Klebold did at Columbine, the way Cho Seung-Hui did at Virginia Tech.
Snyder might have joined the march toward infamy, but for the quick reaction of the governor’s staff and a state patrolman. Snyder never drew his legal weapon, Whitman said. Snyder just drew back his tuxedo coat and showed the Smith and Wesson to a state trooper, while walking toward him.
Snyder “said something like ‘I am the emperor of Colorado here to take over,’” Whitman explained. The state patrolman “told (Snyder) to stop twice, then shot,” Whitman added. Snyder “was hit twice in the chest and once in the head.”
It was a clean shoot, the chief maintained.
Sounds like it. Still, the folks at the Capitol got lucky. Powerless is the word that comes to mind when the discussion turns to keeping guns out of the hands of Americans with sick minds or bad intent. Non-existent is the word that comes to mind when pondering the national will required to address the resulting carnage.
The metal detectors state leaders now think about re-installing at the Capitol are not the answer. That just keeps the politicians safe while pushing the violence outside the walls of their fortress.
Gun nuts would like to turn our vulnerability into a battle cry for a return to the Old West. For their own protection, the argument goes, all Americans ought to be locked, loaded and ready to shoot.
Maybe that would take out a few more bad guys, but it will do nothing to staunch the bloodbath.
As he prepared to storm the governor’s office, “the emperor” reportedly said, “You’re going to pay for this.”
He was clearly speaking from the depths of a deadly delusion. But the same words apply to a country that lets firearms flow freely.
It’s not a question of what’s going to happen. It’s only a question of when.
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
4 users commented in " In America, Anyone Who Wants A Gun Gets One, Usually Legally "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThough I’m not a recognized constitutional scholar, I understand the historical rationale for the 2nd Amendment. Nonetheless, I view it as one of the few mistakes made by the Founding Fathers, and we’ve just seen another example – among far too many – of how that particular mistake plays out centuries later, in a culture those Founding Fathers couldn’t have imagined.
For Coloradans who haven’t thought of it in these terms, there are plenty of examples around the world of what society would be like if the 2nd Amendment zealots had (or, given Jim’s column, continue to have) their way. Think of Kabul, or Gaza, or outside the Green Zone in Baghdad. The folks who tell you that a “safe society” means everyone should be armed don’t really want you to visualize what it might be like if we all carried an Uzi, or a Tech 9, or an AK-47, or in this most recent case, a stainless S&W .357. And yes, I’ve fired all of those weapons, though I don’t own any of them. A society armed with AK-47s is civilized in name only. Do you think Hamas represents the ultimate in human social organization?
I would be happy to let most of the gun nuts have their expensive weapons and let them fire away in peace at their local shooting ranges. It would also be fine with me if they kept a loaded gun under their pillow, even though 1) it wouldn’t help them much if a wide-awake armed burglar surprised them and 2) it dramatically increases their chance of accidental, purposeful, or suicidal death in their home.
Waiting lists/cooling-off lists might help weed out many of the psychopaths, especially with money to back up investigation of buyers. And the peaceful gun nuts could buy as many weapons as they wanted!
I have never had guns, it’s a personal choice.
But I wonder, would the doctor’s family in Connecticut have still been alive if they would have had guns to protect themselves from the intruders?
One thing we know for sure is that criminals, gang-bangers, thugs, have guns. They will always have guns no matter what the laws are.
And women will always be stalked by violent, disturbed exes who ignore restraining orders.
Shouldn’t they have the right to protect themselves?
Kimberly Smith…
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….
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