When criminals are the only ones with guns

[scott9050]

Things like this happen:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/artic ... _pharmacy/

MEDFORD, N.Y. — A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy yesterday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.

The slayings happened about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.

Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy’s parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Suffolk County Police Department’s Chief of Detectives, Dominick Varrone. No one inside the shop survived.

The pharmacy, Haven Drugs, had opened for business at 10 a.m., and Varrone said investigators’ initial belief was that a single gunman was responsible for the bloodbath and the motive was robbery. Details of how the shooting unfolded and why were unclear, he said.

The shooter fled the pharmacy; no suspects were in custody.

Officials did not immediately release additional details about the shooting or the names or ages of the victims.

A call left for the man listed in state records as the pharmacy’s owner and chief pharmacist, Vinoda Kudchadkar, was not immediately returned.

[totes6]

Chances are that the robber now murderer was not after petty cash unfortunately. He/She was probably after the big score of Oxycodone(brand name Oxycontin) or some other narcotic. I know many people will say I am harsh and immoral by saying this, but...

Make the stupid pills available over the counter and be done with it. The addicts will eventually over dose on them and stop being a drain on society.


http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/oxycodone.asp

A 40mg tablet (prescribed from a doctor) costs approximately $4, but the street value (the cost when illegally obtaining the drug) can range in price from $25 to $40.

Obviously at that price if offered over the counter at $4 a tablet will kill the illegal drug trade of oxycodone. Why go to the thug on the corner street when you can go to the store and buy it much cheaper.

[gunderwood]

@totes6 That's the idea behind getting rid of Prohibition in the 1930s as well as all of the current ones. It worked then.

[seeknulfind]

This sort of thing tends to make my unpopular with my fellow conservatives but the whole "drug war" concept needs to go.

How much of the street violence abhorred by so many is a direct result of the drug trade?

Sorry, but morality cannot be legislated, it must be embraced to be effective.

Andy

[Palladin]

Sorry, but morality cannot be legislated, it must be embraced to be effective.

Andy

Morality can be enforced in a benevolent dictatorship (ie, at the family level). When the minors reach their majority and graduate to the republic, they might be more likely to effect good choices...

[seeknulfind]

Sorry, but morality cannot be legislated, it must be embraced to be effective.

Andy

Morality can be enforced in a benevolent dictatorship (ie, at the family level). When the minors reach their majority and graduate to the republic, they might be more likely to effect good choices...

Agreed.

[scott9050]

Here is the play by play so to speak of the crime:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/insi ... sueN8ueaoL

[zephyp]

This sort of thing tends to make my unpopular with my fellow conservatives but the whole "drug war" concept needs to go.

How much of the street violence abhorred by so many is a direct result of the drug trade?

Sorry, but morality cannot be legislated, it must be embraced to be effective.

Andy

Yup, the war on drugs was lost long ago and we spend far too much tine and money on it...better to focus on securing the border and fighting crime that can be won...and you are correct...you cant legislate morality...that is something left to each of us...

[allingeneral]

Sorry, but morality cannot be legislated, it must be embraced to be effective.

Andy

...and you are correct...you cant legislate morality...that is something left to each of us...

IMHO, the current state of our media - specifically the things kids watch on TV and the internet - are huge causes for the moral decline that we've seen over the last generation or so. I've had to change the channel when the kids are watching the Cartoon Network before. How ridiculous is that? If it's bleeding over into kids cartoons, just think of the crap they see on other cable channels during all hours of the day.

[totes6]

I've had to change the channel when the kids are watching the Cartoon Network before.

The real problem is that you are one of the few who monitor what your kids watch. Too often these days, parents have turned the tv into a defacto babysitter. They say sit here kids and watch tv for hours on end and then the parents go do other stuff. They have no clue what their kids watch. TV networks are about making money. If a show doesn't sell it gets cut and quickly at that. Just this last fall we had several new series get cut after only one or two episodes and because the viewership wasn't there, they got cut. And a lot of the other new series probably won't be back next season.

If more parents stood up and said my kids are not watching "xyz show" and the networks saw the viewership fall, that show would get cut and replaced with something else. I am not saying that the replacement would be any better at first, but the networks are usually pretty good at finding out what sells pretty quick. Chances are the series would get replaced with something just as bad, because the networks have become so used to that type of show being what sells. But if the new series falls flat on its face too in numbers of viewers, then the network is going to start asking questions about what has changed and adapt to its viewership.

[seeknulfind]

Rick and totes, about the TV - good points. We shut the cable off entirely for a number of years. Whenever I saw a TV during that time, I was appalled at the immorality and trash blatantly displayed - and those were the commercials!

Won't be long and we will again be without TV. Shucks, there just isn't any reception and I will NOT pay for satellite. Not worth it.

However I think TV is only part of the problem. As Rick points out - parental control is non-existent. I've got a friend who is a special ed teacher. He often laments the fact that the parents just want him to pass the kids. Who cares if the kid doesn't want to do the work? The admin backs the parents. "No child left behind" has become "just pass the little snot".

Can't tell you how many times my Kindergartner came home last year with a new parenting message from the teacher. Seems like the teacher was more interested in telling me how to parent my kid than she was in education matters.

Parents are shirking their responsibilities and expecting schools to take over. Meanwhile, the schools themselves have no discipline.

Thus we are turning people like this armed thug loose on the streets with only an outlaw drug industry to look up to.

Andy

[bryanrheem]

I often wonder what I would have done in this situation. It sounds like there was no warning whatsoever of the attack. Situational awareness would be the only thing that would tip you off that the person was shady, but would the instant you recognize that and see him pull up his gun be enough to draw and return fire?

[Sangre]

I used to work at a drug store (not in the pharmacy itself) in a nice very low crime area and while our store never had problems, there was another drug store literally across the street maybe 500 feet away that was robbed at gunpoint twice while I worked there. Once the employees closed up and where walking out the gunman confronted them had them unlock and go back inside. Luckily the drugs had been locked up and they where unable to get to them I heard that they had both tried, they did get away with some cash. After this we where all worried and ever since then I have been much more aware of my surroundings especially in situations where I think there might be a heightened risk. Hopefull by doing so you can be prepared enough that if something happens you have tome to respond, but in some situations you can't anticipate what might happen and just have to hope for the best.

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