On July 23, 2015 on a hot and humid mid-summers night in Lafayette, Louisiana, a 59 year-old drifter from Phenix City, Alabama, named John Houser, calmly enters the Grand Theatre movie complex and buys a single ticket for the romantic comedy, "Train Wreck". Besieged by marital problems and mental illness he waits for the "voice within" to guide him.
Pumped and primed with premediated intentions of committing murder, Houser's perverted adrenalin rush directs him to enter the movie's screening room; carefully survey the audience and the room's layout; select a seat and then patiently wait until an overpowering urge to shoot as many people as he can totally consumes him.
Like many who are obsessed by nonsensical hate and a depraved sense of "nobility", John Houser, who once ran as a Republican for a seat on the county tax commission in Columbus, Georgia, is on a personal mission and political vendetta to be remembered as a true believer and protector of American conservative principles and values.
Leaving behind tidbits of clues on social media regarding the level of disgust and contempt that he feels towards the "Liberalization of America", he is determined not be denied his "right" to violently make an unambiguous statement "to the world" that he hates all liberals, that he hates all women who don't know their "place" and that he wholeheartedly hates the current "liberal" U.S. government.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. John Houser stands up inside the movie's screening room and with a Hi-Point .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, he fatally shoots to death Mayci Breaux, a 21-year-old resident of Franklin, Louisiana and Jillian Johnson, a 33-year-old resident of Lafayette, Louisiana.
Methodically he moves to the rear of the movie's screening room, takes aim and indiscriminately shoots approximately 20 more times into the crowd of frantic people, seriously wounding 9 more.
As chaos erupts throughout the movie complex, John Houser exits the building through a side door that leads into a parking lot where his 1995 Lincoln is parked. Hoping he can blend into the bloody bedlam and escape without being noticed he promptly spots a police cruiser arriving in the parking lot and the "voice inside his head" tells him to reenter the building.
According to police authorities, Houser then reloads his handgun and aimlessly fires three more rounds into the crowd. Sensing that his "mission" is at its end, he shoots himself in the head, ending his life and ending the violent gun siege at the movie theatre.
In less than thirty minutes John Russell Houser, an angry and twisted political crusader, murders two innocent women and completely shatters the life of scores of innocent bystanders whose only "crime" was being present in the same movie theatre with him.
21 Questions
In the end, as it is with all inexplicable shootings / murders, the rhetorical question of "why did this happen?" begins to haunt police investigators; a concerned public and the family and friends of those who died and are wounded by the spray of bullets from an anonymous assassin.
Why would a drifter with a history of mental illness from Phenix City, Alabama come to a movie theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana and unleash his crazed fury on people he didn't know?
Question....If an assassin has meticulously planned their "getaway" and has an assortment of wig disguises stashed in their motel room, is that person really crazy, or are they evil or are they both? Either way, how does anyone with a history of mental illness and spousal abuse obtain a license to own a gun or a rifle when a thorough background check should have easily revealed these not-so-hidden human flaws?
Fact....In Alabama and Louisiana it's easier to obtain a license to obtain a gun and rifle than it is for a diabetic to obtain affordable health care. Why would any state governor make it easier to own a gun than make it easier for their citizens to receive medical care or to vote in upcoming political elections?
Who thinks like this? What kind of mind puts bullets before cancer checkups? And why are the criminally insane being licensed to kill?
Why are state legislators and governors continuously cutting funding for mental health care facilities and mental health treatment but creating and passing laws that makes it easier for their citizens to carry guns in public, even in places of worship?
So when state legislators and governors tearfully ask for prayers for the murdered and wounded the "day after" does anyone have the intestinal fortitude to ask those "leaders" how is it possible that a crazed assassin is able to legally buy a firearm?
In closing
Make no mistake; the United States of America is a nation that is terribly ill with its lust for guns and violent retribution that threatens to destroy the little sanity that the majority of us are struggling to maintain.
What occurred in Lafayette, Louisiana on Thursday evening is happening all across the United States and no one is immune from an anonymous bullet that's shot from an anonymous gun, that's owned by an anonymous executioner. Death from a crazed assassin's bullets could occur in America at any moment while at the park, while at the pool, while at the mall, while at the movie theatre or even while in church. And putting more guns in the hands of people who should never be allowed to own a firearm is not the panacea.
Violent deaths that are caused by an over-abundance of guns and ammunition on the streets of America can no longer be solely categorized as an "inner city annoyance / problem".
Angry and crazed American assassins who look just like "you" have now infiltrated U.S. suburbs and nearly all are legally licensed to kill, leaving State and U.S. lawmakers who are too afraid to ruffle the feathers of top executives from the National Rifle Association, to wait precariously by the phone for instructions from their conservative "Grand Poobas" on how to respond to yet another mass shooting.
Meanwhile back "at the ranch", officials from the NRA shamelessly peddles (hustles) outdated interpretations of 2nd Amendment gun rights, twisted definitions of states' rights and a "them" versus "us" mentality to a confused and less informed proletariat who earnestly believes that Jesus Christ was a conservative crusader who would approve of a gun and rifle in every American household.
Can't we all just admit that America is terribly ill with its lust for guns, rifles, bullets and violence? We've lost our way as a nation to protect our citizens from indiscriminate gun violence and no reservoir that's full of the crocodile tears from a politician will ever make it right.
Damn it, if we can put a man on the moon, then why can't we create gun legislation in America that takes guns and rifles out of the hands of the mentally ill and the anarchists? It's never too late to stop the madness; however, in the end it does take moral courage.
- Every year in the U.S., an average of more than 100,000 people are shot, according to The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence.
- Every day in the U.S., an average of 289 people are shot. Eighty-six of them die: 30 are murdered, 53 kill themselves, two die accidentally, and one is shot in a police intervention, the Brady Campaign reports.
- Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 335,609 people died from guns -- more than the population of St. Louis, Missouri. (318,069), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (307,484), Cincinnati, Ohio (296,223), Newark, New Jersey (277,540), and Orlando, Florida (243,195) (sources: CDF, U.S. Census; CDC)
- One person is killed by a firearm every 17 minutes, 87 people are killed during an average day, and 609 are killed every week. (source: CDC)
Homicides by weapon:
- Handguns comprised 72.5 percent of the firearms used in murder and non-negligent manslaughter incidents in 2011; 4.1 percent were with shotguns; 3.8 percent were with rifles; 18.5 percent were with unspecified firearms.
- 13.3 percent of homicides were done with knives or other cutting instruments.
- 5.8 percent of homicides were from the use of hands, fists, feet, etc. (source: FBI)
Guns and kids:
- 82 children under five years old died from firearms in 2010 compared with 58 law enforcement officers killed by firearms in the line of duty (sources: CDF, CDC, FBI)
- More kids ages 0-19 died from firearms every three days in 2010 than died in the 2012 Newtown, Conn., massacre (source: CDF, CDC)
- Nearly three times more kids (15,576) were injured by firearms in 2010 than the number of U.S. soldiers (5,247) wounded in action that year in the war in Afghanistan (source: CDF, CDC, Department of Defense)
- Half of all juveniles murdered in 2010 were killed with a firearm (source: Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention)
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