There is a reported 12 dead now:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/16/police-responding-report-shots-washington-navy-yar/?1

• RE: Navy Yard Shootings,foonermints, 05:31 PM, 09-16-13
• RE: Navy Yard Shootings,Estee, 06:57 PM, 09-16-13
  • RE: Navy Yard Shootings,Snidget, 07:09 PM, 09-16-13
• RE: Navy Yard Shootings,jbug, 01:17 PM, 09-17-13
  • RE: Navy Yard Shootings,dabo, 02:39 PM, 09-17-13
• Question.,Estee, 01:58 PM, 09-18-13
  • RE: Question.,dabo, 02:32 PM, 09-18-13
  • RE: Question.,Snidget, 02:41 PM, 09-18-13
  • RE: Question.,kingfish, 03:05 PM, 09-18-13
    • RE: Question.,Estee, 03:50 PM, 09-18-13
      • RE: Question.,Snidget, 04:37 PM, 09-18-13
  • RE: Question.,foonermints, 09:09 PM, 09-18-13

Well, that's a mess. it seems they deployed the "active shooter team" promptly.

I've worked around a lot of weapons. It's sometimes unsettling if you don't know new personnel and how they handle them. Sounds like a civilian subcontractor just went nuts.

I'm staying in my hidey-hole today. Crazies!

Military Areas Are As Vulnerable As Everywhere Else, Part II.

*nods*

Trying to make sense of some details that aren't adding up for me.

Man who admittedly blacks out from rage and shoots things up and "accidentally" cleans his loaded gun in the general direction of the neighbor he is having a dispute with has a concealed carry permit?!?

And they just said something that seems to be blaming video games on HLN. *sigh*

I heard a newscaster yesterday "speculating" on a lot of "possibilities".
I literally yelled at my radio for him to shut up!
Too many people hear something that is speculated and then repeat it as fact!

It does get amusing sometimes on the TV news channels (any of them) when they start falling all over themselves on the breaking stories. Or it would be amusing if the story weren't so tragic.

The more that's learned about the shooter on this one, the harder it becomes to pin down what is the story?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/17/navy-yard-shooting-aaron-alexis/2825749/

sought assistance for mental illness from the Department of Veterans Affairsas recently as a month ago .. former Navy reservist .. symptoms of paranoia including hearing voices .. He was afraid .. No one believes he was looking for anybody in particular .. obtained an early release from his service as a Navy reservist and received an honorable discharge .. commanders noted that he had a "pattern of misconduct" .. had an anger-fueled "blackout" .. felt he had been "mocked" and "disrespected" .. had anger-management problems associated with PTSD .. had been an active participant in rescue attempts on 9/11 .. described him as an easygoing guy who practiced Buddhism

I've recently become interested in gaining an official United States security clearance. Would you recommend I do so through the purchase of Cracker Jacks, a given brand of cereal, or just waiting until December and redeeming three hundred My Coke Rewards points for it?

Well, just do your duty to your country. These security thingies seem to be one thing at which the VA is accomplished.

Sigh, I do so wish that someone actually did something other than make paper airplanes out of the ream of paper I had to submit once upon a time.

*grumbles*

Sorry.

National security restrictions prevent me from commenting. However, your name and subversive comments are being recorded.

And they don't have the sense of humor that you may suppose.

If they have any sense of humor at all, then yes, they have gone beyond what I suppose. And I'm not seeing what happened as funny. I just want to know how, given everything which seems to be coming out -- things you would think a standard background check would have recovered -- he got those credentials in the first place. Yes, he could have been denied all papers and stormed onto the grounds. But as-was, he wound up being invited.

There seem to have been danger signs. Did we have anyone around who could read them?

Having gone through the process for the level of clearance he seems to have been granted, I think the emphasis is more on who do they think you would sell any information you get (willingly or because you are being blackmailed) than how likely you are to shoot the joint up.

That being said, I would have thought some of the known issues coming to light could have shown up and might have sent up a red flag or two about him.

However, depending on who he listed as references and if they even decided they needed to interview them, sounds like this guy has enough people who can't imagine him ever doing anything bad that he could have selected from. I assume at higher levels of secrecy they go digging around for the people you don't feel comfortable telling the government about for interviews. I know at some level they will interview all the people you list on your forms.

For my clearance, I told the FBI that in order to find out every single possible rotten thing about me, call the ex-wife or her blood sucking lawyer.

If it wasn't enough, they'd make something up! What else would be new?

Years later I'm still in shock that I passed without a ripple.

The Evil was still money-hungry!