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Omaha Mall Shooter Stopped by Armed Shoppers

by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 51 Comments · · Print This Story Print This Story

(2007-12-07) — When 19-year-old Robert Hawkins entered the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, carrying an AK-47 assault rifle wrapped in a sweater, he intended to become famous by shooting as many people as possible and then turning the gun on himself.

The mentally-troubled teen left a suicide note, and a trail of evidence on his computer and elsewhere that he knew the police would spend months investigating. He had done everything possible to ensure that his name would be mentioned along with other mass killers at Virginia Tech, Columbine High School and the like.

He knew that the Westroads Mall was a gun-free zone, with signs on the entrances warning people with conceal-carry permits that they may not bring their firearms into the mall. He took comfort from those signs, as he pushed through the doors carrying the stolen assault rifle.

As he ascended to the upper deck, Mr. Hawkins could almost hear the screams of the shoppers as they tried to flee the sound of his shots, but due to the echo couldn’t discern the shooter’s position. He pictured the confused mall security guards talking over each other on the two-way radios. He rehearsed in his mind the final trigger pull that would end his mortal pain, and imagined the silence that would follow, punctuated only by the groaning of his dying victims.

That was the plan — careful, premeditated and nearly perfect.

There was only one problem: some people don’t read signs, and others ignore them.

As Mr. Hawkins moved into the ideal sniper position on the upper deck, an unnamed middle-aged man emerging from the nearby Von Maur department store noticed his odd behavior and glimpsed the muzzle of the rifle peeking out from the sweater. Almost instinctively the man moved toward Mr. Hawkins, reaching to his belt to draw out a Springfield EMP, a small, 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

As the would-be famous mass killer raised the rifle to his shoulder, the unnamed shopper commanded him to stop. Mr. Hawkins turned the muzzle of the AK-47 toward the commanding voice, a single shot rang out and Mr. Hawkins staggered, dropped his weapon and fell against the railing.

By this time, two other shoppers were aiming their pistols at Mr. Hawkins — a young, single woman pulled a .40 caliber Glock 27 from her purse, and a retired farmer drew his 9mm Ruger SR9 (an early Christmas gift from his wife). Together with the first man they moved in to separate Mr. Hawkins from his gun, search him for other weapons and restrain him until law enforcement arrived.

Robert Hawkins is recovering from his gunshot wound as he awaits trial for attempted murder and other charges. He faces the prospect of 15-to-25 years in prison, where police say he will be famous as “the guy who was almost famous.”

Westroads Mall officials said they had not decided yet whether to press charges against the three who interrupted Mr. Hawkins’ plan by violating the mall’s gun-free zone policy.

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Tags: Law · U.S. News

51 responses so far ↓

  • 1 camojack // Dec 7, 2007 at 6:35 am

    I always find myself wishing that these troubled souls who kill people then themselves would just kill themselves. If that makes me a bad person, then so be it…

  • 2 mig // Dec 7, 2007 at 6:39 am

    o/` All I want for Christmas is o/` a double barrel shotgun, but I’ll take a baretta…

  • 3 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 7, 2007 at 6:40 am

    God Bless America

  • 4 boberinyetagain // Dec 7, 2007 at 8:05 am

    Show me 5 similar real life examples and i’ll show you nearly 500 dead from gunshots in Philadelphia this year, most guilty of nothing.

    Not that amusing Scott

  • 5 Beerme // Dec 7, 2007 at 8:15 am

    I don’t find it amusing, either. I find it extremely sad that the true incident didn’t turn out this way. It could have and should have. Law-abiding gun owners, who purchased their guns the traditional way (they bought them at a store), do not engage in random killing sprees. They could stop them, though…

    And of the 500 dead in Philly, how many do you think were killed by “law-abiding gun owners”?

  • 6 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 7, 2007 at 8:16 am

    The comparison of apples to oranges is problematic at best.
    BTW: The definition of “satire” .

  • 7 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:06 am

    The people who blame guns for crimes rather than the scum who pulls the trigger crack me up. The low-life murderer ends up being the victim and the victims…..well…..

    I remember, back in the day, when the weapons of choice were tire tools, bicycle chains and the occasional knife (generally frowned upon as unethical). That’s why you don’t see any bicycles or cars on the road these days-the authorities confiscated their mean old parts.

    I’m not a gun owner and never have been.

    I spent a year or so in Philadelphia a little over 35 years ago and it was referred to as “The City of Brotherly Gunmen” even back then. I find it ludicrous to suggest that the rampaging hordes of murderers terrorizing Philadelphia’s streets and its entire population are anything other than rampaging hordes of murderers.

  • 8 Terry_Jim // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:09 am

    I grew up in Omaha, we walked to Westroads Mall and did a lot of shopping there. My wife and I were a few miles east of there at another mall the day of the murders.

    I wish the events of that day happened as you wrote, or that even an unarmed man had been able to get the drop on him. The layout of the store had enough open space that I’m sure no one was near enough to the shooter to make a rush at him, either.

    In the wall to wall press coverage here in the Omaha metro, they mentioned a house the murderer hung out at a few years ago that was known to be a place where drug addicts went , and adults shot up along with kids.
    Why the hell aren’t rat’s nests like THAT cleaned out? We had drug dealers down the street from us a few years ago and the police took report after report, the landlord heard complaint after complaint, till the pin heads left for greener pastures.

    The murderer showed the SKS or AK-47 (whichever he used- there were conflicting reports) to the family where he was living ,
    the woman said that it looked too old to be functional. She went to work the next day at University Hospital and saw with her own eyes what came of that depressed man and his stolen rifle.

    The victims names are now being reported, and deserve more fame than the killer.
    Redgards, Terry
    http://www.thelazyhalfsranch.blogspot.com

  • 9 Deerslayer // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:13 am

    Think that we’ll go to Bagdad for the holidays. Sounds a lot safer than going to Philadelphia. Thanks Bob for the heads-up.
    Merry Christmas to all.

  • 10 Ms RightWing, Ink // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:32 am

    boberinyetagain

    I don’t think Scott meant for you to roll on the floor laughing. This copy-cat mass killing is anything but humorous. Could a legally armed shopper drop him. We will never know.

    My question-why are all these nut jobs walking around with no alarms going off as to his behavior.

    And, what is it that we are doing as a society to raise such socially deranged children who become angry young men .

    No answer needed

    PS-No women have became unbolted yet. Is it that we no longer raise boys like boys? Hmmm?

  • 11 Fred Sinclair // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:43 am

    On TV is a blanket coverage of the Shopping Mall shootings. With the appropriate wailing and moaning being over reported, as usual. The same question - “Why”? over and over and over and over and over again. They are very careful not to ask the question of any Conservatives (they must pre-qualify) a Conservative would quickly respond, if asked, “Why? ‘Liberals’ is the only honest answer, of course. We conservatives have known about this for a long time now. Not who or where but this kid was only nineteen years old, when you’ve been brainwashed into believing there is no “Right” or “Wrong”.

    When you pass laws against prayers in school, against the Ten Commandments in the courtrooms; then promote every anti-moral lifestyle possible from the “morning after” pill to abortions on demand, dispensing condoms to school kids, teaching and brainwashing children to accept homosexuality s nothing more than an alternate lifestyle. Reared in a liberal environment wherein there are no absolutes - if it feels good, do it! Parents who themselves come from the era of pot smoking, spaced out Woodstock background. This action of a mentally unstable individual is 100% predictable!

    The young man had an agenda or program of his own. A few (even one) armed citizen cold have possibly brought his program to an abrupt halt. “The right of the people…..” gives nothing to anyone, It simply acknowledges in writing a pre-existing fundamental right, indistinguishable from the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness….. having brought that right into focus, it is then enshrouded with a Constitutional guarantee against governmental infringement.

    Thereby negating any governmental “requirement” for possessing any so called permit or permits. The word militia has no bearing on that right, but has been used and overused in an attempt to confuse and negate the #1 -most important part of our Constitution - by which ALL other “rights” stand or fall.

    Heirborn Ranger

  • 12 Tim_T // Dec 7, 2007 at 10:31 am

    Certainly not amusing, and not intended to be so. I, too, wish this was the actual story, not a mournful satire.

    boberinyetagain is one of what is unfortunately a countless multitude who are incapable of distinguishing between offensive and defensive firearm use, and who apparently think that the firearm is a daemon that transforms its possessor into a homicidal maniac.

  • 13 da Bunny // Dec 7, 2007 at 10:57 am

    Excellent, Scott! I only wish that this were the way it had actually gone down. Many of us are sick to death of losers who, lacking any self-control, but possessing excessive amounts of self-importance, decide to take a bunch of innocent bystanders with them when they make their “exit.” Having a law-abiding person licensed to carry a concealed weapon nearby would have been a God-send in this instance. Instead, we have mall “security guards” fully armed with “two-way radios,” and a bunch of defenseless victims-in-waiting, able to do nothing to prevent this punk from committing his atrocities.

    Btw, has anyone else here ever noticed their local mall’s “security guards?” They’re usually scrawny guys in the “Barney Fife” mold, or elderly guys who appear to be supplementing their Social Security income. Unarmed, and unable to do anything but call the police, as can any nearby shopper with a cell phone, they don’t provoke feelings of “security” by their appearance or demeanor. “Mall security” is an oxymoron. If but one of the “security” guards, at that mall in Omaha had been firearms-trained and carrying a gun, some of those victims might still be alive. Instead, we have more “PC” crap senselessly costing more lives. God help the families of those who died while doing their Christmas shopping!!!

  • 14 Beerme // Dec 7, 2007 at 11:13 am

    I guess what just chaps my cheeks about the predictable gun control mantra following any random, psychopath shooting spree in this country, is the idea that the cause of such behavior is anything more than one insane idjit with zero empathy or concern for anyone else.

    Give that guy a tire iron and he would use that to do the damage he wants to do. Unfortunately, with a gun he can do more damage, more easily.

    The argument that, because he can do so, all gun use should be outlawed (Yes, that is what you folks are arguing, so don’t even try to spin it), is ludicrous. Short answer: Those that misuse guns in either the manner of this nutjob or in the manner of the hundreds of thugs in Philly (and every other city), daily, are not law-abiding citizens and don’t care about the laws you nanny-staters produce. They aren’t going to follow them anyway. So quit trying to take guns from the hands of honest people because some idjit misused his. You might just find that the honest armed citizen could be the guy that saves your a-, er…butt!

  • 15 debass // Dec 7, 2007 at 11:17 am

    Following the gun ban logic, why are cars not blamed for drunk driving fatalities? According to statistics, you are 13 times more likely to be killed by a car than a gun. You are more likely to be a victim of gun violence by a relative than a serial killer and you are 9000 times more likely to be killed by your doctor than by a gun.
    http://www.mcsm.org/doctors1.html

    Where are the anti car and anti physician groups?

  • 16 debass // Dec 7, 2007 at 11:19 am

    Somebody shot my post. Oh! There it is.
    PS -I’d rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than riding with Ted Kennedy.

  • 17 Beerme // Dec 7, 2007 at 11:35 am

    Oh, and may I say, Scott, that your knowledge of fine, cutting-edge handguns is showing (though the 9mm cartridge is not me fave)!

    I am currently partial to my newest toy, the Paraordnance LTC 1911.

  • 18 boberinyetagain // Dec 7, 2007 at 1:00 pm

    Did I say to ban guns? No I didn’t but once again everyone just “assumes” with predictable results.
    However, a bunch of folks around me carrying concealed weapons would NOT make me feel safer. God bless those of you that feel it would. Just don’t cut that guy off inthe parking lot and steal his parking space if he just had a fight with his wife/boss/grandfather and he has just left the bar after a few drinks to “calm himself”

    Say none of that is true, having one or more people start firing (let’s say it’s at this guy) in a mall and it’s a great bet that 99% of the shots would miss and that they would then begin shooting at each other since how would anyone know at that point who the “bad guy” was?
    Think for just a moment (I truly believe you folks capable, honestly) and tell me I’m wrong…

    Fairly tales are great but best left in your imagination as they rarely pan out quite right in real life

  • 19 boberinyetagain // Dec 7, 2007 at 1:01 pm

    abra

  • 20 debass // Dec 7, 2007 at 1:29 pm

    Just because people can carry guns doesn’t mean they all will.

  • 21 Beerme // Dec 7, 2007 at 1:31 pm

    boberin,

    Thousands of people with concealed carry permits do so responsibly with none of the fallout you describe in #18. However, plenty of insane psychopaths do go bonkers in “gun-free” zones on a regular!

    Cell phone, 911 calls indicate that several people were watching the culprit, lying near the customer service area of the store, slowly picking off customers. These people were describing this action when any one of them, armed with a handgun, instead of a cell phone, could have put a STOP to it all. Listen to the cell phone calls being played on the news today and tell me that someone would have had any problem identifying who to shoot.

    I, too, believe you capable of thinking. Banning guns does not keep bad people or psychopathic people from getting a gun. Gun-free zones give these nuts the time and freedom to do much greater damage.

    Please, when you analyze the public’s ability to handle the freedom to carry a gun, don’t confuse gangster-thugs in ghettos with licensed, concealed carry, handgun owners. There is a mighty difference.

  • 22 Beerme // Dec 7, 2007 at 1:39 pm

    And exactly what were you trying to say when you said you could show us 500 innocent victims of guns for every rare incident like Scott described? If it wasn’t a cry for banning guns, what was it? Scott is saying gun toting citizens could have stopped this nut. You are saying if people were so armed, the fallout would be worse?! Right? So that means people should not be armed or shouldn’t carry in a mall, or…what?

    If you don’t want to be misunderstood be more specific…

    Besides, my comments were more aimed at shooting down some of the more clearly anti-gun rhetoric I’m hearing on the news and in public, rather than your comment.

    And take heart: Detroit and Flint are back to One and Two in the nation’s murder rate contest, so Philadelphia is relatively safe…

  • 23 gafisher // Dec 7, 2007 at 2:08 pm

    Ms. RW Re#10: “Is it that we no longer raise boys like boys?”

    In a word, yes, but to elaborate, society no longer raises boys to be men. Boys are expected — in many ways required — to act like girls in our schools today, and drugged if they do otherwise. Boys are taught to concede, not lead. Boys are taught to be sensitive but forbidden to be curious. One of the strongest natural forces in the world, the force which built nations and seeks to surpass every barrier, is being systematically crushed, but like a seed trapped beneath pavement, it will seek to escape its bonds.

    (I think the current epidemic of lost girls, by the way, is a natural side effect of our refusal to raise boys properly. Taken to its limits, “progressive” educational practices imply that the only thing which differentiates the sexes is that girls can get pregnant. So they do.)

  • 24 Fred Sinclair // Dec 7, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    I used to do all of my own handloading The Colt .45 cal and the S&W .44 Spec were what I did most.

    The .38 Spec. projectile (bullet) measures .357 inch, - the 9mm measures .355 inch. Bullet weight varies but the highly inefficient 38 overshadows the 9mm - which in and of itself is nothing more than a 38 short. These anemic cartridges rated at Jeff Cooper’s “Gunsite” for one shot knockdown power @ 50% for the 38 and 33% for the 9mm, the 44 Spec & .45 ACP both tied @ 95%. necessitating the teaching of the “Double Tap” in military and police firearms training with the two lesser calibers.

    Heirborn Ranger

  • 25 MajorDomo // Dec 7, 2007 at 2:42 pm

    But we don’t want to be judge and executioner. That’s far worse than letting these nuts run free to kill and kill again. somewhere along the way we’ve gotta make a different distinction from what we are doing now. Look at the border guard incident. Wasn’t that just liberal upside-down thinking? How about the recently-televised car chase, miscreant thumping incident? Down in Miami they are going after the protectors of decency instead of the evil-doers. Fred is right: It stems from the sixties, don’t-say-no-you’ll-give-them-inhibitions that Benjamin Spock espoused.

  • 26 Possumtrot // Dec 7, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    A number of commenters are correct here.

    This is not LOL satire. If we laugh, it’s to keep from crying. Atlanta had a mall shooter in the ’90s who claimed the government was planting video devices in his belly; if you saw that in a movie, it’s funny. If he’s shooting up the food court, you duck and run.

    This was a child fueled by God-knows-what passions and influences. I don’t comment as much online as I used to, because I’ve become aware that living in the post-modern world is very complex and demanding. I grew up in a diferent age, and adapted. This kid was trying to grow up in an age that what I struggled with takes for granted.

    Having said all that, if I had been shopping for my daughter’s birthday - today, Pearl Harbor Day (She mever lets me forget it, and vice versa - and saw a shooter of any flavor, I would take the 9mm Sig P-232 (last year’s birthday present to her) or the .40 Browning and do what must be done.

    The usual suspects will crawl out of the woodwork and demand that disarmament is the answer. I still get a good laugh at every ADTâ„¢ commercial where the macho husband goes downstairs in the new house, confronts an intruder who smashes the door, and macho man retreats to the bedroom and waits for a phone call from the security company, depending on a hollow interior door for security while they wait to be murdered.

    Home security and alarm systems are a fine thing. Will they save your life when the stakes are mortal? I don’t think so. I see this advertisement, I have to ask, “why doesn’t macho man wield a .12 gauge shotgun and defend his family properly?”

    The PC police will continue to disarm America. When they reach my remote corner, they may encounter resistance. Then we will be dubbed “terrorists”, and subjected to illegal raids for legal home defense.

    All the while, the real terrorists will be licking their chops.

    I don’t like being placed in the position of praying for this kid, but I’ll make an exception. Those who choose “suicide-by-cop” or an expectation of it are usually devoid of pity.

    I’ll cut a half-inch of slack for mental state. Otherwise, there should have been an armed citizen to do the necessary thing.

  • 27 conserve-a-tips // Dec 7, 2007 at 3:05 pm

    All I want to know is, because two men packed a Ryder rent-a-truck with ammonium nitrate, drove it to our city and blew up one of our most inhabited buildings, killing 168 (including many children), don’t we need to be petitioning Congress to outlaw rent-a-truck availability to citizens?

  • 28 Deerslayer // Dec 7, 2007 at 3:14 pm

    Fred #24

    Say what???

    If I use my Remington 870, with slug barrel, and slip in a shell with 00 buckshot and fire at say 20 feet, are you telling me that the person won’t be stopped?

  • 29 gafisher // Dec 7, 2007 at 3:19 pm

    Debass Re#20: “Just because people can carry guns doesn’t mean they all will.”

    But they might be, and that alone would make the rest of us safer. An armed society is a polite society.

    Possumtrot Re#26: “The usual suspects will crawl out of the woodwork and demand that disarmament is the answer.”

    Guns can be confiscated, perhaps, but “disarmament” is a much more difficult project.

  • 30 gafisher // Dec 7, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    C-A-T Re#27: the incident you described involved the use of fertilizer, a Sacred Subject in Congress (which manufactures vast amounts of it, albeit in another form).

  • 31 boberinyetagain // Dec 7, 2007 at 3:27 pm

    If you want to hunt, then hunt. If you want a gun in your home, good for you but leave it there. What’s the stat on killings in the home? (% of bad men to family members/friends)
    I do not need nor want your help at the mall, I’m at least as afraid of you as the boogyman.
    How many of you can hit a target at all let alone a moving/breathing one? Yep, some folks can, that’s certain. Most can’t

  • 32 Effeminem // Dec 7, 2007 at 3:39 pm

    Bob, I can honestly see your point. Theoretically, I even agree with you.

    The thing is, outside the mall, people wander around with concealed weapons all the time. The only places where they’re banned are schools, post offices, malls, and government buildings, for the most part.

    Yet that’s where the massacres take place.

  • 33 Possumtrot // Dec 7, 2007 at 4:30 pm

    Hey, Bob, when you’re doing the duck-and-run thing at the mall, I can stand (or sit) in my wheelchair and hit a moving target at 150 meters or above.

    As in wars, I don’t have to like it, I just have to show up.

    When the time comes - and hopefully it never does - you are praying for people like me.

    Both of my ex-wives were firearms owners and carriers, trained my yours truly. Your straw man stat of murders in the home doesn’t fly. A simple reach to the purse could have done the trick for them, but civilized people don’t live that way.

    They, too could hit a rolling tareget at 150 meters.

  • 34 Possumtrot // Dec 7, 2007 at 4:33 pm

    The wheelchair makes for a more stable target platform, even if I can’t spell target.

  • 35 Possumtrot // Dec 7, 2007 at 4:57 pm

    For once I am in agreement with M&M, at least in theory.

    Local and federal laws where I live prohibit carrying where they might most likely be needed: mass sporting events, bars, places of worship, public tansportation hubs, and generally any congregation of more than 100 people.

    The idea is that you act quickly, and irrevocably.

    Training is all. Virginia Tech is now the template.

    I won’t even commment on earlier assertions about the “femization” of America. This ongoing trend matches the fall of the Roman empire.

    Give it all up. When Islam comes for you, fall on your knees toward Mecca, assume that submissive position, and wait for the sword that will take your head.

    There are those who say I’m old, sick ‘n crazy, and thus in the way. Keep on keepin’ on, and the truth shall be revealed.

    Euthanize me. When the brave new world comes back to bite you with reality, think about the guy who was

    …live from Scorpion Hill

  • 36 boberinyetagain // Dec 7, 2007 at 4:58 pm

    possum I don’t doubt you for a moment, I’m sticking by the “most folks” statement and still want to be reminded of the “death by gun” in the home stat. Way more known than unknown people are killed by guns there, it’s not even close.
    show me any example (other than the occasional store owner, those can have gins too in my opinion, might go as far a should in many neighborhoods) where an armed civilian did any good in a crisis. go ahead, name one

  • 37 Possumtrot // Dec 7, 2007 at 5:21 pm

    The revelation of lethal force, i.e. a willingness to use lethal force, has prevented more crimes than I can cite. Handguns have prevented more crimes than have been committed. This is an acceptable statistic. A visit to the NRA site will confirm it, and give you more examples than you can handle.

    Personally, possession of a firearm kept a “truck-jacker” from jumping into a step van loaded with $10,000 of electronic and sound equipment. I’m driving along legendary Peachtree St. in the humid summer at 0330, coming back to HQ from a gig,and some ogre jumps from a bus stop into the - open for humidity - side door of the van.

    It was an amateurish attempt. He was met with a .20 gauge sawed-off shotgun under the chin, and hip-hopped off at the next corner.

    Don’t speak that phrase “gun crime”. They have saved more lives than they have taked. A gun has never committed a crime; they lay dormant in my sock drawer.

  • 38 Texas_Star // Dec 7, 2007 at 5:37 pm

    Scott,
    I enjoy almost all of your satire. It is very thought provoking.
    However, this time the article is really in very poor taste.
    Just my opinion.
    Keep ‘em coming.

  • 39 conserve-a-tips // Dec 7, 2007 at 6:18 pm

    Boberin: The youngest son took the class that is required in this state for conceal and carry. I can assure you that they practiced and practiced with their personal weapons. Those who have a conceal and carry permit know how to use that which they carry.

  • 40 Fred Sinclair // Dec 7, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    Deerslayer #28 Yes, indeed that would bring the situation in hand. In fact at the range you stipulate #4 shot or BB shot from a smoothbore would do the same without the danger of over-penetration and/or ricochets.

    Morton Grove, IL created their fame with a law banning handguns - then a (to a conservative) predictably set of figures arose.

    The citizens of MG traded off their handguns for shotguns - the liberals were horrified to learn that when a homeowner had previously fired a handgun in home defense, 20% of those hit died but when a shotgun was used in home defense 80% died.

    The last I read, the liberals were doing everything possible to overturn their own handgun ban.

    The story is told of the Sheriff, attending an awards dinner was wearing his sidearm, a lady there asked him, “I see you are wearing your pistol tonight. Are you expecting trouble?”

    He smiled and replied, “No Madam, if I was expecting trouble, I would have brought my shotgun.”

    Heirborn Ranger

  • 41 Possumtrot // Dec 7, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    I trust that meets your criterion of a single examplion.

    In or about 1977, there was a mall rapist who was causing consternation.

    I went to pick my wife up from the Searsâ„¢ store one evening. Instead of the usual “Howdy” from her fellow employees, I got quizzical looks.

    She had goofed. During her busy afternoon, her supervisor had a headache, and asked her if she had an aspirin.

    When she had unloaded her purse onto the desktop, and started to dig for aspirin, the S&W .357 fell out. A Model 10, this is a large firearm that might cause extreme fright among the unfamiliar. I had recently taught her how to use it, and she would have no hesitation about doing so. I trained her, and she was a good shot. Pity that this site doesn’t support photos; you can see her in action.

    My first ex-wife was called upon to guard other mall-working women until the rapist was captured. The security guards on their golf carts couldn’t be everywhere. When she accidentally spilled that .357 in front of her supervisor, he had problems with it. She didn’t.

    I use the term “ex-wives” because it’s accurate. Firearms are a fact of life in the Possum household since Day One. There has been monumental dissent about the household, but despite my training ex-wives in firearms expertise, not one of them opted to blow me away.

  • 42 conserve-a-tips // Dec 7, 2007 at 8:12 pm

    Possum: And, in the words of Martha Stewart, “That’s a good thing.” :-)

  • 43 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 7, 2007 at 8:54 pm

    You know, it would have been a glorious day in The United States of America if the scenario had played out as Scott described. It would have been absolutely wonderful.

    For some reason, I am reminded of that older professor at VT; what courage.

    It has been reported that, the night before the massacre, that gutless punk flashed (intentional? unintentional?) the AK-47 to someone at the place he was staying. Someone saw him the night before with the weapon. Everybody in town KNEW he was nutso. He was throwing out red flags all over the place. The Holy Spirit gave the opportunity to that “someone” to do the right thing; they didn’t.

    Yes, there is a long list of “someones” to wag fingers at but the list was finite as, from what I understand, this psycho had lost control quite some time ago.

    God Bless (and my heart goes out to) the Families and Loved Ones and the Citizens of Omaha and NE and the USofA

  • 44 Darthmeister // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    Ya see, if every decent, law-abiding citizen had a conceal carry permit, it would just take us back to the old days of the wild west. Just ask the governments of the 48 states that now allow conceal carry. People are shooting each other over the last bag of popcorn and parking spaces every day, whereas here in the People’s Republic of Illinois and also in the People’s Republic of Wisconsin murder is unheard off, particularly gun violence.

    Anytime someone is threaten by a gun wielding thug all they have to do is dial 911 and the police will be right there in less than thirty … no, make that ten seconds … to defend you and your family members. Honest.

  • 45 Darthmeister // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    … push.

  • 46 Darthmeister // Dec 7, 2007 at 9:58 pm

    bober, I see you’re still addicted to left-wing propaganda? When will you ever start to live up to your own opinion about being such an independent thinker?

    World renown criminologist Gary Kleck debunks your anti-gun propaganda here

    And if you’re truly “open-minded” you should find this running debate on gun ownership vs. gun bans quite interesting. It reveals the inherent dishonesty of gun ban advocates who use fuzzy logic and only those statistics which appear to support their position.

  • 47 Coverage of the mall shooting in Omaha | by Danny Novo // Dec 10, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    [...] interesting to people familiar with the area. And for those of you with low blood pressure, here is a look at the right wing reaction. Be sure to read the comments. ShareThis Comments RSS Prev: You might find me via defective [...]

  • 48 What could have and should have happened in Omaha » Infidels Are Cool // Dec 10, 2007 at 2:22 pm

    [...] piece is a well written, “not-so-funny” satire from Scott Ott of Scrappleface. (2007-12-07) — When 19-year-old Robert Hawkins entered the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, [...]

  • 49 Audio On Demand by Chris200 presented by WonderHitOne » What could have and should have happened in Omaha // Dec 10, 2007 at 7:45 pm

    [...] This piece is a well written, “not-so-funny” satire from Scott Ott of Scrappleface. [...]

  • 50 NEED HELP FROM MY FRIENDS. CCW related. - XDTalk Forums - Your HS2000/SA-XD Information Source! // Apr 30, 2008 at 11:52 am

    [...] Concealed Carry Statistics Keep and Bear Arms - Gun Owners Home Page - 2nd Amendment Supporters Omaha Mall Shooter Stopped by Armed Shoppers Canovi and Associates LLC- success stories for law enforcement, home security & personal [...]

  • 51 Блох.нет » Blog Archive » Неудачный расстрел // Nov 17, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    [...] http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2806 [...]

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