"The night before the shooting, Roberts spent time with that friend, telling him he needed to get out town and needed a gun. When the friend awoke the next day, his rifle and Roberts were missing, he told a detective."

I own a couple of guns and if anyone I knew came into my house saying they needed to leave town and needed a gun, I would definitely make sure they had no access to mine. This sounds really suspicious. Who in their right mind would leave an assault rifle like that in a place where it could be accessed, let alone taken without their knowledge during the night. Total bs.

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I wonder why he didn't report the missing rifle to the police before it was used in a killing spree?
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I was thinking the same thing. You would theink he would have called the police and told them what he said, and I would assume they would go to his house and ask what was going on considering he basically "stole" the gun. Especially an AR-15 (bushmaster variant) assault rifle. Did I read somewhere there was a 30 round clip too? This should have been the minimum that guy should have done. If all this is true, he has some explaining to do.

Just so you know a bushmaster is a brand of ar15.. Its like a red shirt doesn't matter where you buy it its still a red shirt.

My Kimber is a 1911 that is superior to alot of other 1911's out there. Just a better quality of red hat I guess regardless of where you buy it.

Awesome place to debate preference in assault rifle.

Does your Kimber spring break when accidently dry firing? I had a Kimber and got rid of it for this reason. Lots of more reliable guns out there, Glock for one. It is the safest one for dropping and not discharging. It only fires when you pull the trigger.

Ok Mike, the only reason you should run into any problems dry firing a kimber, is if you have a series 70 build. 1911's,Kimber or any maker should not be dry fired if they are series 70. Which is why most modern 1911's are series 80, or even now series 90. so, if you had a kimber warrior, would have made sense. if you had a tle II, then it should have gone back to Kimber, because that shouldn't happen. If you know anything about 1911's. they are not going off because they are dropped. glocks are great. not dissing the glock. but you can not compare a glock to a 1911, especially not higher end models. of course they are not as duty free. a 1911 is made to be a great shooter. smooth, enjoyable, and well taken care of. off road with a glock, dinner with a kimber kind of work vs play thing.

Always use snap caps to dry fire. Not a good idea to dry fire any gun.

If your friend took your gun, you'd call the cops on him before calling him to ask why he borrowed, took, or stole your gun?

Heck yeah! It's called "being responsible".

I agree...someone doesn't just take a gun for the heck of it..obviously he planned to use it.

for hunting of course

You bet. If for no other reason than someone who steal from me is no longer a friend. Then there is the problem of a person who needs a gun and to get out of town isn't talking about taking it to the range and improving his skills before returning it. Now can you think of a single reason that someone would need a gun and to get out of town that involves something legal?

I'm with you on that. I wouldn't want that on my conscience. I keep all of my guns disabled or trigger locked.

That's responsible gun owning.

I'm not saying that's not responsible, but all of those people who are for semi automatic rifles (not saying you are or aren't) always say "what if the bad guy breaks into your home with a semi automatic rifle and all you have is your handgun". Well, what good does your semi automatic weapon do if a responsible owner keeps it unloaded and the gun disabled? I'm sure the bad guy isn't going to wait for you to get it loaded and ready to fire before he unloads on you.

I think most guns owners lie about keeping their guns unloaded and the ammo locked up. I imagine most guns are loaded and ready.

I have a rack, on my bed, where I keep a loaded 12 streetsweeper. The rest of my guns, and ammunition for them, are locked up safe, in my gunsafe. There are never any kids at my house, and I live alone, in rural Arkansas. The average 911 response time, to my part of the county, is 22 minutes. I prefer being able to protect myself, from the meth heads, than wait on a deputy to get there.

I keep mine loaded and stored in a gun safe.

Keeping it unloaded while it's already safely stored away in a rack inside a purpose-built gun safe offers no real additional protection.

The "Assault Rifle" Fairies aren't going to go to town while it's in there.

maybe if you ask nicely

WELL, You don't need to pass an I.Q. test to buy a gun.

Or drive a car.

actually, you do have to prove driving proficiency (both written and operational) to legally drive a car. that is an I.Q. test of a sort; it's just specifically geared toward driving. you also have to be over a certain age, be insured. have the car be certified street legal, have it registered every year, etc.

sure there's a one-time hurdle (e.g., background check) for firearm purchases, but that seems to be about it. people seem to let young kids fire them all the time and there's no talk of insurance or re-certification or training requirements at all.

Depends what state you live in. Of the states I've licensed in: TX requires exams and qualifications. PA does not require any training. CT requires exams and training, though I didn't find it as intensive as TX but maybe that's just experience. Nearly all our classmates in CT had never even fired a gun and most had never held a handgun before the class because of the need for a permit in shops to handle them.

you dont have to pass an iq test to have kids either and maybe both should be enacted

A 22 year old guy who has no children, with a couple of guns isn't going to have a gun safe. They will be in their case, sitting in his closet.

This, but if my friend was talking about needing to leave town and needing a gun, I'd do a lot more digging there to figure out what it was all about and I wouldn't leave my guns unguarded if I had any suspicions.

Exactly! Sounds more like the friend said, you can take it but if the cops come asking me why you had it, I'm saying that I woke up and both you and the gun were gone!

I agree with you. What makes me sad that this might have been able to be prevented.

Totally agree with you... This is just like in the movies people say very obvious suspicious things to the police and they believe it -_-

Exactly. This is the legislation that needs to be talked about, not banning guns. Make gun owners LIABLE for keeping their guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people and children. That will make a difference, banning guns wont.

Columbine happened right dab in the middle of the assault gun ban.

And didn't the chick who did the straw buys for them go to jail?

Who in their right mind would keep a friend and visit them knowing they kept assault rifles at home.

...

The REAL STORY:

A gun-toting civilian saved lives by confronting a deranged man on a
shooting spree at a Portland, Oregon shopping mall last week,
confounding a progressive narrative calling for the banning of firearms.

Nick Meli, 22, was at the Clackamas Town Center last Wednesday with a friend and her baby when a masked man opened fire.

“I heard three shots and turned and looked at Casey and said, ‘are you serious?,’” Meli told local television news station KGW.

After securing his friend and her baby, Meli, a former security guard at the mall, drew his gun and went to confront the man.

When shooter Jacob Roberts stopped his assault to deal with a jammed
gun, Meli came out and drew down on him. The two made eye contact.

Shooter Jacob Roberts

Meli, who has a Concealed Carry permit for his weapon, did not fire
on Roberts after seeing someone behind the target. If he missed hitting
Roberts, he could have hit the civilian in the background. Meli stands
by that decision.

“I’m not beating myself up cause I didn’t shoot him,” he explained.
“I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he
used on himself.”

Roberts turned the gun on himself after seeing Meli, the only shot
fired after being confronted. While two people were killed in the
rampage, it could have been more had Meli not been there with his own
weapon.
The incident, although reported by local Oregon media, was not
included in the narrative reported by national media outlets that
covered the tragic incident.

This is what I find to be really stupid. When mass shooters are stopped by responsible citizens, it doesn't make the news (last night a movie theater gunman was stopped by an off duty cop).

It really feels like either these media outlets are trying to push their own agendas, or they really feel that if enough kids don't die, it's not newsworthy.

Meli said he, too, was armed with a gun. He told The Oregonian early Monday outside his two-story home in Clackamas that he trained his weapon on Roberts.

But he said he didn’t shoot.

Meli said he was worried about hitting an innocent bystander.

Roberts sprayed bullets with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle near the food court, killing Steve Forsyth, 45 of West Linn, and Cindy Yuille, 54 of Northeast Portland. Roberts seriously injured Kristina Shevchenko, a 15-year-old teen who lives in Southeast Portland with her family.

Roberts, 22, then walked down a hall and steps and shot himself to death, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.

He can speculate all he wants about why and when the last bullet was fired. Bottom line is if the swat team and cops swarming the place inside of a minute after the first call had seen Roberts first, he would also be among the dead.

The guy never got off a shot...and he's the hero? Who knows for sure if that is why the shooter ended it. I am happy to hear that the citizen didn't shoot because he was worried about hitting others. I'm sorry, but this is not an example of a citizen stopping a shooting when he never fired a shot. If only seeing the gun was why the shooter eneded it, then we should all walk around with toy guns...not real ones.

If he's certain the guy killed himself because he was confronted, that's good enough. It got the job done sure if he'd emptied-out.

I agree. the pro-gun folks are so desperate for a story of an armed citizen coming to the rescue, they'll take anything.

In the Tucson shooting an armed citizen almost shot the wrong person, because the gun was already taken away from the bad guy and was being used to supdue him....lots of confusion in that kind of situation.

This "friend" is a liar and gave the gun away. This warrants further investigation.

Lol just like Micheal Jackson we need to blame another MAN for his mistakes and failures, im getting pritty d@m tired of this "we need to blame everyone for another grownups actions" Grow up and quit being so d@m whinny. Yeah a tragedy happen but there is only one person to blame the person that indeed did the actions.

Most gun owners are not like Obama. They have a strong constitution and train constantly for the "what-if" senario. No tears or teleprompters needed. The average gun owner in America is the backbone of our democracy. Our job is to keep things running when the police or not present or are numbered or down. Individual gun owners are the last line of defense for helpless people in trouble. You should bless these wonderful people.

Actually few gun owners train at all, much less constantly. I live in a small county, but it is rural and we have lots of gun owners. We also have a shooting range, 1 range, according to the man that runs it they average between 4-10 people a day, not many. I shoot there once a week and I am his most frequent customer. To go shooting not in a gun range here is the incredibly irresponsible since there are homes and people sprinkled all over the county. The county to the north has no range and the one to the south just closed theirs due to lack of customers.
The average gun owner is hardly the backbone of our democracy, voting is the backbone of our democracy.
Gun owners do not keep things running when the police are not present. The ordinary citizen does that just fine without some wannabe thinking a gun lets him order people around.
I am a gun owner and the notion that people should bless me for owning a gun is just silly.
As for OBbama his constitution seems just fine to me. Every politician uses a teleprompter dimwit, Even the people at the NRA use one when giving a speech.

in a rural area....a RURAL area....we have no need to spend the gas, time or money to drive to a gun range....we shoot the targets in our backyards. We KNOW where the other houses are located. We KNOW what is beyond our target. We KNOW to point our firearm in a safe direction. To assume that practicing on our back 40, 80, or 120(acres) is dangerous is silly....those people 'sprinkled' around our countryside are NOT in our taget range. WE ARE responsible gun owners. Its those crazy 'cityfolk' that go nuts and shoot into POSTED public areas. We shoot against a dirt bank. The hill. The field. Where there is NO one!! Other country folk KNOW that is our range...and don't randomly hold summits there. We know what we are doing. To assume that the only people who practice PAY to drive to a range and shoot is silly! To assume that hardly any one practices just because they don't pay to go to a range is silly. To assume that WE are not SAFE to shoot in our own established ranges is rather silly as well. We are gun owners. We are country people. We have a responsibility to our family, our community, our neighbors...the surrounding fauna..We KNOW what our target is and WHAT is beyond.

This coming from a person that mistakes a word with the neighing of a horse. Such a simple mistake reflects your intelligence. Low. Therefore the rest of your comment was ignored.

It was Michael. It was his family who blamed everyone.