Woman opens fire at Gig Harbor market, wounding 3
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GIG HARBOR, Wash. -- A young woman walked into a Gig Harbor store on Saturday and began firing at customers at random before being tackled to the ground.
Two men were wounded in the shooting, but investigators don't yet know what prompted the woman to open fire. A 20-year-old cashier was hit in the leg with a bullet ricochet, but that person's injuries were minor and didn't require a trip to the hospital.
"There was no indication that she had any interaction with these people or she knew these people," said Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor.
The shooting occurred just before 1 p.m. at the Peninsula Market, located at 9522 State Route 302 NW.
A 77-year-old man was shot in the leg and a 35-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the torso. Both were taken to Tacoma General Hospital but their current conditions were not known.
Pastor said the victims had been standing in different checkout lines and that it appears the woman was shooting people at random.
After the two men were shot other customers threw the armed woman to the ground and held her down by sitting on her until deputies arrived.
"This is obviously an upsetting thing to this community," Pastor said, adding that investigators are looking into the possibility that the woman had a documented history of mental health problems.
The woman has no known criminal history, he said.
Investigators cordoned off the market through the day while they interviewed witnesses and collected evidence at the scene.
Two men were wounded in the shooting, but investigators don't yet know what prompted the woman to open fire. A 20-year-old cashier was hit in the leg with a bullet ricochet, but that person's injuries were minor and didn't require a trip to the hospital.
"There was no indication that she had any interaction with these people or she knew these people," said Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor.
The shooting occurred just before 1 p.m. at the Peninsula Market, located at 9522 State Route 302 NW.
A 77-year-old man was shot in the leg and a 35-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the torso. Both were taken to Tacoma General Hospital but their current conditions were not known.
Pastor said the victims had been standing in different checkout lines and that it appears the woman was shooting people at random.
After the two men were shot other customers threw the armed woman to the ground and held her down by sitting on her until deputies arrived.
"This is obviously an upsetting thing to this community," Pastor said, adding that investigators are looking into the possibility that the woman had a documented history of mental health problems.
The woman has no known criminal history, he said.
Investigators cordoned off the market through the day while they interviewed witnesses and collected evidence at the scene.
Wrong address...a little research news people. That is the address to the gas station down the road.
Stop calling the KP Gig Harbor!!! It is like calling Rainier Beach Bellevue. It's over the water and not a part of GH.Â
We are a part of Gig Harbor, many of us have Gig Harbor address and very nice neighborhoods. Saying all of KP is like Rainier Beach just means you are uneducated and labeling all with one unfair brush. Just like all of Pierce County and WA State, there are good neighborhoods and those who struggle. We live in a beautiful part of Gig Harbor.
There is no "gun disease" which is just another made-up label for "we want gun-control".
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There are plenty of laws already in effect that cover guns. There are many issues that lead to this tragedy. I know we cannot legislate ourselves into safety without first giving up our freedoms. I am not willing to surrender freedom for the false sense of real security that I know can't actually be provided.
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Our Country exists, and got that way with the use of firearms (in many instances, illegally?). The folks who established our Country did so in much tougher times than we have now.
There is only ONE cure for zombies.
 @TreeTopFlyer So if, as reported, she is mentally ill and claims she had been molested by a man as a kid, (Seattle Times this morning) then your grasp of humanity is pretty unimpressive. If true, the individula who did things to her should be sued by the shooting voctims as well as prosecuted. This whole thing highlights two issues that are not going away by themselves:
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*The combination of services to the mentally ill being gutted by politicians in tandem with potentially inapproproate legal standing given to the mentally ill by courts
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*Access to guns by those with mental issues
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And being a citizen here carries responsibilities in addition to the (and as part of) the first amendment.Â
 @Citizen#3457899654 Lots of people are mentally ill and claim to have been "molested". That is no excuse for them walking into a store and opening fire on innocent people. I think it's interesting that i never hear this level of compassion or understanding when the shooter is a guy.
We don't need gun control because that would't have prevented this. What we need psycho control.
 @Habaneroguy Sorry, but who has access to guns is a serious, grown up issue that towers pretty high above the usual NRA marketing mantras. The NRA is wrong buddy.Â
 @Citizen#3457899654 Holding people accountable for their actions rather than blaming an object is a very grown up issue.Â
The US is a sick society with a gun disease. My children are exposed everyday to some idiot (criminal, sick or sane) who will come into a store, school or bus stop with intentions to kill innocent people with guns. Easy access to guns is no different than easy access to meth and heroine. We have a sick society and the NRA members seem to like being lumped into the same category.
 @Socialjusticeforall Because I belong to the NRA (life member) makes me sick or a disease?  Blaming guns for violent crime is like blaming spoons for people getting fat.  The disease and/or sickness in our society is the refusal to hold the people committing violent crimes over and over again and pointing the finger at guns or the NRA (that is an insane leap in logic).
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Leave my rights alone. Â
 @Socialjusticeforall before guns it was swords before swords⦠you get the idea.  Guns are a tool no matter what you or I think of them they are a tool.  If guns are taken out of the picture people  not matter their competency will use something else.  It is not the tool we need to focus on it is the person that is using that tool that should be focused on.
 @Dishwater IF Guns were controlled,  these people would still obtain them and use them to kill an even more unarmed populace.Â
Bullets fly pretty fast and can kill more people in say, 15 seconds, than someone wielding a sword. Let's not compare guns to swords or knives. Quite different in how fatal guns can be compared with a blade.
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The NRA wants to bully everyone into believing that they are correct and everyone else is stupid and cowardly for now owning a gun. No wonder other industrialized nations see the U.S. as barbaric, even in this century.
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What do you want? The Wild, Wild West? People carry guns and when they see trouble, they draw their guns? I bet in a frenzied crowd (let's say a crowded theater with a crazy orange haired kid shooting people at random), any concealed weapon pulled out to "kill" the main shooter will end up killing at least one innocent person. And when forenzics show the bullet used to kill an innocent citizen DID NOT come from the perpetrator's gun, the person with the Concealed Weapon will hide and NOT take responsibility.
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If it hasn't happened yet, it will and you bet all the talk the NRA does will not bring back that ONE innocent life.
If an innocent victim died at the hands of a person engaging an insane gunman, the results are still far better than if he did not try to save them at all and let the assailant kill more people unabated.Â
 @Koawoodplayer What about that one innocent life saved by someone concealed carrying?  The states with conceal carry permit holders have lower crime rates than states with the toughest restrictions on gun ownership.  Look at D.C.  I think Chicago finally took the title away of murder capital of the country from another gun ban city.
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As for your claim if someone shoots the main killer, at least one innocent person will be killed, you state that as a fact. Â Where do you come up with that absurd claim?? Â Can you show where that has happened?? Â
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You clearly think very little of concealed carry people.  Perhaps you are just projecting what YOU personally would do, run and hid and not take responsibility?
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Stop making up  stuff and accusing people of things they would not do.
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For the record, you do not have a clue what the NRA stands for or says. Â Never have they suggested everyone should own a firearm, not once, not ever. Â They do not think criminals or crazy people should be able to buy firearms. Â If you do not one, don't buy one. Â The NRA just protects those of us who want to own them legally to do so. Â Stop lying about the NRA when you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
 @Dishwater But swords could only kill one person at a time, and took some amount of skill to operate. An automatic firearm is just a "point and squeeze" weapon that required no skill to kill.
 @SilverGryphon  @OrcasThunder Try reading my comments above that addressed this...you might avoid additional personal embarrassment.
@OrcasThunder Say that to the gangbanger who shot 15 rounds and hit the victim twice, once in the leg and once in the foot.
 @theToucan "Looks like there were no deaths involved with this story"
So...if no one is killed, it's a waste of time for you?
 @KittySmasher Do you really think the punks who do the drive-by's have "skill"? Mostly they just have a lot of bullets. And I did not say that they managed to actually kill someone? Many times, being wounded is harder to deal with than being killed - especially for the families who have to provide 24/7 nursing care.
 @OrcasThunder http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/china-knife-attack_n_1731760.html read this one, I am guessing you think he was a ninja?
 @KittySmasher  @OrcasThunder I was wondering that myself. Looks like there were no deaths involved with this story. If it's so "easy" to kill with a gun, how come the number of injuries far outweighs the number of deaths?
 @OrcasThunder Automatic? No skill needed? Then why haven't we had more murders in seattle? All the ghetto trash shooting at each other yyou would think that they would be all murders instead of shootings since "automatic guns require no skill".Â
 @Dishwater Yeah because it's easy to rob a store with a sword, kill ten, twenty people with a knife in a matter of minutes, blah blah, you people make zero sense
 @Larry*X*K http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/china-knife-attack_n_1731760.html  read this and try again
@Dishwater @Socialjusticeforall Seriously, are you really that dense?
@cyclops Apparently your reading comprehension is epic fail. Did you see anything about killing anyone in my reply? Nope.
 @SilverGryphon  @cyclops So you are telling me you can kill a dozen people in seconds from 30 feet away with a knife or sword?  You watch too many movies I guess. Â
@cyclops No, but you can just as easily conceal a knife as you can a gun. And I bet you I could walk through a crowd with a sword and never once have it noticed for what it was.
 @Nitroxman When did I say they were all my friends?
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 @OrcasThunder You often refer to your friends, you have a very odd bunch of friends.  I have never personally met anyone who acts like a lot of your friends.
 @OrcasThunder or making ridiculous claims on the interwebz
 @OrcasThunder Guns don't get fat and whine all day.
 @eichler34  @Socialjusticeforall "Guns are NOT a drug"
I've known people who were so enraptured by their firearms that they would rather fondle the gun than their wives...
 @eichler34  @Socialjusticeforall "Guns are NOT a drug"
Really?
Have you read some of the more fervent gun advocates on these pages? The ones who think that everyone should open carry, and be ready to start blasting away as soon as some (other?) gun addict opens fire - such as those who said that they would have fired at someone in black inside a dark theater...?
Anything can become addictive - guns, cars, sex, video games...even Snickers...
@Socialjusticeforall gun disease? Really? Are you suggesting it's some type of addiction? Guns are NOT a drug, and that is an unarguable fact. Another fact is that new laws will definitely work to keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, just as its a fact criminals won't obey the new laws. Before we keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, there must be a solution to keeping them out of the hands of criminals, who obviously don't obey the rules.
@Dishwater To say that "they will just use a different tool" is the lamest pro gun retort there is. First off Americans are lazy and are going to use the easiest method....guns. You can't hide a sword in your purse and you can't kill a dozen people in a matter of seconds. Get a clue.
 @cyclops ?
socialjusticeforall@you have a problem its called communism and lack of control. I donât know about you but I would much better be equipped to protect my family and friends against any sort of attack, including a treasonous government.Â
Acknowledging having a disease is the toughest part. The US society is just beggining to understand that we have gun-disease. We will start movements and will elect leaders who will help society accept this disease in the same manner we agree that alchoholism is a disease.
And it isn't the meth or cocaine or heroine that make people do crazy things, it is the people that use the stuff that are at fault. Your logic seems to support legalizing all drugs. Well I don't agree. Guns are a society disease that needs stricter controls.
One cannot profile a would be shooter anymore or speculate a time or place. It's better to be armed at all times than be a victim. I hope the lady gets help.
Don't control guns,just control the people (the crazy ones ) !
What a joke. I love all the anti gun people. For once and for all GUNS DO NOT KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE. The problem is not the gun it is the person. For that matter knives kill people, poison kills people, ropes kill people a pillow has killed people, a toothbush fasioned into a shiv kills people. Whats the one thing in common..... People kill people not guns.Â
@Kodiak And food doesn't make you fat, people make themselves fat. Yet look at how many fat people there are? That's about as much self discipline and control most people have now a days.
 @Kodiak Should mentally ill people have Guns? If this woman was mentally ill, should she have had a gun? Should Bunker Boy in North Bend have had a gun? If your answer is no, how can the mentally ill be kept from doing harm to others?
Should convicted criminals have guns, even young ones?
Rock guy I'm not against back ground checks, and I support firearms training programs so that people know how to safely use and operate their guns, and how to use a gun under duress. You can only do so much to keep guns out of the hands that are planning to do wrong. They will do evil whether the weapon of choice was legal or not. Guns are not the problem. Society is the problem. We have plenty of laws about gun control, now lets see those laws enforced.Â
 @KittySmasher And therein lies the problem - separating the mentally troubled from the mentally unbalanced, and then providing proper care for those who need it. Something the current "public" is not willing to do.Â
 @OrcasThunder  @Kodiak The problem will be defining what is "mentally ill". If they have been under psychiatric observation or on anti depresents that does not mean they are still "ill". I am fine with crazies not having access to guns but defining crazy will be tricky and most likely keep some people who are otherwise fine and competent from owning a firearm legally. The key word being legally.Â
 @Kodiak But how does enforcement prevent insane people - by definition NOT deterred by laws - from using guns? Doesn't it just prevent the law abiding from doing what ever is unlawful?