Daily Shooter
21st Century Wire
The 2012 Colorado Theater Shooting still doesn’t add up…
Media character and ‘Shooter’ James Holmes in court in 2012-2013.
In 2014, Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, the mother and stepfather of Aurora Theater Shooting victim Jessica Redfield Ghawi, tried to sue the ammo companies they believe supplied shooter James Holmes with his ammunition, body armor and other items. They bleived that the online retailer BulkAmmo.com had sold Holmes more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition, along with The Sportsman’s Guide, with a 100-round magazine and 700 rounds, BTP Arms for two canisters of tear gas, and Bullet Proof Body Armor. This week, the Judge has finally thrown out their legal suit and the parents are facing nearly a quarter of a million dollars in costs.
Once again, the mainstream media have missed a few obvious points. In the immediate aftermath of the Aurora Theater Shooting, Natural News asked the obvious question: How does an unemployed medical student afford $20,000 in weapons gear? Here’s the issue:
“If you start to look at the really big picture here, the obvious question arises: How does an unemployed medical student afford all the complex weapons gear, bomb-making gear, “flammable” booby trap devices, ammunition, multiple magazines, bullet-proof vest, groin protection, ballistic helmet, SWAT uniform and all the rest of it?”
“A decent AR-15 rifle costs $1,000 or more all by itself. The shotgun and handgun might run another $800 total. Spare mags, sights, slings, and so on will run you at least another $1,000 across three firearms. The bullet-proof vest is easily another $800, and the cost of the bomb-making gear is anybody’s guess. With all the specialty body gear, ammunition, booby-trap devices and more, I’m guessing this is at least $20,000 in weapons and tactical gear, much of which is very difficult for civilians to get in the first place. Comment added: Don’t forget the cost of all the training (thousands of dollars) and the bomb-making equipment. Holmes reportedly had 30 improvised grenades, mortars, binary liquids that explode when mixed, wires, exotic bomb equipment… this gets expensive very quickly…”
“The mere manufacture of an explosive booby-trap device is, all by itself, a felony crime by the way. And remember: “Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Holmes’ apartment is booby-trapped with a ‘sophisticated’ maze of flammable devices. It could take hours or days for authorities to disarm it,” reported Yahoo News.”
“Question: Where does an unemployed, introverted medical school student get the training to deploy sophisticated booby traps, tactical body armor, weapons systems and more? Certainly not in graduate school! All this leads to an obvious third party influence over all this. Someone else taught this guy these skills and funded the acquisition of the equipment.”
“Update: An article posted on Sunday by the Daily Mail reveals Holmes had a “‘mind-boggling’ stash of ammunition” and “three types of explosives were found – jars filled with accelerates, chemicals that would explode when mixed together and more than 30 improvised grenades.” This further adds to the financial cost tally of what it took to put all this together. The Wall Street Journal is also now reporting: “the suspect bought four guns over the past 60 days, and over the Internet bought 3,000 rounds for an assault rifle, 3,000 rounds for Glock handguns and about 300 shotgun rounds. The suspect also had a 100-round drum-style magazine for the assault rifle that would have allowed him to fire 50 to 60 rounds a minute.”
“Note: Some readers have questioned the $20,000 figure estimated here, saying this gear could have been acquired for only $10,000 or so. I doubt that, as all the extras that you need to effectively run these guns cost a lot of money: training courses, spare magazines, etc. Just a decent AR-15 battle sight (a holographic red dot sight) can run $1,000 – $2,000. Search “ACOG” if you don’t believe me. It is also reported that Holmes bought6,000 rounds of ammo, which definitely isn’t cheap either, especially given that we now know half of those rounds were rifle rounds. It’s clear this guy was spending big bucks. Whether it’s $10k or $20k isn’t really that much of a point.”
More on this week’s development…
RT.com
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against online ammunition companies in connection with the 2012 Aurora, Colorado theater shooting. The judge also ordered the plaintiffs, the parents of a shooting victim, to cover the defendants’ court costs.
Sandy and Lonnie Phillips told MSNBC that the judge’s decision leaves them facing possible bankruptcy. They said National Rifle Association lawyers defended the online gun retailer Lucky Gunner.
“It is their money that is behind this lawsuit. They are making an example of Sandy and I. They don’t want anybody to file a lawsuit against firearm dealers of any kind,” said Lonnie Philips, parent of Jessica Ghawi, who was killed by James Holmes in the Colorado theater shooting.
“The federal law made it possible for them to do this. Colorado law made it possible for them to charge us $203,000 for a lawsuit that never really even got to discovery,” Lonnie Philips said. “We didn’t have a chance to lose our lawsuit because it was dismissed.”
BOYCOTT @LuckyGunner !! OUTRAGEOUS NRA & AMMO Company GREED with BLOOD MONEY! Judge dismissed Phillips lawsuit = He bought by NRA/KOCH BROS
— Toni Genovese (@rubymagic) July 27, 2015
Three years ago, Holmes opened fire during the screening of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. He deployed tear gas, wore body armor and used several weapons to shoot at the audience. A jury found Holmes, now 27, guilty on all first-degree murder charges against him. The verdict means he could receive the death penalty.
The Phillipses filed lawsuits against four online ammunition companies like Lucky Gunner, as well as several other shooting and law enforcement supply companies which had sold Holmes ammunition.
Sandy Phillips: “We’re very glad this animal, this monster, will never see the light of day.” pic.twitter.com/tL0KBCSOZh
— Jim Dalrymple II (@JimDalrympleII) July 17, 2015
They argued that the way Lucky Gunner sold ammunition was “unreasonably dangerous and creates a public nuisance.”
The Phillips’ had the support of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, although the organization was not a plaintiff in the suite.
Sandy Phillips said it is important to remember that the lawsuit hadn’t been launched for monetary gain, but because it is scary for survivors and victims of gun violence to know that the online system allows these ammunition sales to take place…
READ MORE SANDY HOOK NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Sandy Hook Files
