They say there's no such thing as bad press, but..
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080215/GPG0101/80215120/1207/GPGnews
Green Bay gun dealer sold supplies to NIU shooter
By Scott Bauer
The Associated Press
A Green Bay-based Internet gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter last year sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five people at Northern Illinois University on Thursday
Eric Thompson said today that his Web site, www.topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Steven Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.
The order was shipped Monday and records of the sale provided to The Associated Press by Thompson show Kazmierczak received the order on Tuesday.
Kazmierczak carried a rifle and three handguns into the classroom Thursday. Thompson said he had no idea whether the shooter was using the holster or magazines he sold. Each magazine can hold 33 bullets. Thompson said his site did not sell Kazmierczak any bullets or guns.
Authorities said two of the weapons he used in the shooting - the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun - were purchased legally Feb. 9 in Champaign, Ill., where Kazmierczak was a student.
This is the second time that a Web site run by Thompson's company, TGSCOM, Inc., has been connected with a campus shooting. Another Thompson site, www.thegunsource.com, sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in April on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself.
"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said today. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."
Thompson said he checked his sales records after the name of the shooter was made public today. Those records show the sale made to Kazmierczak for a total price of $105.62. The items were shipped to an apartment in Champaign and signed for by someone other than Kazmierczak.
Thompson said he contacted the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives within five minutes of realizing the latest connection shortly after 9:30 a.m. today.
Thompson said his Web site is well-known among gun users on the Internet so it is not surprising that someone looking for accessories for a Glock would find it. But being tied to both of the shootings is "unnerving," he said.
"I still feel just absolutely in shock," he said. "I feel like I was run over by a truck."
Thompson said he has no way of knowing whether Kazmierczak found out about his Web site from the publicity it got after the Virginia Tech shootings, but the thought crossed his mind. The Web site did see an increase in traffic after that shooting, he said. Thompson said he also received many phone calls and threats.
He said he's worried the same thing will happen this time around. But he decided to go public because he thought the public has a right to know as much as it can about the shooter and not feed off of rumors or lies.
Green Bay gun dealer sold supplies to NIU shooter
By Scott Bauer
The Associated Press
A Green Bay-based Internet gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter last year sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five people at Northern Illinois University on Thursday
Eric Thompson said today that his Web site, www.topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Steven Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.
The order was shipped Monday and records of the sale provided to The Associated Press by Thompson show Kazmierczak received the order on Tuesday.
Kazmierczak carried a rifle and three handguns into the classroom Thursday. Thompson said he had no idea whether the shooter was using the holster or magazines he sold. Each magazine can hold 33 bullets. Thompson said his site did not sell Kazmierczak any bullets or guns.
Authorities said two of the weapons he used in the shooting - the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun - were purchased legally Feb. 9 in Champaign, Ill., where Kazmierczak was a student.
This is the second time that a Web site run by Thompson's company, TGSCOM, Inc., has been connected with a campus shooting. Another Thompson site, www.thegunsource.com, sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in April on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself.
"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said today. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."
Thompson said he checked his sales records after the name of the shooter was made public today. Those records show the sale made to Kazmierczak for a total price of $105.62. The items were shipped to an apartment in Champaign and signed for by someone other than Kazmierczak.
Thompson said he contacted the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives within five minutes of realizing the latest connection shortly after 9:30 a.m. today.
Thompson said his Web site is well-known among gun users on the Internet so it is not surprising that someone looking for accessories for a Glock would find it. But being tied to both of the shootings is "unnerving," he said.
"I still feel just absolutely in shock," he said. "I feel like I was run over by a truck."
Thompson said he has no way of knowing whether Kazmierczak found out about his Web site from the publicity it got after the Virginia Tech shootings, but the thought crossed his mind. The Web site did see an increase in traffic after that shooting, he said. Thompson said he also received many phone calls and threats.
He said he's worried the same thing will happen this time around. But he decided to go public because he thought the public has a right to know as much as it can about the shooter and not feed off of rumors or lies.
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Man, the damn press is telling these damn pyschos the best places to buy cheap supplies...
Go Figure!!!!
I reckon it is just how you look at it!!!!0 -
I have two thoughts here: 1) it is very bad that the VT and the NIU shooters both ordered supplies from the same place because a)that means somebody's screwing up, or b)it's going to look like somebody's screwing up even if it is a coincidence, and 2) the VT dude managed to kill 32 people. It's very, very dark to think about but on the other hand....it takes more than a moron to kill 32 in as many minutes. I'm not sure where I'm going with that, and I fully expect the flame, but it's what I'm thinking right now. 0 -
Okay, if we are going to look at it that way, what car or truck did he drive to the school? What pair of jeans or shirt did he have on?
How about what breakfast cereal he ate that morning?
Who cares, the nut job is dead. The real problem is that the bleeding heart liberals would rather keep the information about his mental condition secret in an attempt to not violate his rights to the point that the back ground checks before a firearm purchase can't access this information and then the gun sale goes through "legally" and everybody is happy until he/she goes to school or the mall and shoots twenty or thirty people.
What we need is a reform to open these medical records so that this information is made available, not to the general public, but to the people who need it, like the ones doing background checks prior to a gun sale.
But no, let's blame every manufacturer of every item he was wearing, carrying, shooting or eating at the time or immediately prior to the rampage. Makes me sick.
Bode0 -
"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said today.
Could of chose his words better....0 -
Personally.... when I hear out about these shooters I wonder, are the whippings I got as a kid when I did wrong, the difference between me and them? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by tobefree
Personally.... when I hear out about these shooters I wonder, are the whippings I got as a kid when I did wrong, the difference between me and them?
Probably.
I got my A S S tore up on a regular basis and never once thought of this kind of killing spree.
DSM0 -
The problem is:
We let loose bad people on our society. People that otherwise are a danger and should be locked up. Yet we blame guns, laws, or the LACk of communication from this agency or that.
What good are laws unless they serve a purpose? If certain people have mental problems and are a danger to themselves OR the public, don't let them loose UNTIL you are sure that THEY are NO LONGER a danger. ESPECIALLY ones that HAVE a history.
"Common sense is not so common"0 -
I read the original post as the liberal media trying to build a case against selling gun gear in general. They didn't point out that there were so many failures of existing procedures in both the NIU and VT cases it's pathetic. They only said that these 2 mental cases got their mags from an internet gun dealer.
It is a strange coincidence that both nuts purchased from the same vendor, but lots of folks scour the internet for better prices on all kinds of things, from guns & supplies to clothes, prescription meds, and everything else. It just so happened that these 2 mental cases found the same supplier - so what?
I'm with Winston on this one - where he purchased his mags is no bigger deal than his jeans, etc. Good post, Winston.0 -
quote:Originally posted by rhythm_guy
I read the original post as the liberal media trying to build a case against selling gun gear in general. They didn't point out that there were so many failures of existing procedures in both the NIU and VT cases it's pathetic. They only said that these 2 mental cases got their mags from an internet gun dealer.
It is a strange coincidence that both nuts purchased from the same vendor, but lots of folks scour the internet for better prices on all kinds of things, from guns & supplies to clothes, prescription meds, and everything else. It just so happened that these 2 mental cases found the same supplier - so what?
I'm with Winston on this one - where he purchased his mags is no bigger deal than his jeans, etc. Good post, Winston.
I wish I had the freaking list of sales the dude made of those who did not go out and shoot up a school... I suspect that it would be a long one!!!0 -
I hope they were both wearing LEVI's. 0 -
Dude's on his way to cornering the wacko market.
Maybe he could get a mailing list of mental hospital discharges.0
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