While the NRA Was on TV Talking About the Need for More Guns Some Guy Was Walking Up and Down a Road in Pennsylvania Shooting People [UPDATE]
The National Rifle Association today held its first press conference since last week's deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, and the takeaway was clear: We need more guns.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
He went on to call for an armed police officer to be stationed in "every single school" across America to prevent further mass shootings, as critics tried to point out that armed law enforcement officials might not be the panacea the NRA thinks it is.
But before they could finish their sentence, the counterargument made itself as news broke of a mass shooting event in Pennsylvania with multiple casualties, including state troopers.
According to local reports out of Blair County, at least four people were killed and five more were injured in a shooting spree near Altoona. The gunman is said to be among the dead, and at least two state troopers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
WPXI's Courtney Brennan says she was told by emergency officials that the shooting suspect "was 'mobile' at one point and went up and down a rural road and shot victims."
No additional information is available at this time, but a spokeswoman told the Altoona Mirror it was "a relatively large crime scene."
Meanwhile, back at the NRA press conference, LaPierre was blaming anything and everything for the Sandy Hook massacre except guns.
UPDATE: The shooter has been identified as 26-year-old Jeffrey Lee Michael of Hollidaysburg, PA.
According to the Altoona Mirror, for reasons yet unknown, Michael shot and killed 58-year-old Kimberly A. Scott of Duncansville while she was hanging Christmas decorations at the Juniata Valley Gospel Church.
He then left the scene and went to a nearby residence where he shot and killed another person. Michael then got in his pickup truck and drove off, eventually crashing into another vehicle. He exited his truck and shot the driver of the second car, killing him.
Following a separate head-on collision with a state trooper who was injured in the crash, Michael began shooting at responding troopers and was subsequently shot and killed. In the exchange, one trooper was wounded after being struck by a bullet in his wrist, and another trooper sustained injuries from broken glass.
A motive for the shooting spree has yet to be revealed.