aaron-alexis

The Government's Security-Check Provider "Flushed" Files to Get Paid

Tom Scocca · 09/27/13 03:58PM

Remember when Al Gore and the Clinton Administration made everyone happy by "reinventing government" back in the '90s, on the principle that government functions would be more efficient if a third-party private intermediary were taking profits on them, because the invisible hand of the free market will always produce optimal results? The New York Times has an update on the operations of USIS, the company born in 1996 with the privatization of the Office of Personnel Management's investigative operations.

Why Did Aaron Alexis Do It?

Taylor Berman · 09/18/13 07:36AM

Two days after Aaron Alexis shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard, investigators are still struggling to find a motive as a more complete, and disturbing, profile of Alexis's mental health problems has emerged, including a report that he believed men were following him with a "microwave machine" to disrupt his sleep.

Taylor Berman · 09/17/13 04:08PM

Two days before he allegedly shot 12 people to death at the Washington Navy Yard, Aaron Alexis purchased a shotgun and ammunition at the Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, Virginia. Alexis also used the store’s rifle range for practice. The store ran a federal background check on Alexis, which was approved.

Tom Scocca · 09/17/13 11:58AM

Despite the best marketing efforts of the gun industry, law enforcement officials now say that Aaron Alexis did not use an AR-15 in yesterday's massacre at the Washington Navy Yard. All 12 of the murders were committed with the shotgun Alexis had bought despite his history of gun violence, or with the handguns he apparently took from victims who were unable to stop his armed killing spree with their own handguns.