Day Trip into Crazy Town

So . . . this one thing has been bugging me. Only recently, in the past few hours, has it seemed that anyone else has noticed this. And it’s kinda retarded that this is, for me, the start to my thoughts (thus the title of this post). . . but here it is:

This guy in CO who shot up the movie theater, proclaimed himself to be “The Joker” . . . but had painted his hair red.

Yes, for a short time, Cesar Romero’s Joker on the old TV show had red hair. But the standard is green. Romero, Nickleson, Ledger, cartoons . . .
If you’re a nutter, and you want to be “the Joker”– you don’t pull the obscure, few episodes of the “Funny version” . . . you pull the version that the most people will recognize. Green hair. And the retarded broadcasters relaying the info were saying stupid things like ” Blah blah, painted his hair red like the Joker . . .” And not a one (until just a few hours ago) turned to a co-anchor and said “Dude, I thought the Joker had green hair. . . ”

So yeah, retarded on the face of it. The sort of thing a geek, er, geeks out over. But enough to make me start thinking.

This guy was also unemployed, a med school drop out. No job. Living on his own. And in the space of a few months, he legally acquires an AR-15 ($1,000.00), a Remington 12 Ga. shotgun (anywhere from $1,400), and 2 ~.40 cal pistols (around $500 ea). Total minimum for weaponry (not including ammo) = $2,900.00.

He apparently recently purchased 6000 rounds of ammo off the internet. If we assume ~2000 for each type of firearm, that’s ~$689 for the AR-15 ammo, ~$2,750 for the shotgun (~$30 / 25 round box), and ~$1,450 for the pistols. Of course, it may not have been divided up this way, but I’ve generally low-balled from the prices I found of what I think he might have considered using. So that’s just under $5,000 for ammo alone. With the weapons and various fees and taxes, that a current total of around $7,900.00 (at least)

Then, you had the tactical gear. Gas Mask ($20 on ebay), body armor, neck protection, groin protection , leg protection. We’ll say $500 for the lot, not knowing the level of protection offered (as low as $150, up to about $800. . .). We’re now at 9,400.00.

Then you have the canisters of gas. this itself is troubling, because of this:

He tossed one canister. But more than one was used. But let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that he made them. Without going into what he might have used, I’d say roughly $50 materials if he didn’t go too exotic. (which he might have done, as what he used was not “readily identifiable” last night. But let’s assume he started with old fashioned hot peppers.) $9,450.00

Ah, but! His apartment, too, was rigged out. We still don’t know what all he did to the apartment (or why, after his casual surrender to authorities, he told the cops about the traps), but based on initial reports, I’d throw out a ballpark figure of $1,500 for the traps– I’m including the practice devices used to test set-ups and combinations, a few failures, tools used to create/ mix/ test, and basically set up the mini-lab (and who knows how much time carefully laying everything out just so. Reports are that the set up was extremely sophisticated.). I’ve no solid numbers for this estimate, but right now, I’d say that $1,500 is the low end for this item. So. . . $10,950.00. But seeing as I’ve done my pricing by finding the lowest price of what I think he might have used, and don’t know all what he paid in taxes, shipping fees . . .I don’t think I’d be out of line to round up to an even $11,000.00

Spent by a guy with no job.

I don’t know the details of his purchases, but everything was done legally, which means background checks that include credit checks (debt is a major motive in crime). If his credit came up clean every time, it means that his joblessness hadn’t started to impact him the way it would for most people living on their own. It is possible that he bought all this on credit. . . but unlikely. If you’re a nutter intent on massacre, the last thing you want to do is tip off the authorities, and you’ll generally be paranoid enough to figure that they will “ping” your card if you use it on “suspicious” items too much too quickly. So you’ll use cash.

That cash came from somewhere, but he didn’t steal it. His record is, aside from a speeding ticket, pretty clean. Almost boy-scout-level clean. But somehow, a guy with no job and (if he dropped out of school), no school-money, not only keeps living on his own (instead of moving back in with the parents in San Diego)– he goes and spends $11,500.00 in addition to rent, food, bills, and everything else he needs to do to keep up the pretense that there is nothing unusual or suspicious going on.

So, maybe the parents helped out with bills and rent. Because that’s what parents do. But around $11,000 in two months is a little extreme. Some may have come from cash advances from credit cards– but an amount that high would generally set off some sort of flag with the credit card company. Even if one card was for ammo, another card for a cash advance for the rest . . . I dunno . .. if I were a paranoid nutter, I’d assume that would trigger all sorts of red flags. I’d be pushing it just getting all that ammo with the credit card. (I’m assuming he’s paranoid due to the rigging of his apartment. That’s insane-ninja-level paranoia . . .) And I’m not the only person contemplating this.

I’m sure there are “Perfectly reasonable” ways that this hellish little jaunt was financed. And maybe on Monday, some poor loan officer at a bank will come forward with signed papers saying he thought the kid was buying a car. It might even be true. But that’s when I go back to the witnesses above– the canister of gas that came from somewhere else, from an entirely different direction. And then . . . (and dammit, I hate these thoughts, because it’s the same road Alex Jones is taking, and I don’t want to go down that road, and I don’t want to be one of those people, because conspiracy theories are for losers but Fast & Furious changed everything . . . )

And then . . . you have that same damnable timing. Hillary is going to sign that UN Small Arms Treaty (Illegaly, but you can’t count on the LEOs or military to realize that). And like so many times when gun control legislation is up and they’re shy just a few votes, bam! some nutcase takes out a crowd with a gun. It’s all so very convenient, isn’t it?

I hate to do this, but here’s Mr. Jones with his grating voice echoing the very thoughts that troubled me yesterday:

So. So, let’s just put that down. We’ll put it right next to the zombie attacks on one side, and this on the other:

oh and, my friend Grunt posted this today, which . . .watch it through, you’ll catch the tie-in:

Golly, it’s like the plot of The Music Man. Come in, create an imaginary crisis, sell the solution to the imaginary crisis just in time to save town!

. . . So,  dunno. But the reports I started hearing and reading didn’t seem right, and all of this is partly why . .

NOTE: I noticed re-reading this some erroneous math but, also found some more info with more detail online that ended up almost negating my odd mistake. Still, some details and numbers have been changed from my initial draft.

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