The Other McCain

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Suicidal 23-Year-Old NJ Guy Who Hated ‘Pigs’ Reported as #LAX Shooter

Posted on | November 1, 2013 | 59 Comments

Multiple sources have confirmed Paul Ciancia, 23, of Pennsville, New Jersey, has been identified as the gunman in the shooting at Los Angeles International Airport. Pete Williams of NBC News characterized Ciancia as motivated by “strong anti-government views” and a lot of us who have seen this media pattern for years just rolled our eyes.

Subsequent reports indicate the young gunman was suicidal, and left a note referring to police as “pigs.” We’ll see. Patience.

UPDATE: From NBC’s Philadelphia affiliate:

Paul Ciancia, 23, grew up in Pennsville, Salem County, N.J., according to Pennsville’s Police Chief. He’s been living in Los Angeles recently, but authorities are not sure for how long. . . .
Police say the shooter’s brother got a text message from Ciancia on Friday saying he was thinking about taking his life.
The brother contacted Pennsville Police and around 1 p.m. Pennsville’s police chief called Los Angeles Police to do a well-being check on Ciancia, police said.
Los Angeles Police went to Ciancia’s apartment. The man wasn’t there, but his roommates told police everything was fine, authorities said.

UPDATE II: More than two hours after the last update here, and the stream of information has slowed to a trickle. The latest Associated Press account has the fact that the shooter’s father owns an auto body shop in New Jersey. Hours have passed since Pete Williams of NBC reported that Ciancia had “strong anti-government views.” This characterization evidently came from an FBI spokeswoman named Lourdes Arocho. But reports compiled at The Daily Mail don’t indicate any real political motive.

This seems to have been just another quiet weird kid who flipped out on a suicide-by-cop trip — except he wasn’t killed.

He was shot several times, but survived. The general media silence about the gunman’s motive suggests to me that Ciancia’s reported “anti-government views” were, basically, just crazy-talk.

 

Category: Crime, Media Bias

Comments

59 Responses to “Suicidal 23-Year-Old NJ Guy Who Hated ‘Pigs’ Reported as #LAX Shooter”

  1. Mermaz
    November 2nd, 2013 @ 9:04 am

    RT @sokeijarhead: Suicidal 23-Year-Old NJ Guy Who Hated ‘Pigs’ Reported as #LAX Shooter : The Other McCain http://t.co/fuE331YzcY

  2. DocWashburn
    November 2nd, 2013 @ 9:05 am

    RT @sokeijarhead: Suicidal 23-Year-Old NJ Guy Who Hated ‘Pigs’ Reported as #LAX Shooter : The Other McCain http://t.co/fuE331YzcY

  3. richard mcenroe
    November 2nd, 2013 @ 10:41 am

    We re-elect people with medically documented brain damage. We don’t just fail to recognize them, we hire them to lifetime sinecures.

  4. sarah wells
    November 2nd, 2013 @ 11:13 am

    Either is correct.

  5. gates of vienna
    November 2nd, 2013 @ 5:53 pm

    Thank you for posting about your family’s experience. You and your community are so fortunate that they were willing to keep your uncle institutionalized.
    Given his age, he’d have been a prime victim of John Kennedy’s misconceived and inadequately funded ideas about “community care” of the mentally ill. I worked at a drop-in center for ‘ambulatory’ & sometimes-medicated mentally ill people. Sad doesn’t even begin to describe their struggle to survive. More than half would be VERY content to be in a humane institution – and you can get those if they are state or locally funded. Once the feds put their hands in, quality of care goes south real quick.
    The reason your uncle lived so long may well be that he was safely taken care of. I still pray for those guys I worked with (80% men), wandering the streets, easy prey for all the predators who think it’s fun to beat up on “crazies”. Not to mention the things they do to one another sometimes, things they would be protected from were they institutionalized.
    The medications have vastly improved since your uncle was first diagnosed. Actual human care-taking has gotten much more ignorant- federal interference assures a general dumbing-down no matter what the field.
    Mass killings will continue as our comunities continue to crumble – e.g., this guy, thousands of miles from home and the people who really knew him.

  6. RM3 Frisker FTN
    November 2nd, 2013 @ 8:31 pm

    Sounding like Jared Lee Loughner, shooter of Gabby Giffords in Tuscon, AZ . Wonder if Paul Anthony Ciancia will be found to have watched the ZEITGIST conspiracy loon movie (fiat currency, new world order, gmo, ows, haliburton, blah blea bloo blah, fill in the blanks) just like Jared Lee Loughner. Trivia Question – why do all the loon shooters have three names (urban legend dontcha know)

  7. Mjolnir Hammerschlag
    November 2nd, 2013 @ 8:32 pm

    Unless, of course, you are a military veteran and even had ‘counseling’ as part of the decompression process of returning from combat. Even now, every time you go to the VA for as little as an Asperin, they ask you if you have suicidal feelings.

    It just takes a hair-trigger whiff of mental illness and your Second Amendment Rights are pulled, without trial and without a hearing.

    But I agree, we have to change our approach to mental disease, prolly first and foremost, disband the hopelessly political APA.

  8. MuhtashamLilloe
    November 3rd, 2013 @ 6:17 am

    Suicidal 23-Year-Old NJ Guy Who Hated ‘Pigs’ Reported as #LAX Shooter http://t.co/IVDFwzSr0Y

  9. Taxpayer1234
    November 3rd, 2013 @ 3:20 pm

    Fortunately for him, he was active duty when his mind disintegrated. The VA has paid for his care all these years. It wasn’t all great, though. The old VA hospital in Cleveland was a nightmare. He’s now in a residential care facility in a quiet Ohio town. Medications keep him stable, and the calm, caring atmosphere makes it easier for him to manage the breakthrough symptoms. I know he’ll never get better–the illness gets worse with time–but I know he’s safe and so are others.