comment: >
  
  People buy illegal guns all the time. Prohibition doesn’t work
context: LOS ANGELES — A man that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department described as “possibly” being a suspect in a mass shooting in Monterey Park is dead, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.
  Earlier, sources familiar with the investigation into the Monterey Park Shooting told NBC News that the person in a white van stopped in Torrance fit the description of the person in the van from the Monterey Park crime scene as well as a second crime scene in Alhambra.
  Authorities surrounded and then breached the van where the unidentified individual was found dead. >
  
  LOS ANGELES — The suspect in Saturday night's Lunar New Year mass shooting in Southern California was identified Sunday after he appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
  "The suspect in that tragedy is no longer with us," Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. "He is no longer a threat."
  Luna named the man as Huu Can Tran, 72. The question why, however, in the attack that killed 10 and injured 10 others at a Monterey Park, California, dance hall, remained.
  "We still are not clear on a motive," the sheriff said at an early evening news conference Sunday. "We want to know."
  Earlier, sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News that the person in a white van subjected to a traffic stop in the coastal city of Torrance, about 30 miles from the violence, fit the description of a person seen at crime scenes in Monterey Park and adjacent Alhambra.
  Luna said authorities believe the deceased person is indeed the suspect seen at both locations.
  Authorities, including SWAT officers, surrounded and then breached the van where the unidentified individual was found dead in the early afternoon, Luna said. The vehicle had plates "that didn't belong on the vehicle," he said.
  A search of the van turned up "several pieces of evidence" that linked the suspect to the crime scenes in neighboring San Gabriel Valley cities, Luna said. A handgun was also found in the van, he said.
  Monterey Park police officers first responded to a dance hall, identified in government records as Star Ballroom Dance, after reports of a shooting came in at 10:22 p.m. Saturday, Luna said. People were rushing out of the hall as officers went into the business.
  Ten people were killed at the venue, and 10 others were taken to hospitals in conditions from stable to critical, Luna said. Four of the injured were being treated at LAC + USC Medical Center, the hospital confirmed.
  Authorities were still working to identify the victims. Luna reported that five were women and five were men. He later said many were in their 50s, 60s, and "beyond."
  Asked whether the case was being investigated as a hate crime, Luna told reporters that "everything is on the table."
  He described the suspected mass shooting weapon, recovered at the second crime scene, as a "magazine-fed semiautomatic pistol," a description that could cover the Intratec TEC-9, sometimes described as an "assault pistol," as well as the MAC-10, sometimes called a "machine pistol," and similar firearms.
  Luna said he doesn't believe the weapon in question is legal to possess in California. The TEC-9 is essentially outlawed in California; there are variants of the MAC-10 that can be legal to possess in the state.
  The possibility of a hate crime was part of the ongoing probe, but authorities were also trying to determine if the suspect knew any of the victims, the sheriff said. That aspect of the investigation will take time, he said, as the county coroner was still working on identifying victims.
  "We don't know if this is specifically a hate crime defined by law, but who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?" Luna said earlier in the day. "The description we have now is of a male Asian. Does that matter? I don't know. I can tell you that everything's on the table."
  Late Saturday night, Monterey Park police and fire units could be seen swarming the area in video posted to social media. Others showed victims being transferred to ambulances.
  About 20 minutes after the shooting in Monterey Park, a man described as Asian entered another dance hall with a firearm, Luna said.
  Luna said two community members disarmed the suspect before he fled in a white van. The sheriff described the community members as heroes and said they saved lives.
  Luna had said at an earlier briefing that he believed the Alhambra incident was connected to the Monterey Park shooting but that investigators were looking at all possibilities.
  Thousands of people had gathered for a Lunar New Year Festival in Monterey Park, a city of about 60,000, about two-thirds of whom are Asian American. It is about 10 miles east of Los Angeles.
  More than 50% of the residents in Alhambra say they're Asian American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
  The two-day festival event features “food booths with various types of delectable items, amusement rides, and lots of live entertainment,” according to the city’s website.
  Previous festivals have drawn crowds of more than 100,000 visitors a day, the city’s website said, attracting crowds from throughout Southern California.
  "We should be celebrating," Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese said at Sunday evening's news conference. "But we can't."
  California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted Sunday morning that he was closely monitoring the shooting. His office said it was working with local law enforcement in response.
  "Monterey Park should have had a night of joyful celebration of the Lunar New Year," Newsom said. "Instead, they were the victims of a horrific and heartless act of gun violence."
  President Joe Biden said in an early evening statement that he's praying that the injured will recover. He said federal support for victims would be available.
  "I directed my Homeland Security Advisor to mobilize full federal support to local and state authorities as they continue to respond and investigate this shooting," the president said. "I want to assure the community of Monterey Park and the broader area that we will support you in every way we can."
  Wiese told reporters: “I’m monitoring this situation closely as it develops and urge the community to follow guidance from local officials and law enforcement in the hours ahead.”
  Sunday's Lunar New Year event was canceled out of respect for the victims, he said.
  Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., offered her condolences at the news conference. Chu not only represents the district, but she has also lived in Monterey Park for 37 years, and she served was the city's mayor after having been elected in 1990.
  "It is horrible that such a thing could occur at a time of celebration for so many in the AAPI community and in the Asian community worldwide," Chu said, using the initialism for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. "This is a time to be with family to celebrate, and yet this tore a hole through all of our hearts."
  The shooting stunned those familiar with the normally quiet area.
  Simu Liu, who portrays the warrior Shang-Chi in Marvel’s first Asian superhero movie, tweeted that he was “shocked and saddened” by the incident.
  “It’s home of Asian American families, parents, grandparents, siblings, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles. All of whom were looking forward to celebrating the New Year this weekend,” he said.
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  "He described the suspected mass shooting weapon, recovered at the second crime scene, as a "magazine-fed semiautomatic pistol," a description that could cover the Intratec TEC-9, sometimes described as an "assault pistol," as well as the MAC-10, sometimes called a "machine pistol," and similar firearms."
  
  
  
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  Is this forreal? This is an incredibly weird way of sensationalizing a very basic fact. A magazine fed semiauto pistol is just any handgun that isn't a revolver. That's like saying "the suspect fled in a motor vehicle, which is a term that could cover an M1 Abrams tank" >
  
  most "assault weapons" bans on pistols include the feature of having a magazine that is separate from the primary grip. i think it's like that in CA, NY, IL >
  
  72 years old too. 
  Just wow. >
  
  Oldest mass shooter? >
  
  No. Most victims though. 
  The Holocaust Museum shooter was 88 when he opened fire at the museum. Probably would have shot more people if he hadn’t been wounded as he entered the museum. >
  
  Nowhere even close to most victims. >
  
  I think he meant for geriatric mass shooters, not of all of them >
  
  Stephen Paddock, 64, would claim that accolade then by a massive margin. >
  
  Is 64 really "geriatric," though? I guess if I'm thinking of someone being old, it's 75+, but that's subjective, I suppose. >
  
  The fact that there is a discussion about what qualifies as a geriatric mass shooter is fascinating. >
  
  What a time to be alive! >
  
  Or not, sadly! >
  
  As my dad always says: “If you’re planning a murder-suicide, work backwards.” >
  
  Brilliant. Your dad should do stand up. >
  
  If it is indeed him he could have skipped the whole mass murder and just ate the bullet before hand but no. He just had to be a cunt. >
  
  And those who knew him even would’ve been like “so sad he had his demons”
  But no he just had to commit a bunch of murders like the putrid man he was >
  
  Even in the multiple reddit threads about this, I've read a bunch of comments attempting to explain away his attack with him having possibly fought in the Vietnam war. There are thousands of vets who don't shoot up banquet halls though. >
  
  I've worked with Vietnam vets and most had no outward negative opinion of asian people. That just sounds like a ridiculous excuse. >
  
  The suspect was Asian himself.  I think the parent comment was suggesting that people attributed the shooting to him having a trauma-related violent episode. >
  
  what a piece of shit coward. >
  
  LAPD been known to Dorner innocent mistaken identities. Unlikely they’d have a problem putting this dude down. >
  
  Different agency. This is being handled by Monterey Park PD and LASD as far as I know. >
  
  It was all the southbay PD (Torrance, Manhattan Beach, etc). If you check Southbay Scanner on Facebook you can see the details. >
  
  I wish these ghouls would just shoot themselves first >
  
  I imagine most do. >
  
  I've been mad.enough to see red more times than I can count in my life and at no point have I gone home. Loaded up the rifles and shot up a place... How fucking out there do you gotta be to be that fucking mad, I.mean really. >
  
  It’s not the anger level, it’s the lack of self-control. >
  
  Lack of self-control plus easy access to guns. >
  
  Yep, without guns you’re limited to a knife which can be rendered useless by people moving more than 10 feet away from you >
  
  This is a false dichotomy.  Without guns people still have access to vehicles, chemicals, and explosives. >
  
  Police have identified the suspect in Saturday night’s mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, as Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old Asian man. >
  
  Interesting that he was an old Vietnamese guy, not the usual profile of a mass shooter >
  
  Rumor is the story behind this shooting is Huu Can Tran did not like his wife going out ballroom dancing in dance clubs. She went out anyways, so this was his way of retaliating. 
  He also targeted another dance club after shooting this one up, but the patrons of that club wrestled the gun from him before anyone could get shot. >
  
  Ah, a classic footloose situation. 
  Actually though, what the fuck kind of motive is that to murder people? >
  
  It's not too surprising when you consider that misogyny is often the common denominator among mass shooters. >
  
  Who TF wrote this, it's like a 6th grader telling a story, >
  
  To the next limp dick piece of shit:
  Just you.  Leave the innocents. >
  
  I check USA/world news on Reddit every day as my news source. Unfortunately, it’s gotten to the point where I don’t bother reading about mass shootings in the USA, or police violence, because it is at a saturation point that it just turns into a blurry mess of sameness. >
  
  Serial killers, where you at? >
  
  Probably what all the mass shooters would have been 20-30+ years ago. I read a theory once which speculated that the dip in the number of serial killers was tied to both the disuse of leaded gasoline, and the advent of better surveillance/forensic tech and better trained law enforcement. Basically, it’s hard af to get away with serial murder for very long, so people who are predisposed to that sort of behavior choose to restrain themselves. 
  The other side of that coin is that the guys who DON’T hold themselves back become spree killers and mass shooters instead. Instead of murdering a few people here and there, they go all out, choose to kill a bunch of people all at once, and usually off themselves afterwards to avoid being inevitably caught. Hence why now we have an influx of mass killers, but a decline in the amount of serial killers. 
  No idea if it’s true, but it’s a neat theory! >
  
  
  The pro gun lobby and their brainwashed supporters (many of whom are on Reddit) are to blame
  
  They need to get through their skulls that the second amendment was not written as a suicide pact, and that it is not normal for American to live in fear of mass shootings or an everyday argument turning into a murder.
  There are too many guns.  There are too many people with no business owning guns carrying them around every day.  And unless something changes the second amendment they love so much will go away, replaced by something much less friendly to their lifestyle.
  Edit: I did some math and apparently in the United States every year there is a 1 in 3,000 chance of being shot by a firearm. >
  
  Even if you band all the manufacturers to stop making guns and take away all of the registered guns from everyone, there will still be people with guns. Bad guys don't follow the laws. And now ghost guns are being made.
  How can it be stopped? >
  
  Frankly I'd love to see harsher punishments for people who act irresponsibly with their firearms but that seems to be applied very inconsistently in this country.
  But then that ties in to my belief that our legal system is wildly borked and it, too, needs an overhaul.
  But that ties in to the people elected into office being influenced by both corporate money as well as a harshly punitive puritanical mindset that's rested underneath this country's culture for centuries.
  So ultimately we got a people problem. >
  
  Harsher penalties feel good, but aren't an attempt to prevent the crimes. In order to try to prevent the crimes you need solutions that keep the guns out of their hands in the first place.