Some NRA Members Received a Bang of a Welcome to the Houston Airport
- By Ginger Hill
- May 03, 2013
With all the talk about gun control and responsible gun ownership, another life was lost yesterday, the starting day of the 142nd National Rifle Association’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Houston, from a bullet. Whether this was coincidence, irony, someone trying to make a statement or just plain chance, guns continue to be an issue on American soil.
As NRA members were arriving in Houston, according to CBS News and CNN, along with several other news sources, a man named Carnell Marcus Moore strode into Bush International Airport, Terminal B, sat down, pulled out a pistol and began repetitively firing into the ceiling. Two whole rounds worth were fired, sending people scattering and screaming.
Fortunately, the Homeland Security office was about 150 feet from the shooting, which enabled a quick-acting federal agent to run toward Moore, ordering him to put down the gun. The agent fired at Moore, striking him in the upper body at the same exact instant Moore turned his own gun on himself, firing it into his head. Moore died instantly.
The aftermath of it all
- Before the shooting, Moore posted the following on his Facebook: “This Life Will Crash Tomorrow!” and “I recently had the chance of staring death in the face, and she was beautiful.”
- Officials found a Smith & Wesson AR15 assault weapon with a fully-loaded magazine in a black suitcase beside the seat where Moore was sitting.
- Moore’s car had more .223 ammo for his AR15.
- Found on Moore’s body – a handwritten note that he had changed his mind, deciding instead to have mercy on others and to kill himself instead, because he had a “monster within.”
Moore’s autopsy will be conducted today, May 3rd.
I must admit that I am torn about this specific situation. On one hand, I feel a bit sorry for Moore. It sounds like Carnell Moore was crying out for help, that he wanted and needed to be noticed for some reason. Maybe he was depressed or something horrible had happened to him. Unfortunately, we’ll never know, but the fact of the matter remains, he should NOT have, under any circumstances, fired a gun at an airport.
(Sources: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57582771-504083/houston-airport-shooting-update-gunman-left-suicide-note-described-monster-within-police-say/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/02/us/texas-houston-airport-shooting/?hpt=hp_t2)