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Man in Santa suit kills 8, then himself in California

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Just bloody sick. I'm not going to turn this into a rant against guns because, it seems in this case, the guy was intent on doing what he did and would have found them or something equally as lethal to do the job. I still think they are unnecessary, but anyway.

A very sad story, and a very sick man. My heart goes out to the families.

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Why can't these idiots just go after the parties they feel wronged them? For crap's sake what did the little girl do to anyone?

Its too bad this idiot got to off himself. Now he is just an inspiration to other idiots.

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What an awful story. How does someone do something like that?

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Guess you haven't watched CSI or any of the other forensic crime shows on TV or the Internet as of late?

If you are contruing my comment to mean there are no other inspirations for such idiots, think again.

My biggest problem with the shows and these articles is that they are not adamant enough in calling these people idiots.

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What an awful story. How does someone do something like that?

Here is your answer: Rearrange the letters in Santa and you get Satan.

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Why do Americans love guns so much? So many deaths in "the land of the free".

The land of the dead more like!!!

This story had me and my partner in tears. I feel so sad that a "human" could do this.

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A cry-baby with a gun = lethal results.

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What kind of sick bastard shoots a kid, let alone shoots an 8 year old in the face while dressed as Santa!!???!! I want to say more on this... but find myself at a loss for words...

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The leftists hit paydirt on this story - they get to trash guns and Santa.

Moderator: The word "leftists" has no place in this discussion. A very poor contribution from you.

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A gun in Los Angeles, a knife in Akihabara.. but the weapons are not what caused the crimes. Anger, frustration, disconnection.. and I'm scared that the tanking world economy is going to spark more outbursts.

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"I feel so sad that a "human" could do this."

Hate to break it to you guy, but ONLY a human is capable of something like this. I am not at all surprised that something like this happened at this time of the year. The really sick ones "save themselves for last" so to speak. "The leftists hit paydirt on this story - they get to trash guns and Santa."

Lets not make this political. I am sure neither side would take pleasure in hearing something like this. However, I am certain that someone will try to use the deaths of these people to promote some sort of political agenda.

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What kind of sick bastard shoots a kid

Ahhh, you answered your own question.

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The leftists hit paydirt on this story - they get to trash guns and Santa.

First it was monsters, then it was witches, then commies, and now the raving right has...the left. This guy sees his boogeyman everywhere.

Churchlady: "Could it be....SATAN?"

What's next? An investigation into Pardo's voting record?

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"Why do Americans love guns so much? So many deaths in "the land of the free". The land of the dead more like!!! This story had me and my partner in tears. I feel so sad that a "human" could do this."

Then don't go to America. It'll be safer for you.

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The massacre began when an 8-year-old girl answered Pardo’s knock at the door. Pardo, carrying what appeared to be a large present, pulled out a handgun and shot her in the face

Absolutely shocking.

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It will be interesting to learn more about the divorce settlement. Nothing excuses this sociopathic behavior, but hearing the full story may provide some life lessons for the public.

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Too shoot an 8 year old point blank in the face while dressed as santa on Christmas day deserves a very special place in hell regardless of how bitter a divorce may have been. This is a very sad story.

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“It was not an amicable divorce,” police Lt Pat Buchanan said

REALLY?

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Why do Americans love guns so much?

Democracy stretched out of proportion. Failure to create a safe environment. Failure to instill proper morals. Preoccupation with lethal weapons. Poorly drafted and dated constitution. The macho image of owning and using deadly toys. - Just a few ideas . . .

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The movie "bowling for Colombine" by Michael Moore says that people love guns and shoot people in Amercia. America needs a strict Gun Control Law for people's safety. Or same things will continue.

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If there's anything to learn from this. From my experience.

Some women should definitely think more about how their actions can affect men. Some are just too cavalier.

Make the break mutual... or at least take the time and soften it as much as possible.

Some men need lessons in how to deal with jealousy/possessiveness. Reminds me of the Iranian guy who threw acid in the face of the woman who rejected him just so no-one else could have her.

Guns are just incidental in this, IMHO.

Having said that, what a cowardly loser.

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smithinjapan: Just bloody sick. I'm not going to turn this into a rant against guns because, it seems in this case, the guy was intent on doing what he did and would have found them or something equally as lethal to do the job. I still think they are unnecessary, but anyway.

You touched on something here. This act does seem to go beyond gun control. I'm anti-gun and I post anti-gun messages in just about every thread where the is a gun death or threads talking about the right to bear arms, but this one just seems a bit different to me. Maybe it's because turning the article into the usual pro/anti gun debate would seem to make the victims take a back seat. What's happening is that some aren't even bothering to grieve for the victims at all, they're just rushing to begin the gun debate like they're on cruise control. Maybe somewhere along the way we forgot how to show sympathy for the victims, myself included.

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The background story which led to this horrible and tragic incident likely includes an inability to deal with rejection, the economic impact of divorce, holiday blues, etc.

But the choice of weapon also played a role in the death toll. With 25 people in the home, Pardo would have been quickly overpowered had he used a knife.

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Overpowered by whom, exactly? Betzee, the man not only had a gun but a homemade device to douse the entire house in accelerant, and now - it is just being reported - had homemade bombs as well (though he didn't use them in the attack - nearly took out a policeman who was searching his rented van). If he had walked in hurling homemade grenades do you think this would have turned out differently?

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The leftists hit paydirt on this story - they get to trash guns and Santa. Moderator: The word "leftists" has no place in this discussion. A very poor contribution from you.

To the mod: Then why haven't you removed the post from the board?

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Betzee: With 25 people in the home, Pardo would have been quickly overpowered had he used a knife.

Overall I think far fewer people would be killed by attackers who wield knives than guns.

My point is to show the difference in the reaction to the crime, even when roughly the same number of innocent people are killed by a lone attacker. When it's a knife people talk about how crazy the attacker was and they express sympathy for the victims. When it's a gun people rush into a gun control debate. We have comments such as "land of the dead", a poorly drafted Constitution, Bowling for Columbine. I'm fiercely anti-gun but it seems that along the way we decided to simply use these incidents to instantly debate gun control, with some not even bothering to express any sympathy or outrage at all.

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Truivere,

I got this from the LA Times:

As he had in years past, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo volunteered to serve as an usher at his church's midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Pardo, however, was miles away from the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church as the religious service got underway. He had driven a rental car from his home in Montrose to the Covina home of his ex-wife's parents. Shortly before 11:30 p.m., dressed as Santa Claus, he approached the front door with a large, wrapped package.

Inside the two-story home at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, his ex-wife, her parents and about two dozen others were enjoying their annual holiday party.

An 8-year-old girl ran to answer his knock. When the door swung open, Pardo, 45, shot her in the face with a semiautomatic handgun, stepped into the house and opened fire on the revelers. Amid the chaos, he doused the house with a flammable liquid contained in the package -- a pressurized fuel tank, about 2 1/2 feet tall.

Obviously it was a well planned attack which makes it harder to prevent. And had he not had access to guns, he might have been able to exact the same type of carnage through any number of means. But that takes us into the realm of counterfactuals and away from the facts.

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Superlib,

It's curious you left Helter_Skelter out of your condemnation of people who rush in with an agenda (sort of reveals your own) and ignore the victims.

I'm not sure exactly how you grieve for the loss of people you never knew. But suppose someone suggested that in the wake of 9/11 or Mumbai, let's not make this into a political issue and concentrate on the victims? Helter_Skelter came out swingin' on that one, just as he came out swinging preemptively at "leftists" here.

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It will be interesting to learn more about the divorce settlement.

Many people posting on the Huffington Post assumed he'd been treated unfairly by the system. We don't know that, however. His ex wasn't partying with another man, she was with her family.

The children weren't his and that would have mitigated the involvement of Family Court and some stranger telling him he could only see them this often but was required to fork over this much for their support.

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Few details have emerged yet about the gunman, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, of Montrose. Divorce documents show that he and his ex-wife, Sylvia Pardo, had been married for two years before divorcing, citing irreconcilable differences. The two had been married in January 2006 and divorced in February of this year.

Their last court hearing was Dec. 18, when a settlement was reached. Court records indicate that Pardo had been unemployed since July.

The fact the marriage was of such brief duration indicates she discovered he was a control freak and ended it. But that's just female intuition.

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One poster here has the intelegence of the shooter here.

I hear that they are up to victom number 9, not including the murderer.

You can't condone this murderous killing, but can you imagine the depression he must have been going through to even think of a heinous crime like this.

I can only pray for the comfort of all families concerned. I can even see where these deaths affect JT posters. Horrible...horrible thing. < :-)

Pssst. This has no bearing in the gun control conversation. They weren't assault weapons used. Handguns. < :-)

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excuse me: intellegence. < :-)

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Court documents show Sylvia Pardo got the couple's dog, the wedding ring and $10,000 in the settlement agreement, while he got the house. In June, the court ordered Bruce Pardo to pay $1,785 a month in spousal support and put him on a payment plan of $450 a month for $3,570 that was unpaid

Spousal support was suspended in December, because the guy didn't have a job. Still, $21,000 a year in spousal support after ony being married for less than 2 years (and the kid wasn't his). This could be the motive, or perhaps he really loved that damn dog. Animal lovers can be nuts sometimes.

Lesson for men - even a brief marriage can cost you half or more of your take home income for years.

Lesson for women - if the guy is a nut, sometimes the smart move is to just cut bait and move on.

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Bebert,

I read this in the LA Times:

But one incident that led to that divorce was a long-held detail of his past that Pardo hid from his wife.

About nine years ago, he and a girlfriend had a child. As a 1-year-old, the boy fell into a pool, nearly drowning. As a result, the child was left physically handicapped. Although Pardo did not support his son financially, he claimed the boy as a dependent for seven years on his tax returns.

When Pardo's wife found out about it from a family member, she demanded he stop claiming his son as a dependent. The situation helped lead to the divorce, sources close to the family said.

This indicates they didn't know each other terribly well before tying the knot. And it strikes me as a strange reason to get a divorce, more like a pretext.

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The problem was in the guy's head, in my opinion, and nothing else. People go through divorces every day, lose their jobs, get sick, etc, and don't hurt others because of it. If you or I had lived this guys life in the past year I don't think any of of us would shoot a kid in the face.

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Betzee,

While I doubt it was the only reason for divorce, the choice to profit from his sons misfortune, while choosing to not support him (lets make a leap and guess that he has rejected his son and refused contact and support) makes the man into a moral monster. Would you want to be married to such a man?

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The problem was in the guy's head, in my opinion, and nothing else.

I agree with that point too. The gun may have not been all at fault, but it didn't help at all that he had one in the first place. Guns and whackos don't mix. And to all you pro-gun lobbyists out there, yes, maybe having a gun for protection may protect you, provided that you are well-trained in using it and are well-versed in keeping it safely locked up. However, most law-abiding citizens I know don't own one and will never want to. It is just too damn scary to carry one and there is a great chance that it will do more harm to you than to protect you.

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