couldn't say it better myself.

Since Detroit has degenerated into Beirut, what more does anyone expect from there?

tstucker0958 is obviously not from Michigan as the shootings are taking place 40 to 60 miles outside the city.

I've traveled these roads often and you don't see city of Detroit folks hanging out between Ann Arbor and Howell.

Cameron-2749593-Somebody needs to take this @!$%#er out before an innocent life is lost

I agree, but exactly how do you propose that happen? Start going house to house and take away peoples guns?Call in the FBI, ATF and spends millions with helicopters and planes flying nonstop over 100 miles? Throw in using satellites to view that stretch of freeway to spot anyone moving about while cops behind bushes, signs, in patrol cars, on motorcycles waiting on overpasses, using night vision as well on their patrols. Also, where do we stop using every resource, and for how long?

The truth is, as much as we wish that whoever is doing this is caught, before someone gets seriously injured or is killed, realize chances are very slim. Because in a nutshell, there simply isn't enough manpower, time and resources to devote to ensuring every square inch of that freeway is under protected 24/7. Even if that were possible, the perpetrator/s, would likely move to another location to target his victims. Evil will always find a way to reach its victims.

The most effective remedy and what helps tremendously, is the public taking an active interest in helping to put a stop to such acts. By starting to take an interest in what is happening around them, their community, what is going on as they drive to and from their destinations. Law enforcement can't do its job effectively by itself.

Criminals thrive best when they know people don't pay attention to what is happening around them. Each of us can make a difference, if we open our ears and eyes even a little bit more. We don't need to personally endanger ourselves. Instead, take a few minutes to look around and see what doesn't make sense, look at what is out of place, who doesn't belong someplace. Even if what you phone in checks out okay,its better than not, and something bad happens later. A pebble dropped into a pond can influence it everywhere.Never underestimate how important YOU can be to helping strangers just by caring enough notice.

What will help tremendously, is the public taking an active interest in helping to put a stop to such acts. By starting to take an interest in what is happening around them, their community, what is going on as they drive to and from their destinations.

I hope an armed (trained and licensed) Good Samaritan picks this guy off as he's trying to do the same to an innocent passerby. I'm not the only one in Michigan who would do a happy dance over that scenario.

Windancersong:

I am not implying to tie up millions in federal resources, but at the frequency that this is going on and the fact that its usually within the same stretch of highway, I think a well organised task team could at the very least track this @!$%#er and find out what kind of car he is driving... The fact that all they can surmount is a young man in a black sedan is kind of ridiculous. I can tell you right now I am hyper vigilant most of the time. I actually LOOK for trouble and if I were to come across any and intervene it would always be LOGIC FIRST. But back to the highway shooter...

The highway patrol should be more active on that portion of the interstate, as I assume they have been since the beginning of these incidents and the realisation that they are serial shootings... Like machspeeddemon mentioned, someone or some group of people with enough skill and training could be put to work at a minimum of federal resources ( if any at all, ahem , vigilantism should step in here ).. I know its not an easy job but if you can track down osama bin laden and kill him in pakistan I think it shouldn't be such a problem to track down one @!$%# in a black sedan trying to kill the other folks using the highway... Find him , mutilate him, and leave him for the authorities so that when the news breaks of how they discovered his corpse maybe other sick @!$%#s like him might think twice., But then again, it won't stop them all. Theres work to be done and the good guys with guns need to start taking action.

Do you think the civil unrest, violence will decrease if the Chitown organizer loses the election?

It is a large area to conduct surveillance on but I have little doubt that the gunfire signature could be picked up on infrared from above. Likewise in more than a few cities, they use high sensitivity microphones to pick up the distinctive signature of gunfire, (it can differentiate between a gunshot and something like a backfire), and can immediately triangulate on the location. It's on a highway so really all you'd need is to pick up two signals, one in front and one behind and you could pretty easily determine where on the highway it originated with pretty fair accuracy. Go mobile with a couple dozen of these linked by computer and spread out along the route. Should be a farily easy addition to patrol cars. Might not catch him the first time but sooner or later you could get there. The technology exists, it's just a question of spending the money to deploy it.

authorities said the gunman appears to be a man in his 30s. Police released a sketch of the possible suspect, described as a young man with closely cropped hair who was driving a black sedan.

Amazing! Twenty people were close enough to the suspect that they were able to tell his age from his facial features and how short his hair was but they were unable to give any other identifying features such as his facial complexion. Oh yeah. This is NBCNews that is why there is no attached police artist's sketch.

While I can make no sense of your ice cream post, I will suggest a handgun ban and strict registration of all guns.

So when handguns are banned and all guns are registered, CRIMINALS WON"T REGISTER THEIR ILLEGAL GUNS, you moron!

I'm concerned about the amount of violence that is done in our society by people with hand guns. A frightening amount, really. It may not be terrorism, but it is terrifying.

IMHO, there would be a lot less crime is there were a lot fewer hand guns. So, in my imaginary world, how would I go about achieving that goal? I think we would follow the precedent set in federal legislation in 1934 and reconfirmed in 1968, laws for obtaining machine guns.

Make it just as easy to get a hand gun as it is to get a machine gun. This will take care of the problem nicely, in time. We will be making our children's and grand children's lives safer.

And, for all you folks out there who have hand guns, you get to keep them!!

P.S. It's not nice to call people names.

No one said it was a handgun

Police said at least seven of the shootings appear to be linked based on bullet fragments or casings discovered at the scene, although investigators couldn’t point to a specific weapon used

Good thing this guy is a poor shot.

The "ice cream" post comes from Forrest Gump after he got shot in Vietnam.

Davey: The amount of violence perpretrated by the US gov't/ military overseas against other civilians is overwhelming and kills hundreds in a week or a few days. US adults throwing their kids from cars; teenagers killing 10 year olds; nannies, fathers, and mothers stabbing, strangling, burning the bodies of their own children after suicide- handguns are not the problem dude. It's American society, and these formentioned situations were from this past week.

Eliminating handgun ownership will not eliminate handgun crime. If you take away the right to own handguns from the average citizen then only the criminal will have handguns. Don't believe me take a look at China. It is illegal to own any type of fire arm, yet occasionally you hear of someone being shot by someone with a hand gun in China. I know because I am currently in China and see it on the news. Not very often but now and then it happens. If the bad guys in China can't find a way to buy a handgun they make their own. If people want a gun bad enough they will find a way to get one even in China.

Yes we should ban all the handguns and then all the ice cream you can eat!

On the serious side I used to live in this region and it's a nice area. Taking away guns won't solve the issue of all the headcases. Years ago it was people throwing tombstones on cars along I75 through various states, caused some serious injury. I guess by that train of thought we should ban all the tombstones!

Damn tombstones..

Forest!!! Why did you put that weapon together so damn fast??? Because you told me to Drill Sergant! Me and the army was like two peas in a pod, just answer everything with Yes drill Sergant!!

That was for you Takenaka, rent the movie.

Antistupidity,

This article doesn't say it but others have quoted the Michigan police as saying it is a semi-auto handgun. One video shows police picking up what looks like a 9mm casing from the relative size on the video. Other reports have said it is a 9mm.

Davey,

In 1934 there were not 65 million machine guns already in the hands of citizens. There are at least that many handguns in the US today and 192 million total. (Note: these a pre-Obama numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if handguns today numbered 75 million and probably close to 250 million total. Guns have been selling like crazy in the last 4 years as the right wing nuts anticipated God knows what.)

Almost 56% of all US gun deaths are suicide and about 41% are homicides. The rest are accidental, self defense or undetermined. There are about 8-9,000 handgun related homicides which is down considerably from its peak of about 14,000 in the mid 90's.

There are about 250 million cars in the US. Per unit death rates are pretty similar with cars having a slightly higher number. Nobody is talking about banning cars. Death rates from malpractice and health care mistakes are far higher.

If you somehow think you could ban guns, you'd have to find some way to compensate the owners to turn them in assuming they would cooperate. You would in fairness, need to offer fair market value. Assuming you average that out you'd probably be looking at an average of $400 each at least. To "buyout" all guns would cost around $100 billion. Just handguns alone would be around $30-40 billion at fair market prices. The cost to run a program, keep records and make sure all weapons were destroyed or otherwise disposed of and by the time your done I wouldn't be surprised to see half a trillion dollars spent. Then again I'd be surprised if even 20% got turned in voluntarily and you can bet that those who are already criminals, aren't about to turn them in. Even if you simply prevented anymore from being sold, you're talking many generations before there are no working examples left.

Simply isn't going to happen. That cat is not going to go bag in the bag voluntarily. You'd see the government overthrown first. So quit your dreaming. Cities like Chicago that have handgun bans in place have some of the most handgun violence. That's because only the bad guys have guns. The premise itself is simply unrealistic.

There are more than enough laws in place right now that if prosecuted to the fullest extent, these criminals would never again see the light of day. This person or person(s) will be caught or will simply vanish. They may very well cross the wrong person at some point. A large portion of the Michigan population are gun owners. I am not suggesting a shoot out on the highway, but I can see it happening if they shoot at the wrong person. The only reason thee criminals shoot at other people is that they know they will get away with it the majority of the time. Sooner or later it will catch up to them.

They have a description and say either a black Alero or Camry although early reports suggested a Mustang. Bottom line they are looking for anyone closely resembling the description in a black vehicle. at some point somebody will get a plate number or at least a partial and they'll get him. Other reports suggest as many as 24 different instances which suggests a lot of clues. Half a dozen of these occured within a couple hours of each other after dark, somebody was probably behind this guy when he was shooting and may have seen more that they realize. They'll catch this guy because he seems too careless.

I understand that there are a lot of hand guns in the hands of private citizens. I also understand that hand guns are the #1 murder weapon in the US, year after year. And, that a hand gun is what is used by criminals in many other crimes.

Did you know that in 1934, hand guns came 'this close' to being included in the same legislation as machine guns?

To say that there is nothing we can do about hand guns because there are so many already out there, well, I don't accept that. We can put laws into place now that make then harder to get. Folks, you can keep your hand guns. But over time, there will be fewer.

If you listen carefully, you will realize that even pro gun people have been asking for this. How many times have you heard a hand gun owner say, 'you can have my gun when you take it from my cold dead fingers'?

OK, got it. That works for me. When you die, your hand gun is handed in for destruction.

Our children and grand children will have a safer world.

I'm concerned about the amount of violence that is done in our society by people with hand guns.

Wasn't there a preacher in Texas who was beat to death with a guitar? I'm curious - was that a registered or unregistered guitar? I can't understand how a guitar is able to beat a man to death any more than a gun can shoot a human without human input. But when there is human input it is always the weapons' fault.

If it's anything like here in OKC you've got gun dealers holding gun shows every weekend at state fairgrounds based on Pres. Obama supposedly pushing for gun ban. The last I heard him say he supports the right to own a gun; the problem is these NRA big-shots seem to think that every tom, dick and harry should have AK-47's, and similar guns under the pretense of a well-armed militia that the 2d Amendment promises. They can't seem to get it in their head that we have Nat'l Guard, and reserves that satisfy that 2d Amendment. If this guy is successful in killing someone, and officials subsequently capture him he should be given a trial within 24 hours, and hopefully executed within another 24 hours. He'd get as fair a trial as he gave all those he shot, or shot at.

Ed Orr - You've misinterpreted the intent of the 2nd Amendment. It wasn't to provide an immediate response force such as the active duty military and National Guard. It was actually to prevent those who exercise control and authority over them (remember that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces is the POTUS, and the Governor of a state is the commander of that state's National Guard) from misusing that strength against the general population - as King George had done at the time the document was written.

While I don't agree with all that the NRA spouts, just as I don't agree with all that the ACLU goes toe to to with against various agencies, I do agree that they are both necessary to continue to preserve our rights under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They keep people that think their way would be a much better way - people like me :) - from having their way at the expense of everyone else.

Regards - a fellow Okie.

Ed Orr - You need to recognize the differences between words. While the words may seem trivial they have vast differences in meaning. The second amendment affords people the right to own weapons - it does not require them to own weapons.

Your timeline for a "fair trial" (also covered in the Bill of Rights) is a lot more skewed than the nuance to the gun ownership.

Mark: You are not a gun owner for sure, which is fine, but The Bill of Rights keeps the largest, most militarily violent and expensive gov't on earth on notice that it can be taken on by the citizenry if it becomes more tyrannical at home. The anemic AKs sold in the US are semi-auto, overpriced doofus US compliant part copies- not the real assault rifles such as the Taliban owns.

Seven-341804

According to the article the shooter is described as "young man with closely cropped hair who was driving a black sedan". Sounds like drive by shooting.

These are not drive-by shootings. This is another nutcase who is trying to pick off strangers.

the shooter is described as "young man with closely cropped hair who was driving a black sedan". Sounds like drive by shooting.

...or maybe the very last "Ides of March" fan realizing that a reunion that will never happen...

Here's a link.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Michigan+gunman+injures+motorist+24th+random+shooting/7459095/story.html

i hope that you shoot better than you spell.

There isn't a word mis-spelt in that paragraph

oh?

i assume that you are quiet, not quite.

i also assume that you have had too much, not to much of this guy.

and the winner is that mis-spelt is misspelt.

spell check doesn't correct the use of the wrong word - it just makes sure that your wrong word is spelled correctly.

good luck with that vigilante thing; i get the idea that a posse of such would be much more dangerous to public safety than the mad shooter.

Wow 3 words lord save my soul....Im sorry its our given rights and duties as US citizens to protect ourselves when the people that are sworn to "protect and serve" Do not. And what are you calling a posse? Its Called a Militia but wait your most likely looking into the other "things" that Howell represents correct? So your misinformed once again. Sorry to bust your going to assume this Gun control buble

20 van-loads of heavily armed "militia" vigilante posse running around at midnight; what could possibly go wrong?

the way this shooter will be taken down will be by careful detective work, not 20 van-loads of gun-toting beer-swilling yahoos.

"vigilante justice" is an oxymoron in the same league as "jumbo shrimp".

22 incidents and counting, I'm sure they'll catch him before another 22 happen and innocent lives end up lost, right? The fact that he has gone unabated tells you they are INCAPABLE of capturing this guy. The michigan militia should covertly send out a few highly skilled operatives, ex military or ghost agency , and outright solve this problem.

and if your "highly skilled" amateurs kill innocent people, while operating waaay outside the law?

this isn't a comic book. the michigan militia doesn't have a @!$%#ing batman. you were closer with your description of 20 van-loads of gun-toting beer-swilling mob justice posse.

You seem to think it would mean driving around wildy firing into the air and targeting any black sedan passing by on the interstate... A majority of the rank and file in the michigan militia are private citizens with not much training, yes. But the brass can be anyone from ex frontline military to special forces and retired CO's... The word amatuer does not even come to thought when expressing the skill and ability of some of these members. They are more skilled than most of the trigger happy cowboys working for the state patrol anyway.

"They are more skilled than most of the trigger happy cowboys working for the state patrol anyway."

riiiight.

hey, i found your batman. he does his vigilante justice in petosky, in northern michigan:

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/petoskey_batman_pleads_not_gui.html

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-10-03/news/34243437_1_chemical-irritant-spray-batman-costume-baton-type-striking-weapon

http://articles.petoskeynews.com/2012-10-16/petoskey-batman_34505774

"I don't want to be a police officer. I think what police officers do is great, but it's up to each person to take a stand and do something to make things better," Williams said. "A lot of times, what I've seen from situations I've been in, people see something going on and think the police will handle it, but if nobody calls the police or takes a stand, it's not going to help.

"Dressing up in my costume, as Batman, is my way of saying that it's not up to the government to save us."

i feel safer already.

Ex military special forces aren't going to dress up like fools and 'fight crime'. They will however be able to track this @!$%# and are far more capable at apprehension by force than the wagtag police force who flies down the highway in gigantic crown vics and chargers smashing their way through pretty much everything until they can stop the suspect using @!$%# like the pit manoevre. I'd be much more comfortable handing the tax money that would go to a few cops and 'donating' it to a militia operative group with the real experience and skill to actually take this guy out. Let the police do THEIR JOB, handing out tickets and responding to the minor stuff that can be controlled by a lightly trained citizen with a gun and a badge. Let the military operations be carried out BY MILITARY OPERATORS. And since the constitution bars the actual active military from being used, your options are militia men who have the right to carry, or a lynch mob of some sort that WILL form if this doesn't get dealt with soon...

Cameron the only thing I have to add seeing that you are doing a great job of defending our rights to have a Michigan Militia and saying that WE will soon take care of the problem ourselves if it continues to happen but this is the 23rd and 24th shooting that we have had happen. Withing this 75mile area. Perry,Howell, Wixom, and the surrounding area. I really don't think that this person knows who he is shooting at out here.

There is no death penalty in Michigan. It was abolished in 1846, making Michigan the first English-speaking government in the world to do so.

if you had a level of co-operation between a militia and local law enforcement it wouldn't pose a problem at 2 a.m. when theres not many people around other than the shooter and his random victims... Joint operations were the leading weapon of choice for all forms of military in the war against insurgency. High value targets were taken out on a regular basis due to inter agency co-operation and communication...

22 incidents and counting is FAR too many. If you don't have a police force capable of dealing with it and are opposed to the idea of a gun battle raging on the highway between the shooter and another armed citizen you had better let SOMEBODY with the skill and ability take care of it. I guarantee you a joint team of specops and (ex) intelligence operators would be able to end this within a week, given the RIGHT and RESOURCES... which I can tell you would be far less than the police have likely already spent so far on this... Where else do you find special operations forces and ex intelligence agents that ARE NOT bound by the constitutions barring of use of the military combat operations against US citizens? THE MICHIGAN MILITIA!!!!!!!!