NOW PLAYING: "Sniper" Scare

24 October, 2002
Just in time for the scary season, it appears at this point that the so-called "D.C. Sniper" has finally been caught by the cops, though in large part due to the suspects' own idiocy. I mean, leaving notes for the police? Calling the cops on the phone several times and then asking to have $10 million transferred to a credit card account? How stupid can one get? Sheesh...

Some miscellaneous thoughts:

• I really hope this is an isolated incident, and not part of some larger scheme, or involving multiple shooters. This was a mighty effective way to create "terror" in a given location, and you know that with all the media coverage there were some al Qaeda types taking notes...
   
• It's frightening to note that a pair of complete bozos were able to shoot 13 people and elude the cops for three weeks before they were caught. My guess is, if the shooter had had any brains at all and kept his yap shut (left no notes, made no phone calls, etc.), the cops would still have no clue who was doing this. A shooter like that could very likely only be caught if he had some sort of bad luck (broken tail-light on his car, pulled over by a trooper, for instance). I heard a statistic on the radio the other day (and haven't verified it for myself, so...) that 40% of "sniper-type" shootings are never solved. Yikes. These guys were caught because they were dumb.
   
• "We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose"?!? Okay, whatever. Maybe Muhammed wrote fortune cookies in his spare time or something...
   
• So what's the deal with the "white van" that everyone was in such a lather about? These guys were busted in a 1990 blue Chevy Caprice, not a white van. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
   
• Almost all of the "Professional Profiles" on the shooter that I heard or read were way, way off. "Lone young white guy." Not. Instead, they got John Muhammed (and his stepson John Malvo). It'll be interesting to see how fast the leftist mainstream media can ditch the whole "Black Muslim" thing — they aren't going to be comfortable with that at all. But if it'd been some white militia-NRA-type guy, boy, they'd have gleefully trumpeted that all day long.
   
• The Feds say Muhammed and Malvo were "sympathetic" to the September 11 terrorists, but the two "weren't part of any organized group." Let's hope not.
   
• "Sniper." Yeah, right. This dude was anything but a "sniper." If he was using a rifle with a scope on a rest of some sort, then the shots he took at the distances he was shooting from (at pretty much stationary targets) would have been easy, from a technical standpoint. Real snipers are masters of reading wind and distance and they know the complex mathematics involved in calculating bullet drop and other ballistics necessary to hit a target at 800 yards or more. Anybody with a couple hours practice can shoot a supported, scoped rifle and hit a target 100 yards away. "Sniper." I don't think so.
   
• In any event, I'm glad that the shooter(s) may be caught at last. It's just too bad they weren't picked up in Virginia, which would have been much more likely to result in a death penalty case...

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