Two Good Men

The daughters of the victims of the Toys R Us shooting were on the local news, crying and affirming that their fathers were good men, a claim supported by this morning's local newspaper:

According to court records, [victim one] pleaded guilty in March to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to the same charge in November 2007.

In September 2005, [victim one] pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon, and in 2002, he pleaded guilty to possessing a controlled substance for sale while armed, according to court records.

Records show that [victim two] had a criminal record spanning back to 1998, when he pleaded guilty to inflicting corporal injury on a spouse. As part of the plea deal, charges of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats and willfully harming a child were dismissed.

These revelations filled me with goodness about the fathers: good God, what were they thinking and good grief, why were they not in jail? I can see how the children need to believe that their fathers were good men because the rest of the world sees them as violent criminals whose lives ended in a pool of their own blood in a toy store. Goodness, what a shame.

A sidebar article about this crime indicates that both men possessed "illicit" handguns, which means that neither man, including the one with the gang tat, had a license to carry a concealed, loaded handgun, and (wait for it) the handguns were neither registered nor legally purchased. Shocker revelations when combined with the criminal records of both victims!

There'll be a community car wash to raise money to bury these two good men, but I'm not sure that there will be many patrons willing to donate to the cause.