Of killers, "justice," and victim disarmament zones

The murders of Rebecca Griego, at University of Washington, and Clara Riddles, in the CNN building, share some points of commonality. Predictably, the Brady Bunch and their ideological allies like to don their Captain Obvious capes, and point out that both of the shootings were committed with . . . well, guns. On some other similarities, they apparently have little to say.

Rebecca Griego's killer, Jonathan Rowan, should not have been in this country. Although an illegal immigrant, when he was stopped for drunk driving last June, Seattle law prevented the police from checking on his immigration status. Without this bizarre protection of his "right" to freedom from law enforcement . . . enforcing the law that was broken by his presence here, Ms. Griego would still be alive today.

The history of Arthur Mann (the murderer of Clara Riddles) paints a picture of a person who had absolutely zero business running loose in society.

Mann didn't talk about his past -- the eight years he spent in prison in Florida where he is a registered sex offender.

Court records in Florida tell this story: In July 1992, he was convicted of third-degree murder and two counts of robbery with a gun and was sentenced to 10 years, according to Robby Cunningham, a Florida Department of Corrections spokesman.

Mann served five years of that sentence, violated his probation at least twice, was put back in prison and when he got out was charged and convicted in March 1999 of having sex with a minor 16 to 17 years old. For that conviction, he was sentenced and served three years, Cunningham confirmed.

After his probation ended in March 2004, Mann later moved to Georgia, and in October 2006, he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in the state.

Records show he registered eight days later, but Georgia did not verify that registration until about two weeks ago, on March 22 of this year, which is about the same time neighbors say he and Riddles broke up.

Let's see--already a convicted murderer, a convicted sex offender, a multiple violator of the terms of his probation (with that history, how was he getting probation in the first place?) who subsequently failed to register as a sex offender. This sack of garbage had earned a lifetime behind bars before he ever met Clara Riddles.

Neither one of these worms should have had access to their victims--Rowan should have been out of the country, and Mann should have been in prison. That they weren't is clearly an abject and utter failure of our "justice" system and laws.

Another similarity in the two killings is that both occurred in victim disarmament zones. Would the outcomes have been different, had private citizens not been barred from having lifesaving firepower on hand? We will never know. What we do know is that both rampages were stopped when the killers were stopped--with guns (granted, Rowan's shooting was self-inflicted--but that's the one shot for which I will not fault him). Oddly enough, there are people advancing the puzzling argument that the CNN shooting constitutes justification to continue to allow businesses to expose their employees to the same lethal disarmament that helped kill Rebecca Griego and Clara Riddles.

Then again, I suppose the Illinois State Police would argue that these unfortunate women were permitted to be more than adequately armed--I'm sure they were permitted to have nail files and teasing brushes. Sometimes, the best way to stop a killer is a bullet in his face. Hard to deliver that bullet with a teasing brush.