News: City Council shooting in Missouri
From STL Today:
An armed man walked into a Kirkwood city council meeting Thursday night and shot several people, including the at least one police officer, the city’s mayor and several council members.
At least one city council woman is dead and others are being treated for serious injuries at a hospital.
A correspondent for the Post-Dispatch who was attending said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started — the mayor was starting the meeting just after the Pledge of Allegiance — when the man rushed into the council chambers yelling and began opening fire with at least one weapon. She identified the man as Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton, a man she knows from covering the council.
“He came from the back of the room,” said Janet McNichols, the correspondent. “He kept something about, ‘Shoot the mayor’ and he just walked around shooting anybody he could.”
The rest of the story described the shooter as a gadfly who liked to belittle the mayor and felt aggrieved at being denied to speak his mind at council meetings.
As someone who doesn’t want to find himself hiding under the press table one day, let’s hope our local gadflies maintain these sense of humor.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Using his legally-acquired huntin’ rifle, no doubt.
Scary stuff. Very sad. Courthouses have metal detectors, maybe City Hall should too? Don’t forget, Peoria had a council member attacked fairly recently. Plus, who hasn’t been at least a little concerned for their safety when someone very unhappy and unbalanced has started shouting at the podium during Citizen’s Call to address the council. Governments and commissions, no matter how good they are, must say “No” rather frequently, and that’s going to make people angry. Better protection is probably in order. Police can only react, but metal detectors can prevent. News reports say this particular guy had numerous run ins with the Zoning Commission over keeping inappropriate supplies on his residential property.
[...] News: City Council shooting in Missouri [...]