BP in the news ...

If you ask a criminologist about BP, he or she might describe the company as a mass murderer (someone who kills more than one person at one time). Or he or she might characterize BP as a serial killer (someone who kills more than one person over a long period of time).

I'd call them a serial mass murderer, since they've killed more than one person at one time, more than once over a long period of time.

Someone like that ought to be in the news. Here's the latest on BP:

1. ABC News

   White House stops new BP contracts The Daily Advertiser-3 hours ago WASHINGTON — The Obama administration put a temporary stop to new federal contracts with British oil company BP on Wednesday, citing ...

   EPA bans BP from new federal contracts
   

   Los Angeles Times-10 hours ago

   Three BP Managers Plead Not Guilty to Gulf Spill Charges
   

   Businessweek-11 hours ago

   ►► Aljazeera.com

   San Francisco Chronicle

   Kansas City Star

   Examiner.com

   CBS News

   Bloomberg

   Christian Science Monitor

   all 1235 news sources »

3. BP suspended from new government contracts USA TODAY-18 hours ago U.S. Coast Guard fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the BP operated off shore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of ...

4. Al-Arabiya

   Abu Dhabi's Taqa Buys BP North Sea Assets for $1.1 Billion Bloomberg-Nov 28, 2012 Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) bought stakes in North Sea fields for $1.1 billion from BP Plc (BP/), the energy producer that's disposing ... + Show more

5. 3 BP employees arraigned on Gulf oil spill charges Businessweek-14 hours ago NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two BP rig supervisors and a former BP executive pleaded not guilty Wednesday to criminal charges stemming from ...

6. EPA suspends BP from new federal contracts in wake of oil spill Washington Post-13 hours ago The Environmental Protection Agency has suspended BP from bidding on any new federal contracts, including drilling leases, as a result of the ...

7. US bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal Reuters-13 hours ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government banned BP Plc on ... BP and its affiliates are barred from new federal contracts until they ...

8. BP shut out of US contracts: Feds cite deadly blast, poor response Los Angeles Times-by Michael Muskal-18 hours ago BP, which has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges in connection with the nation's worst offshore oil spill, was suspended from new ...

9. 3 from BP plead not guilty in connection with gulf oil disaster Los Angeles Times-by Michael Muskal-13 hours ago Two BP employees and a former executive pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a variety of charges, including manslaughter and concealing ... But there is also this piece of news! Energy stocks end higher, BP shares rise MarketWatch-50 minutes ago SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Energy stocks turned higher Wednesday, tracking the broader market and as U.S.-listed shares of BP PLC ...  So apparently it is not stopping the company from making money. Serial mass murder for profit?

What exactly can be done about a "crazy" person with a gun?

In the past month, "crazy" people with guns have gone on shooting sprees, killing multiple people in each incident.

First was the movie theater shooting in Colorado that killed 12 people.

Then there was the massacre at the Sikh religious facility in Wisconsin that left seven dead.

In fact, in the past 30 years there have been at least 58 cases of mass murder with guns in the US. To be included in this list the event must meet these criteria:

• The killings were carried out by a lone shooter. (Except in the case of the Columbine massacre and the Westside Middle School killings, both of which involved two shooters.)
• The shootings happened during a single incident and in a public place. (Public, except in the case of a party at an apartment complex in Crandon, Wisconsin.) Crimes primarily related to armed robbery or gang activity are not included.
• The shooter took the lives of at least four people. An FBI crime classification report identifies an individual as a mass murderer—as opposed to a spree killer or a serial killer—if he kills four or more people in a single incident (not including himself), and typically in a single location.
• If the shooter died or was hurt from injuries sustained during the incident, he is included in the total victim count. (But we have excluded cases in which there were three fatalities and the shooter also died, per the previous criterion.)
• We included six so-called "spree killings"—prominent cases that fit closely with our above criteria for mass murder, but in which the killings occurred in multiple locations over a short period of time.

In the Colorado shooting, the psychiatrist who treated the shooter James Holmes actually made contact with a University of Colorado police officer to express concerns about her patient's behavior several weeks before Holmes' alleged rampage, sources told ABC News.

The sources did not know what the officer approached by Dr. Lynne Fenton did with the information she passed along. They said, however, that the officer was recently interviewed, with an attorney present, by the Aurora Police Department as a part of the ongoing investigation of the shooting.

 Fenton would have had to have serious concerns to break confidentiality with her patient to reach out to the police officer or others, the sources said. Under Colorado law, a psychiatrist can legally breach a pledge of confidentiality with a patient if he or she becomes aware of a serious and imminent threat that their patient might cause harm to others. Psychiatrists can also breach confidentiality if a court has ordered them to do so. 

This raises an important question. If we have evidence that a person with a serious mental illness or brain disorder is talking about or even planning such a massacre, what can actually be done about it?

The answer is, it depends on the state. In some states, the police can take action and a person can be held against his or her will pending a mental health evaluation. In others, the person cannot be detained unless he or she is an immediate threat to himself or herself (or others) at that very moment.

This is a tough one. We'll always look back on cases like this one (and the Sikh shooting where the shooter was known to many groups and the US government as a threat and dangerous, hate-filled person ... and the Columbine killings where the shooters were known to be in serious trouble and the plot was known to many beforehand ... and ...) and we will speculate about what could have been done.

The news media will address the issue for weeks after every mass killing. And yet, nothing will ever be done. So get used to this happening again and again, year after year.