Man found guilty in Super Bowl plot

A man accused of planning a massacre at this year's Super Bowl was convicted Thursday of federal charges...

Authorities alleged the 36-year-old Havelock bought an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition from the Scottsdale Gun Club on Jan. 30. The documents say Havelock wanted to kill people at the Feb. 3 Super Bowl in Glendale and was armed when he reached a parking lot near University of Phoenix Stadium where pregame activities were happening.

Remember back when the Einsteins on Democratic Underground were arguing that since the media reports called it an "AR-15" that is must absolutely be a real (select-fire) AR-15?

Whoops. They were mistaken. Or morons. Or, most likely, mistaken morons.

Anyway, the guy's dad is (somewhat understandably, I guess) playing the "my boy would never have done that" game:

Havelock's father said his son was generally a good person who was being punished for momentarily snapping.

"I know what kind of kid he is. If he was a bad kid, I'd say 'you deserved what you got.' But he's not," Frank Havelock said. "He needs to talk to a counselor. He doesn't need to be incarcerated."

Look. Everybody has problems. We all "momentarily snap." But very few of us "momentarily snap" and then buy a gun to massacre a bunch of people. Even though this guy had a last-second change of heart, he needs more than a good counselor.

He was going to kill people because his liquor license application had been rejected. In retrospect, that was apparently a good call.