So it's happened again. And it will happen again. If you've turned on the TV or watched/heard any news source today you know about the massacre in El Paso, TX at a Walmart shopping mall. 20 dead. More wounded. Chaos in the community. Now comes days, weeks and months of anguish, grief, memorials, untold tears, asking what now, and general frustration that these things keep happening. I'm not keeping count but it seems be happening more frequently. I just saw the gunman's "manifesto" over on Drudge and although I didn't read every word, the guy is clearly a nut case. He is a white nationalist who primarily hates the influx of Hispanic immigrants into the country. So he took an AK-47 and decided to go shoot up a mall filled with innocent people. How someone like that's mind works I will profess is beyond me.
But it does spark some questions
- How can a guy like this get a weapon that is clearly powerful enough to mow down 20 people in a shopping mall? Is there nothing in his background to indicate that shouldn't happen? It makes me want to demand universal background checks that are more intrusive than many of my gun owning friends would agree to. But to me something clearly needs to be done about access.
- This was Texas. So there was no one in the crowd who was carrying a weapon? That's hard to believe. If you're going to carry a weapon, you'd better be ready to use it.
- When someone is so out of kilter like this guy clearly is, is there no one who notices? I guess we all just don't want to take the risk of doing something about someone who is nuts. Well, we all better think about that.
- I've already heard the political spinners blaming Trump. Make no mistake, Trump is a streetfighting tough guy who can be insufferable. He infuriates some people by his behavior and his actions. But to equate the President to this kind of atrocity is bullshit. In our politically charged environment, it's probably inevitable, but it's bullshit.
- Beto came out to make a statement and choked up. That's not the kind of behavior I want in a CINC. If there was any doubt previously that he is unqualified, there isn't now.
- I'm pretty sure Texas has capital punishment. Good.
- As always, this wasn't about the gun. It was about the nutcase wielding the gun.
- There is some solution to the hateful and hate filled crap that happens on Twitter and sometimes Facebook that supports these kinds of event.. I don't know what it is and the First Amendment would probably block it, but I'd be in favor of some sort of analytical capability to find and monitor these kinds of crazy nuts.
So as with all of these events, this too will ebb and flow. For those close to it they will never be the same. But for the general public, life will go on. And with each shooting, I become more and more convinced that the 10 stages of any modern gun tragedy that I described after the Jewish Synagogue shooting here in San Diego is correct. The only difference here is that because we're in a political seaspon, number 8 will move up in the pecking order.
- Thoughts and prayers
- Standing in solidarity and vigils for peace
- Rejecting evil and searching for answers
- Flowers, candles and messages at the scene
- Posting of Facebook memes
- Calls for more gun control
- Calls for more armed guards in houses of worship (or shopping malls)
- Politicians seeking advantage and laying blame
- Rejecting logical solutions
- Moving on
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