Las Vegas - Are our Members Ok

[73440]

 There will be a special place in hell for him . Nothing but evil

[Chryco Psycho]

Maybe ... or maybe he was blackmailed over gambling debts or his family was threatened 

[Racer57]

A friends son was shot. The bullet went through the upper part of his butt and out lower part. Bullet was found in his wallet. Now THAT was luck. Just an inch or so and it would've hit him in the head.

[Chryco Psycho]

Wow lucky sort of , would have been luckier if he had not been shot

[70 Challenger Lover]

A friends son was shot. The bullet went through the upper part of his butt and out lower part. Bullet was found in his wallet. Now THAT was luck. Just an inch or so and it would've hit him in the head.

A good friend at my work also had a son there who got shot in the back. Thank god they were able to save him and he's recovering. I can't even imagine how I'd react if I got the call he received.

In our county alone, I'm told that four or five were shot, two didn't make it.

[YellowThumper]

Two of my wife's coworkers were going to be there. just a few days before, they were invited (and went to) a birthday party instead....
One of my close friends cousin was shot. He will recover. 

My take on all this is our national system is at a failing grade regarding mental illness. General statement based on my experiences. Not based on current one as we all don't know motivation yet. My father was a paranoid schizophrenic. As his life was filled with hell he inflicted it as well.

Guns can be banned and or limited in types (passing no judgement for or against here). But ill people will find alternative means to inflict their "statement".
Let us not forget Timothy Mcveigh.
The truck Driver in Italy

With each passing event the bar has to be raised. I (and assume all) will hope this bar has reached its pique.
With every population increase each and every individual is an increasingly smaller portion of the world.
150 years ago the "tough guy" could kick an ass or two and everyone in town knew it.
In said town he was what? 1 in 200?
Here in Socal I am somewhere around 1 in 20-30 million. By numbers alone it takes a lot more than a simple fight to become the next "tough guy"

Let us all stop sidestepping the issue of addressing the symptoms and join focus on addressing the root cause.
To me that does mean certain limitations are warranted for those who are impaired.
Again using my fathers condition as an example.
There were many lock down facilities he was placed in. Locked up he would be on his meds. Poof he is better and gets released. cycle, repeat, cycle, repeat...
Eventually we were finally able to have him committed to a level where he lost some freedoms. He in essence was dealt a life sentence with his illness. So his life long "parole" was contingent upon his weekly meetings with caseworkers. Show up regularly and "pass" the interview. He would get to stay out. 50 years with his illness and the last 2 were his best. Because he was and had to be controlled.
For the record he still would have been able to purchase firearms...

Lets get back to being able to respect someone even if you disagree with them.
Looking someone in the eyes when you talk.
Shake someones hand instead of the "safe" fist pump. A lot is learned from a handshake.
Glossing over the 5 second flash and sound bite. Read and/or listen to the whole story before passing judgement.
Verify a story before re-posting or "liking" etc...
Slow it all down and absorb the real truths.
And it still ok to disagree.

Thanks and sorry for the rant...
This one hits close to home. Not geographically.
Mike.

[blown motor]

No need to apologize for sharing your thoughts Mike. Thanks for your perspective. I agree with a lot of what you said.

[70 Challenger Lover]

I agree too. We keep having discussions in this country about things like guns but we avoid talking about the real problem because solutions aren't as easy as a new law. The reality is that we see bombs used, knives, airplanes, and guns. We keep talking only about the tools they use and never the people who do acts. It's too early to know this guys story but how many times do we find out later that the a-hole was already on somebody's radar? We need to find a way to engage these people the moment they hit a radar screen.

There are a lot of people with serious mental health issues not getting the treatment they deserve. In California, we have tens of thousands of them along the coast except we call them homeless. Reopening our mental hospitals would do worlds of good and probably prevent some of this.

There are also a lot of sane but radical people who are just simply dangerous. They get warped ideas of how things should be and rationalize to themselves that the best way to effect change is to do horrible things like this. Those people don't just do stuff like this out of religious motivations but also hardcore political reasons too. They post their beliefs all over social media and could easily be located with minimal effort.

Sadly, this incident won't bring about any real change. There will be new laws to go with the thousands of other similar laws but the leaders of this country won't start the discussions that really need to happen. And the media will use this incident to further their own political agendas. They will spin this and squeeze it for every precious bit of juicy coverage but they certainly won't be the ones to start those difficult conversations even though they are in the best position to really tear the lid off of the real underlying problem.

[Roadman]

Good news          http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/14/las-vegas-shooting-victim-wakes-up-from-coma-takes-first-steps.html