Mass. This is the argument. Single anything does not usually cause change.
MASS mayhem does. This is all because of guns. This person who just caused the biggest single person shootout in American history had a machine gun of some sort. Where did he get that thing?
Well, the pro-gun faction is going to argue that it is an illegal weapon. Yes. That will muddy the waters for sure.
However, he had an arsenal in his room. In his MOTEL ROOM? Now, really? So close to Vegas and all, you would think they would be a little careful security-wise, so this clown found the perfect spot, and had carte-blanche to carry in his luggage and set up a killing spree.
Could this have been done anyway with gun control? OF COURSE. Criminals will find a way.
But more secure gun control would give as a fighting chance against people like this who may have a record of instability at least. At least it is a start to NOT allow the UNSTABLE to just buy anything that is legal and carry it around or give it to friend.
So, my point in this interruption is that all deaths are SERIOUS. Yes, you are correct, but the real seriousness, the deeper issue is the fact that it is out of control and more and more outbursts is society crying out to STOP them. Especially the person doing the shooting. That is an insane mind in so much pain, it needs to express it this way to get the attention that negative hole where their soul once was, keeps sucking in.
No one ever promised that the planet would be perfectly safe for everyone all the time. Despite the fact that there's slightly more than one firearm for every US citizen in the States, deaths from gun violence have been steadily decreasing over the past few decades.
And I have to wonder why something so far down on the ladder causality-wise gets all the headlines when there are so many other issues that are of greater danger to our lives that would be far easier to mitigate. Medical malpractice is believed to claim around 400,000 lives annually. A single airliner crash can take more lives than the Vegas shooting incident (two Airbus 380 aircraft have had one fo their four Rolls Royce engines literally explode "at altitude" recently, one just this past week). 35,000 die in traffic accidents every year in the US. Accidents around the home (including kids drowning in unsecured swimming pools) claims far more lives that does gun violence on an annual basis. And I wouldn't even want to venture a guess as to how many people die needlessly because of drug and alcohol abuse. But the MASS part makes for great headlines, entices viewership/listenership/readership, draws advertisers. So there's great incentive for "the media" to fan the flames.
So if all deaths are serious why not start on working on solving the issues that will have the greatest impact on the annual death rate, not something that's near the bottom of that list. (And I even wonder what impact solving the drug abuse problem would have on gun violence given that a lot of those deaths are related to criminals doing business in that illicit trade . . . )
How many shooting deaths in Britain go unreported as shooting deaths due to the way that Britain "reports" those gunfire incidents? How many deaths a year (as a percentage of the population) does Britain have due to bladed instruments and blunt-force trauma? How many shooting deaths are there per year compared to the number of legally-owned and used firearms in Great Britain?
Oh, overall the death rate from firearms violence (all violent crimes, in fact) in the USA has been tracking downward for the last decade or so. How's that trend in Great Britain? I've heard that it's moving the other way there.
Kind of a small number compared to the US. One shooting last year alone and the one last night alone equaled about 1/4 of all shootings in Australia, if the numbers are correct.
From a statistical point-of-view one cannot compare "raw" numbers. One must look at population base too for starters. And even that can be misleading. For example a single death in the least populous country can be a BIG spike in the annual death rate of x-per 100,000. A single death in a very populous country is lost in the statistical "noise".
Yes, that's true. There is a chart in that first link that is supposed to take something like that in to account that I tried to post but didn't show up. I try again: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-u-s-gun-deaths-compare-to-other-countries/
It just proves that while figures don't lie, liars can sure figure. (And I see that the many countries with much worse rates such as most of Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, much of eastern Europe) have been completely omitted (you didn't do that "edit" did you?)
From a purely "statistical" viewpoint all the compared datasets need to be "standarized". For starters that means that the reporting criteria needs to be the same across the board. Right now the reporting methods and criteria vary wildly from country to country. (No, Albania can't report organized crime killings as deaths due to workplace injuries; sorry.) We could also look at the number of deaths vs. the number of available firearms.
But the real problem with firearm-related deaths is that they're just the symptom of a number of problems. For example, if one removes gang and illegal drug sales related shooting deaths from the equation in the US the numbers would drop to better than most of the countries touted as being "supersafe" due to the banning of firearms.
Saddly as long as we have humans on the earth, this type of violence will happen. Some people are evil, some are mental, and some are both.
Taking guns does not stop it. That only disarms the legal gun owner. This guy had machine guns those are already illegal so no law would have prevented.
The only thing that would help stop is if people who realize someone is dangerous report them. There was a Mother in MO who reported her son...it was confirmed that he was planning on killing people.
First thing I heard on the news this morning. Tragedies are almost a daily occurrence these days but this one shocked me more than most. Those poor people would have been terrified when they realized what was happening. Their loved ones waking up to find out that they have lost their loved one to senselessness or finding out their loved one was wounded or for some even just knowing your loved one was there but possibly not ave been in contact with them yet to see if they are a victim or survivor. Yesterdays news mentioned a woman in Duncanville that was abducted, robbed and raped by two men wielding a gun only to have a third man meet up with them later to rape her again and then we have terror attacks in France and Canada yesterday not to mention the hurricanes and earthquakes the last month.
"What's it gong to take to stop it"? I know I will get blasted for this but humans cannot stop it. Only God and Jesus can. We can individually change our bad feelings and how we react toward people. Romans 12:17-21 but even the most powerful and well meaning governments cannot stop it.
(Matthew 6:9, 10) “You must pray, then, this way: “‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. 10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also on earth. (Revelation 11:18) But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time came for the dead to be judged and to reward your slaves the prophets and the holy ones and those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”
(2 Timothy 3:1-5) But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, 3 having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, 4 betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, 5 having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.
(Proverbs 2:21, 22) For only the upright will reside in the earth, And the blameless will remain in it. 22 As for the wicked, they will be cut off from the earth, And the treacherous will be torn away from it. (Psalm 37:10, 11) Just a little while longer, and the wicked will be no more; You will look at where they were, And they will not be there. 11 But the meek will possess the earth, And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace. (Psalm 37:29) The righteous will possess the earth, And they will live forever on it.
This post was edited by texasescimo at October 2, 2017 8:46 AM MDT
ISIS has already claimed credit for this by the way, says that Paddock converted to Islam "a few months ago" . . . (and, strangely enough, the FBI has already denied such a connection, but how would they know that so quickly, especially given their track record?)
But no, I don't buy that, and won't without some real, independent proof. Remember, the first reports from the battlefield are always wrong. But this whole thing is just not adding up so far . . .
A 64-year-old lone murderer manages to kill 58-victims and wound another 515-victims in a relatively short period of time? Under cover of darkness (makes it much harder to aim the weapon, even with high quality "glass")? And at a distanced of at least 300 to 500-yards (makes it even harder to put those crosshairs on a K5 zone)? And while 500-yards isn't a real challenging distance it's starting to get there so far as hitting a target. Plus the fact that he was high above the crowd (causing him to fire on a downward angle which affects the "drop" of the bullet . . . ) And while I'm fairly certain that many of the bullets may have struck multiple victims that's still a very, very high body count for a single perp over a relatively short period of time. And to maintain reasonable accuracy at that distance after firing many rounds in a short time? (I start to get shaky after I go through the first two 5-round magazines in my "battlefield" caliber rifle; takes a lot of concentration and self-discipline to keep consistent control over a weapon . . . a currently active Marine "gunny" could do that, maybe a Navy SeAL or a Ranger; but a mere mortal? And I'm NOT being facetious). Love to see some knowledgeable military or former military people give an opinion on that though . . .
And then the hotel itself . . . two windows broken out of the hotel on the most advantageous side, the side closest to the concert venue. Windows that appear to be associated with two different rooms. (One of those windows wouldn't have a view of the concert area if it had been in either of the other two "towers" or the back side of that "tower"). The hotel was likely booked to capacity given that the concert venue was so close so those specific rooms(s) had to be reserved well in advance, or someone at the hotel was "helpful".
The situation may be as presented so far but I'm thinking that we're far from having the complete story on this incident.
Thanks for posting that. The numbers have gone up since I first saw it, esp the injured. I think I heard that he had a military background? I am no expert but I would think shooting in to a crowd of ten of thousand (40,000?) that you wouldn't really need to put cross hairs on anything but a large crowd of people and perhaps just keep the flash lights in the cross hairs or just aim short of the lit up stage?
Ever look at a "human" paper target? Take a look at the "K5" area as compared to the rest of the target. It's a LOT harder to score a "kill" shot than you might think.
I'm not convinced yet that he did it. He may have just been unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (had the room that the real perps wanted.) And I'm not convinced yet that there weren't several involved. The two widely-spaced windows (no time to move between rooms once the fireworks started) and too damn much damage done two quickly for just a single perp. Maybe, but not likely.
I had those same thoughts. The broken windows had like eight windows between them. I'm assuming one window to a room but they could be suites. But even if they were four units apart he couldn't hardly run back and forth. I too wonder if that man had anything to do with it. I didn't read where they verified the purchase of any gun other than a shot gun and one other gun, but there were lots of guns in the hotel. It's all strange and we may never really know.
Slartibartfast 