Shooting at Las Vegas casino

"Won't regret, can't forget what I did for love..."

 

Maybe his motive doesn't matter.

Maybe what matters is how he was able to buy so many guns and bullets to act on it.

 

I think we can deal with both. The NRA crowd and those who feel compelled to support all tings Republican and never budge an inch desperately want to focus on motive and it is fair to include that in the conversation. They always want to make it about mental health or terrorism rather than have a real talk about gun regulation or bullet regulation, but they prefer we just express our sadness and move on because they know how bad this looks. We can discuss it all, as we have done on this thread. Trying to narrow it to one thing or the other just plays into the hands of the folks who don't want any real discussion at all.

 

I'm less and less inclined to believe there's any kind of "real discussion" happening.

Without a credible national mental health apparatus to address 'motive,' and without a credible national system of gun laws and registration, all that remains is 'thoughts and prayers.'

I've watched this "debate" devolve into partisan insanity for decades. I have no faith in America's willingness to solve its gun violence problem, or address its mental health problem.

America sells more guns to address the issue of too many guns. America sells more drugs to address it drug problems. America builds more prisons to address its mental health problems.

America has lost its goddamn mind.

 

The wave finally broke and rolled back.

 

I think this is kind of right, in that in the past, these guys usually gave themselves say well in advance of the rampage. We just have to be more vigilant for the signs, they’d say.

But now we know that any bloke can be a potential mass murderer on the DL.

He is the Dzokhar Tsarnaev of gun violence, allegorically smoking a J at the pool party while secretly plotting to blow up the Boston Marathon.

 

I didn't see much evidence in his theory.

 

SE7EN?

 

He theorizes it based on how the guy's body lay next to and on top of his rifles. He thinks the guy didn't have that much expertise with guns, panicked when the cops approached, and blammo.

 

Yeah, that's not much evidence at all. Plus, nobody is sure his body wasn't moved slightly when SWAT entered. They might have straightened his leg while searching to make sure there weren't explosives or something.

 

I was thinking that, too.

That said, I worked on an investigation where the crime scene photos absolutely did not match the official story that got three guys convicted. I stared at those death photos for hours, frustrated to sleepless nights that the State’s Attorney’s Office refused to see what I saw.

In other words, I’m willing to at least listen.

 

You know more about guns than me. You might be right.

I will amend my statements to say his theory about the guy shooting himself is based more on him looking at what he thinks is evidence than his theory on why the guy did it, which is pure speculation.