The Mass Shootings

This world is becoming a sad state of affairs. I just don’t seem to understand what is going on, especially with all of the recent mass shootings that have taken place of late. The most recent took place on a Sunday night in Las Vegas, and quite a number of people have died. One of the people killed was a young girl that started working for the sports team the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. Other teams felt the effect the first week of the NHL season where there were moments of silence, even for one broadcaster who died in an unrelated manner. Every time this comes up, people want change in the ways guns are managed, but before I get into that argument, let's talk about our past history for a bit.

For a number of years, we've had quite a number of shootings. Somehow when I wrote the first paragraph, I kept thinking of the shooting at the elementary school. Somehow, I remember that a child found a weapon of some sort and took it with them and used it. That was back in the 1990s when that happened.

I was still in school when that particular incident happened. After that, various shootings have taken place in small scales. For example, I had run into a podcast that was called "Bad Cop, No Donut." On this podcast, the podcast creator was talking about the various things that the cops were doing that were bad which included shooting people who were unarmed, or using other weapons that they had no reason to use without probable cause.

After hearing about this show, I was starting to wonder if the police who were apparently doing such acts were allowed to have such weapons. The types of weapons police use can be dangerous, in no way am I Saying that the weapon that is used in these mass killings are any better, but police are trained and trained when to use such weapons.

Besides the people who use the weapons inappropriately, we've also got different people using weapons knowing exactly how to use them, or they use them to do harm. The thing that doesn't make sense to me as someone who has never used such a weapon is how they can claim insanity as their defense if they haven't killed themselves with said weapon already.

We can't forget that shooting during the movie in a theater either. If I remember the case, this guy definitely knew what he was doing, and it didn't surprise me if he ended up claiming he was insane. Only 12 people died in that incident, and that was pure luck. I don't think the guy had as much ammunition that the guy in Las Vegas had, but he had enough to go for a little while anyway.

With all of these shootings, we’ve asked for change to the laws that allow people to get guns and other weapons. Some of the people that may be involved have a collection of guns, and then something causes them to just use them as mass weapons of major destruction. Is this something we want?

As someone who is disabled, I’m worried about all of these shootings. I worry because of the fact we can be anywhere and anyone can just open up and shoot at anyone just because they can. I’m sure that people can tell me about incidents around the world, so this is not a United States issue that we’re dealing with. This is now a worldwide epidemic we’re dealing with, and it is only going to get worse over time. I think this is going to get a lot worse, and the 58 dead is only the beginning of something really massive, and of course, we do not know where and when it will be.

What I don’t understand from all of this is the media aspect of this. They always talk about what type of person the potential shooter is and what his life is. They don’t ask how we as a society can prevent this type of thing from happening again, and asking the questions that the media can ask while keeping everyone informed. I really don’t care what someone’s life is like after they shoot up a place, i want to know how we can prevent this from happening again. For example, I do want to know how he might have gotten access to the weapons, and whether he is legally allowed to have them through a background check. If not, then we need to ask questions on how he got access, and how we can prevent access to someone similarly situated.

I personally do not like guns, nor do I like the sound of them. I personally do not want to own or carry any type of gun. If I were licensed to have it, I’d make sure that it would not be accessed by anyone who is not licensed to have it. I wouldn’t collect the things either. I know people may bash me for saying this, but collecting guns may be great for you, however, if someone came in to your home or apartment, and saw all of those guns, they might get ideas. I also understand that you may never fire any of those guns yourself, and they are collector's items.

Let's take a look at what we were able to find out.

1. The gentleman in Las Vegas had a lot of money.
2. The gentleman had suitcases of guns and ammunition.
3. The guy had planned this for some time.
4. This guy sent his girlfriend out of town.
5. Somehow, this guy killed 58 people and injured hundreds of people.
6. It took someone apparently going into the room on the 32nd floor to stop him, unless he shot himself first, I’m not clear on.

This is a lot of information to digest and I don’t understand why nobody asked why he was carrying all those suitcases by himself if he was. This was the big time question mark I have in regards to this Las Vegas case. If I were at the desk, I’d be asking why so many suitcases for one person. Maybe I’d raise some suspicion, unless there was no reason to question it, and he brought all that stuff in many days in advance. Still a question in my mind anyway.

The other question I have is why this guy sent his girlfriend out of the country. I understand he sent her with thousands of dollars, and on a trip. When she came back to Los Angeles, she had no idea of anything. I personally think that this was fucked up on his part, was he really that unhappy and wanted to take it out on everyone? Did he have something to prove? If I had that much money, and a girl, I’d find no reason to go on that type of rampage.

If this guy was a gun collector, what was he wanting to do using all of that gun powder on innocent people? They could not find anything wrong that would set him off, and on top of that, I already pointed out that he showed no signs of trouble according to what people have been saying.

What should we be talking about?

1. Make sure that we take the guns and weapons out of people who do not need them.
2. Make sure if you want them, you are properly trained how to use them, and when to use them.
3. Make sure that you continue training, and enforce the rules on when to use weapons.
4. Make sure that if you do not pass the training, you lose the access to the weapon you once had access to.
5. Must retake the test to get recertified.

You shouldn’t be allowed to collect weapons and ammunition just because you can. You should only use it to defend yourself, not to go on some killing spree because of some reason or another. Maybe I’m off base, and I know suggestions may take time to implement, but how many more shootings and people are we going to kill to start the conversation?

All of this should be common sense. Why do we need laws on who can use guns and other weapons? I know if I were a gun collector, I would collect them, not plan something to use them. If I felt that someone could get hurt, I’d take it to a shop where they can buy it off me, and I’d be done with it. It's not worth all of this killing over nothing, is it?