# Las Vegas



## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Las Vegas shooting: At least 58 dead, 515 hurt in Mandalay Bay shooting 
keep them in your thoughts and prayers.. the worst USA mass killings in history.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

I am following this one closely. By all accounts, this guy (Stephen Paddock) was a normal guy. No affiliation with any groups of any kind. Was retired, worked like any other regular person did in his working years, had normal family relations, etc, etc. Almost all of these shootings, one hears about hints, indicators, odd behavior, joining of a group, etc, but nothing in this case. 

His poor brother is being interviewed by the media and his brother is just beside himself. Swearing there is/was NOTHING out of the ordinary. They (the family) are completely baffled. This is a most unusual case. God bless all the victims, their families, and friends. What a tragedy.

V


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2017)

Varick said:


> I am following this one closely. By all accounts, this guy (Stephen Paddock) was a normal guy. No affiliation with any groups of any kind. Was retired, worked like any other regular person did in his working years, had normal family relations, etc, etc. Almost all of these shootings, one hears about hints, indicators, odd behavior, joining of a group, etc, but nothing in this case.
> 
> His poor brother is being interviewed by the media and his brother is just beside himself. Swearing there is/was NOTHING out of the ordinary. They (the family) are completely baffled. This is a most unusual case. God bless all the victims, their families, and friends. What a tragedy.
> 
> V


I suspect much more disturbing information will come to light about this serial killer before long. In the meantime some US politicians are quoted in the press today saying "we need plans, not prayers". Strange how they never say that after an Islamic-motivated killing - just the prayers and candles for those.

Look no further than the US "justice system" either; the one which set OJ Simpson free after 9 years of a 33 year sentence. That'll teach him!!! Failures in that system won't be far behind this current disaster.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

They're going to search his house. We'll see what they find. Hard to believe the guy was just normal.


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2017)

Florestan said:


> They're going to search his house. We'll see what they find. Hard to believe the guy was just normal.


I would be very surprised if that were the case. As with any disaster there will be *multiple factors at play*; and these will emerge gradually over time as they have with previous mass murderers in the USA. One strong instinct I have about this is that there are similarities with those others; the strong narcissistic impulse which needs to show the world what he can do. A moment in the spotlight brought to a horrific conclusion, possibly pushed over the edge by some crisis. All of this aided and abetted by social media and the exponential cultural rise of narcissism. Put that mix with a malignant personality and you've got one deadly cocktail.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to lose a loved one under such circumstances; you'd be forever tortured by thoughts of how he or she suffered and what the experience in those final moments would have been. Just awful. Ineffably so.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

As some of you will remember, I am an American high school teacher. I am charged with preparing my students for "life in the 21st century." Days like these, I ask myself -"Why?"


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

I also suspect more answers will be forthcoming. People may hide what they're thinking from everyone else, but those kinds of secrets don't usually withstand a painstaking law enforcement probe into everything they left behind. 

In any case, it's terribly sad. And even more because recent history has given us little reason to hope things will get any better.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Thinking of the victims, families and friends in Las Vegas. My thoughts are with them!


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Judith said:


> Thinking of the victims, families and friends in Las Vegas. My thoughts are with them!


As are mine. But I am also thinking that The United States is a deeply troubled nation, and has been since its inception. Consider the genocide of Native Americans, and all the broken promises to the survivors; the history of African slavery; the exploitation of labor by rampart "free market", "laissez faire" capitalism; the "last frontier" attitude and the need for guns to "tame the savage wilderness"; the arrogant disdain for all "furriners" and the xenophobic refusal to understand their cultures, beliefs, and languages; our own increasingly adolescent, even infantile "culture" - I could go on and on.

To wax mystical, I believe that the United States may have a death wish in its collective unconscious, and this manifests itself in many ways, both internationally and domestically, one of those ways being these horrific mass shootings. I am not blaming the entire country for the actions of one deranged individual, but I am suggesting that our country is a petri dish in which such human bacteria can easily flourish. I am sad. I am angry. I am depressed. Mostly, as an American, I am, once again, deeply ashamed before the court of world opinion.


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2017)

I don't think a "normal" person buys 42 guns, some of which were fully automatic or modified semi-automatic weapons. Apparently a $50 modification kit that is legally available on line can convert semi to fully automatic. 

And we're worried about people kneeling during a football game...


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2017)

Kontrapunctus said:


> I don't think a "normal" person buys 42 guns, some of which were fully automatic or modified semi-automatic weapons. Apparently a $50 modification kit that is legally available on line can convert semi to fully automatic.
> 
> And we're worried about people kneeling during a football game...


Actually, when you think of that last point of yours...it is important. Engendering respect and a belief in something is one way to galvanize a society. Think of Britain during WW2 - a unified nation facing existential threat. Nowadays we have a divide and conquer mentality; everybody is a victim and nobody is responsible. Everybody has rights and everything has equivalence. You can see how such an ideology leads to disaster. This decay set in after WW2 and the rise of the postmodernists. But that's a long argument I'm not going to have - especially when people are grieving. It's a discussion which needs to be had on another day. I'll just say that a belief in everything is a belief in nothing.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Totenfeier said:


> As some of you will remember, I am an American high school teacher. I am charged with preparing my students for "life in the 21st century." Days like these, I ask myself -"Why?"


Why?

Because you can help to bring up a generation who will reshape US society around its better attributes, not its worst.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Why?
> 
> Because you can help to bring up a generation who will reshape US society around its better attributes, not its worst.


I know it. That's why I've been at this post. But my hands hang heavy today.


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2017)

It was a rough day for me as a teacher during the Columbine shooting, the 9/11 attack, the Sandy Hook shooting...I retired in 2016, so at least I can now deal privately with the horrors we inflict on one another.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

CountenanceAnglaise said:


> Actually, when you think of that last point of yours...it is important. Engendering respect and a belief in something is one way to galvanize a society. Think of Britain during WW2 - a unified nation facing existential threat. Nowadays we have a divide and conquer mentality; everybody is a victim and nobody is responsible. Everybody has rights and everything has equivalence. You can see how such an ideology leads to disaster. This decay set in after WW2 and the rise of the postmodernists. But that's a long argument I'm not going to have - especially when people are grieving. It's a discussion which needs to be had on another day. I'll just say that a belief in everything is a belief in nothing.


And I would say that the people who are protesting _do_ have a belief in something. It's telling them that their beliefs aren't important and they shouldn't be allowed to express them that causes more trouble. If we don't have people who stand up for what they believe in, even if it's "unpopular", nothing changes. Patriotism isn't blind deference. After WWII, we realized we couldn't ignore civil rights any longer (at least here in the U.S.). It's not as if everything was halcyon prior to that time.

You brought it up. I'm just saying.

Anyway, I'm no longer surprised when I wake up to an ambush of news alerts telling me about the latest "deadliest shooting". I only expect worse from here. There is now a "record" that other shooters will try and surpass. You don't even need to be an adherent to a terrorist ideology or someone who had "warning signs" that were ignored. This guy seems to have come out of nowhere. That's what makes it so much more chilling.

I was just in Las Vegas this summer and I'm no stranger to country music concerts. I don't like to think about it...


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