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Lets talk about Ft. Lauderdale


Wilbur

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Lets also try to keep it insightful and apolitical. 

As you all know, there were 6 lives lost and 8 people injured and many others will be affected.  

This morning, I listened to a DJ talking about the tragedy and how 6 people were slaughter by a deranged maniac.  He was sympathetic but only to the victims.  

There was a 15th victim.  What about the perpetrator?  Here is a young man who spent a lot of time on a violent assignment.  I can't imagine the things he saw and the things he has had to do in the name of his country.  When he develops psych problems, he is discharged.  There were several counts of psychotic episodes yet he was still able to legally purchase weapons.   He obeyed the laws regarding the transportation which tells me, he knows right from wrong, at least when not in full psychosis. 

I feel for the victims.  I also feel the shooter is a victim.  A victim of poor health care for veterans.  Poor treatment for very obvious PTSD.  Poor gun control laws for questionable applicants.  

It is a sad story.  One that I missed being part of in that very terminal by 24 hours.  We departed just before it went down but from a different terminal. 

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Though I agree that the system failed to catch this young man and possibly stop this from even happening I have no sympathy for the shooter himself.

I'm an avid gun collector and shooter even owning part of a gun shop for years. I sold out and stepped away because there were plenty of times I did not sell a firearm to someone whom ATF thought should be able to but they displayed tendencies in my shop that scared me off. I have no doubt they still bought a firearm elsewhere. I just couldn't continue selling them with such unrestricted access.

 

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27 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

I don't feel for the victim. Too bad that the cops didn't give him a fatal case of lead poisoning. However I do feel bad for his family and friends. They are going to have to deal with the shame and possibly feelings of guilt because of his actions.

I would normally agree.  If it is proven he is a jihadist, I will alter my opinion but for now, I feel for this kid. 

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5 hours ago, Wilbur said:

There was a 15th victim.  What about the perpetrator?  Here is a young man who spent a lot of time on a violent assignment.  I can't imagine the things he saw and the things he has had to do in the name of his country.  When he develops psych problems, he is discharged.  There were several counts of psychotic episodes yet he was still able to legally purchase weapons.   He obeyed the laws regarding the transportation which tells me, he knows right from wrong, at least when not in full psychosis. 

Life is hard. Things are not always good or bad. There is a lot of ugly middle ground. As far as I know now, we are not sure it is PTSD or a metal illness caused by his deployment. But what if it is? 

We already know that about 20 veterans kill themselves every day. How do we, as a country, let that happen? How do we not have ways to prevent that? Why do we continue to let our soldiers down?

It's not really a political issue. It's a treating human beings as human beings issue.

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15 hours ago, Wilbur said:

I would normally agree.  If it is proven he is a jihadist, I will alter my opinion but for now, I feel for this kid. 

I can feel for the situation that caused it but I can no longer feel for this kid.  Civilization has certain lines that once crossed are impossible to come back from.  This had to be fixed before it happened.  After ........... well, somebody has to pay the devil.

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Isn't that the place where the cruise ships call? Think I was there once about 1970 in my merchant navy days. Remember I was on duty at the quayside and some middle-aged male French passenger complaining to me about the childishness of the entertainment available on-board, think he was more into round table philosophical debates and the like. 

Funny the things you remember.

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