307 mass shootings in 311 days.. USA Today
How have we gotten to such a place and time in our history? Smarter minds than mine will have to dissect this latest horrific shooting in California. I can't find any more words that describe my sadness over this re-accruing event.
But as I see it.. there's two issues at play here. One is that the shooter had an extended magazine which is illegal. The shooter was a legal gun owner. If we had better background checks, MAYBE.. incidents that happened before the shooting MAY have stopped him from purchasing a hand gun to begin with. It appears after the fact, that this former Marine did have so anger issues and was a gunner in Afghanistan. And his FB posts seem to indicate he was on a suicide mission.
The second issue is that the shooter was a combat veteran who most likely was involved in serious warfare with combatants that don't care if they live or die. Our country should immediately find every combat veteran and have a sit down with each. These poor kids are suffering with server anxiety and need the country to realize that. Not that every combat veteran has issues but the evidence is mounting, these guys need our help now.
With Veterans Day around the corner, a time to raise our collective glass to all who have served this country, I'm sure veterans have a deeper sympathy for their fellow comrades already and now it hurts.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 5:55 PM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
You need to run spell and grammar checks on your posts before post them but not sure it would catch things like war far which should be war fare. But I do agree with what you say. How though do you have a sit down with the thousands of soldiers when the VA can not even handle their regular health care without long waits to be seen?
Thanks for the correction.
I agree with your sentiment and statements but your suggestions for action are not realistic. Interview every soldier leaving the service? How do you think that could be done? And what about National Guard soldiers deployed but still in the service, do you need to interview them also? And after the interview, if you find they have issues, what is your plan for handling that treatment protocol? It is nice to say here is what we need to do but it is useless if what you are suggesting is not something that can be done. We would need lots more treatment specialists to do what you suggest and where would the money come from to pay for those additional staff people? You are on the right track I think but your plan is not a valid one.
It's been suggested years ago that service personal transition back into their personal lives. I've spoken to a few vets who believe they were not ready to just jump back into civilian lives and needed to be with others who have faced horrible tragedies of war. As Ive read today, the California shooter had anger issues as far back as high school and the few that were interviewed who knew him categorized him as a ticking time bomb. I think the VA should have a plan and program for returning veterans, some with battle scares, some with medical issues and drug dependency. Some are trained killers who one day are trying to stop the enemy from killing them and the next day their on a plane home, many are by themselves.
All I'm saying is our country should try to protect society in general along with first responders from our own trained combat veterans from hurting themselves and others. It hurts to know that a veteran reached a point of such despair that the only way out was to kill a dozen innocent people.
Well said Jim. We owe them whatever they need to return to a productive and happy life. After all they are the reason we all have the opportunity
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