First active shooter situation in my town

[Deleted]

We had an active shooter situation Sunday a.m. about 10 miles from me.  Two dead, including the gunman, and 8 or so wounded. Could have been much, much worse.  Folks going to the carwash, the ATM, to church, etc. As always, there were heroes in the hell, Eagle Scout applied a tourniquet, etc.  Even though it was miles away and I don't personally know anyone involved, it sure is different when it's your town and not just a story on CNN about someplace else.  I'm surprised at how much it bothers me. I had a moment of not wanting to go to the mall today, or even leave home at all.  This carp is really hard to wrap your head around.  The usual platitudes don't cut it.  

[Kolt!]

I'm so sorry that this happened so close to you. It's always hard to deal know about an active shooter situation but for it to be so close to home is scary. My best friends mom in high school was held up in a gas station by an active shooter about seven years ago and I know it shook even me up just by the fact it was only a few miles from my home. 

This is sad that two are dead and eight are wounded. But I guess at least this gunman is dead :/

Probably sounds rotten to say but sometimes I think Prison isn't enough of a sentence for some people... 

[Deleted]

May 30, 2016 19:08:52 GMT -5 Kolt! said:

I'm so sorry that this happened so close to you. It's always hard to deal know about an active shooter situation but for it to be so close to home is scary. My best friends mom in high school was held up in a gas station by an active shooter about seven years ago and I know it shook even me up just by the fact it was only a few miles from my home. 

This is sad that two are dead and eight are wounded. But I guess at least this gunman is dead :/

Probably sounds rotten to say but sometimes I think Prison isn't enough of a sentence for some people... 

Thanks, Kolt!.  Tough to figure, but maybe, if the shooter had survived for interrogation, we might have a little bitty window of insight into his motivation, not that it would mean much to those who mourn.  25 years old, 4 cycles of duty in Afghanistan, who knows?  PTSD, drugs, family issues In a world where we see this far too often on national media, it's sort of freaky to see on local channels. Maybe our new normal?  One of the survivors took 5 bullets, long road to recovery, she was on the way to Sunday brunch.  I keep thinking about the shooter's parents; I can't even imagine the world of pain and grief they are in.  

Thanks for  responding; usually I'm just freaking about the upcoming hurricane season at this point.  It sort of puts things in perspective I guess.  BTW, I did go to the mall for a sale and then to lunch at a local taqueria which I guess is my way of pushing back against the horror.    

[Kolt!]

May 30, 2016 19:54:48 GMT -5 @donethat said:

May 30, 2016 19:08:52 GMT -5 Kolt! said:

I'm so sorry that this happened so close to you. It's always hard to deal know about an active shooter situation but for it to be so close to home is scary. My best friends mom in high school was held up in a gas station by an active shooter about seven years ago and I know it shook even me up just by the fact it was only a few miles from my home. 

This is sad that two are dead and eight are wounded. But I guess at least this gunman is dead :/

Probably sounds rotten to say but sometimes I think Prison isn't enough of a sentence for some people... 

Thanks, Kolt!.  Tough to figure, but maybe, if the shooter had survived for interrogation, we might have a little bitty window of insight into his motivation, not that it would mean much to those who mourn.  25 years old, 4 cycles of duty in Afghanistan, who knows?  PTSD, drugs, family issues In a world where we see this far too often on national media, it's sort of freaky to see on local channels. Maybe our new normal?  One of the survivors took 5 bullets, long road to recovery, she was on the way to Sunday brunch.  I keep thinking about the shooter's parents; I can't even imagine the world of pain and grief they are in.  

Thanks for  responding; usually I'm just freaking about the upcoming hurricane season at this point.  It sort of puts things in perspective I guess.  BTW, I did go to the mall for a sale and then to lunch at a local taqueria which I guess is my way of pushing back against the horror.    

I'm glad you're not letting it stop you from living your life! Home also isn't always safe, not to scare you or anything. Just never know when something bad is going to happen so you can't let it stop ya from living but that's always easier said than done. 

I still have a hard time getting on a boat being afraid it'll sink and I'll drown. The chances of it happening are very rare and it's irrational but it is what it is. 

It's true that it might have given a better insight. The problem is in my personal opinion everything when it comes to shooters now is a mental illness and than that's what their treated as. 

Although, I believe in order to actually kill people like this it's an automatic mental illness. No sane person would ever be able to kill people like this. 

It's just for me it's too easy of a punishment to claim it a mental illness. Heck some people in jail have it easier than those living homeless. 

But I digress. At this time I try to steer away from my rants even though they're in my heads and try to focus on the families.

And sadly, in the United States active shooters are becoming too common. 

[Tennesseer]

I had an active shooter about four blocks from me about 15 years ago. The guy wasn't all there in the head. He shot and killed his wife in their home. To draw attention to his home, he set his house on fire with his wife's body still in it.

He went outside and hid while waiting for the police and fire department to arrive. Once they arrived, he shot and killed one police officer and two firemen.

The husband was convicted and is in prison with no chance of parole.

On a side note, about a year later, a call was transfered into my office from the company switchboard. A local woman was on the line and told me she had been offered a vice president position in our customer service department. She was wondering whst her start date was as it was not noted in her offer letter. I told her I would make a couple of calls to find out what was going on and get back to her.

I spoke with one of the directors in our CS department and told her about the call and the job offer. I told the director the woman's name. The director's voice softened and told me she knew who the woman was. The woman caller used to be an employee of our CS department but had left several years earlier due to problems with schizophrenia. The director told me she had not interviewed for a VP job or any job with our company.

The director told me the woman's schizophrenia had been gotten under control, but she had gone down hill during the padt year because her brother had been the only person who could get her to take her medications. Sadly, her brother had been one of the two firemen murdered by the active shooter in my neighborhood a year earlier.

[Kolt!]

That's so insane. 
That poor woman.

Schizophrenia is also a scary mental illness to have. 

[mmhmm]

Ish! That sounds terrifying, even if you're not that close to it. I'm so glad you weren't in the middle and that it didn't get any worse than it did. Sorry you had to be in the town in which it happened. I sure understand your concern!

[Deleted]

Thanks, all my dear online friends!  Just wondering how we can deal with a problem that's becoming more common every day? Not taking this political, but more mental health services or reducing the ability to possess arms? Dear God, the shooter had an AR15 and multiple rounds hit the police chopper.  185 rounds fired total.     I have to make a conscious choice to live my life tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday and every day after that but never really thought about living it in this reality.  I sat through a police meeting last week where a State Trooper said women should never go out alone because we are easy targets!

[Kolt!]

It's difficult. 

Mental health services can become available but the problem is a lot of times it isn't know the shooter has these mental health issues until it is too late.

Maybe, start requiring mental health evaluations? But I'm sure that wouldn't go over well at all. 

Then restricting firearms is a difficult task too because those that want to go shooting up a place will find a way to a gun still.

Unless, perhaps it's harder to get and Police are more apt to watch people getting illegal guns. 

I really don't know but something needs to be done with mental health or something with guns...I just don't know what.

Because CLEARLY the United States is lacking with the amount of shootings were having. I can't remember the statistics but I do know the United States is the worst with mass shootings in first world countries right now, and not by any tiny number either.

So if other Countries are able to have better statistics clearly the United States are doing something wrong. There actually hasnt been a mass shooting in England since 2010. The one before that was 2005. 

I don't know if it's because they have better healthcare or better gun laws. Although, I believe they do have both. I know healthcare is easier to come by there and they do have gun regulations and such. The United States has had 19 Mass shootings since 2010. I think I'm missing some too. 

[Kolt!]

19 is the most destructive mass shootings not the amount.  I'm way off on my count. WAY off. 

[Kolt!]

It's actually well over 100 in 2015...

[Kolt!]

We actually had 19+ shootings in the United States in 2015 where at least 3 or more people were killed.


www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shootings/2015?page=13

But many pages where shootings did take place, some were only injured people, some only had one person killed.

But it's insane. This is just 2015. 

In 2016 we've already had over 100 shootings. 

[weltschmerz]

Mass shootings as defined by the FBI happen about every two weeks in America. For nearly a decade, USA Today has been tracking these incidents on a website that paints a grim picture.

www.npr.org/2015/07/24/425834197/mass-shootings-in-america-by-the-numbers

[tskeeter]

May 30, 2016 20:32:05 GMT -5 @donethat said:

Thanks, all my dear online friends!  Just wondering how we can deal with a problem that's becoming more common every day? Not taking this political, but more mental health services or reducing the ability to possess arms? Dear God, the shooter had an AR15 and multiple rounds hit the police chopper.  185 rounds fired total.     I have to make a conscious choice to live my life tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday and every day after that but never really thought about living it in this reality.  I sat through a police meeting last week where a State Trooper said women should never go out alone because we are easy targets!

One of the ways we deal with shooter situations is for the media to quit publicizing it.  Many of these shooters don't come up with the idea on their own.  They decide it's a way to make a name for themselves because the media feeds on these events.  Take away the media frenzy and publicity and you eliminate the incentive for many mass shooters.  Doesn't solve the underlying issues, but could lead to potential shooters finding other outlets rather than shooting up a bunch of random people.

[Tennesseer]

May 31, 2016 1:12:29 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

May 30, 2016 20:32:05 GMT -5 @donethat said:

Thanks, all my dear online friends!  Just wondering how we can deal with a problem that's becoming more common every day? Not taking this political, but more mental health services or reducing the ability to possess arms? Dear God, the shooter had an AR15 and multiple rounds hit the police chopper.  185 rounds fired total.     I have to make a conscious choice to live my life tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday and every day after that but never really thought about living it in this reality.  I sat through a police meeting last week where a State Trooper said women should never go out alone because we are easy targets!

One of the ways we deal with shooter situations is for the media to quit publicizing it.  Many of these shooters don't come up with the idea on their own.  They decide it's a way to make a name for themselves because the media feeds on these events.  Take away the media frenzy and publicity and you eliminate the incentive for many mass shooters.  Doesn't solve the underlying issues, but could lead to potential shooters finding other outlets rather than shooting up a bunch of random people.

What's the fix though in this day and age; the press not report it? A city or town cannot pretend a mass shooting didn't happen and try and bury the event. With a mass shooting, others are involved beside the shooting victims such as family and friends. Family and friends would communicate the news either verbally or on the Internet. These conversations then spread across the country and the news media would eventually pick it up and report it.

Can you imagine the uproar if Americans woke up in 2017 to find out 27 mass shooting resulting in 80-100-200 deaths occured in 2016 which they nefer knew about and the press and government covered up the crimes with self-imposed silence? Imagine if another Newtown, Ct event occurred in the country and the press and government surpressed the news.

I would be very angry.

Keeping the name of the mass shooting killer out of the press would work for a while but it would eventually be publically known. Secrets and/or witholding information eventually comes out.

[tskeeter]

May 31, 2016 8:47:04 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

May 31, 2016 1:12:29 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

One of the ways we deal with shooter situations is for the media to quit publicizing it.  Many of these shooters don't come up with the idea on their own.  They decide it's a way to make a name for themselves because the media feeds on these events.  Take away the media frenzy and publicity and you eliminate the incentive for many mass shooters.  Doesn't solve the underlying issues, but could lead to potential shooters finding other outlets rather than shooting up a bunch of random people.

What's the fix though in this day and age; the press not report it? A city or town cannot pretend a mass shooting didn't happen and try and bury the event. With a mass shooting, others are involved beside the shooting victims such as family and friends. Family and friends would communicate the news either verbally or on the Internet. These conversations then spread across the country and the news media would eventually pick it up and report it.

Can you imagine the uproar if Americans woke up in 2017 to find out 27 mass shooting resulting in 80-100-200 deaths occured in 2016 which they nefer knew about and the press and government covered up the crimes with self-imposed silence? Imagine if another Newtown, Ct event occurred in the country and the press and government surpressed the news.

I would be very angry.

Keeping the name of the mass shooting killer out of the press would work for a while but it would eventually be publically known. Secrets and/or witholding information eventually comes out.

I guess it depends on what is more important to you.  Awareness of an event that has already ended over which you have no control that has a very, very low probability of affecting your life.  Or avoiding doing something that encourages mentally unstable people engage in mass shootings to get their name in the media.

[Kolt!]

Not every shooter is doing it to get their name in the media either. Granted, I believe some are but I truly believe some are not only doing it to get media attention. 

And what if it continued to happen and then it kept getting brushed under the bus? The people wouldn't know that shootings keep happening and be able to cry out something needs to be done.

I don't know what can be done, but something needs to be done. 

And if the public didn't know it'd keep getting pushed under the bus every time a shooting took place. We wouldn't know if it helped the issue or if the issue kept going. 

[Tennesseer]

May 31, 2016 11:06:21 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

May 31, 2016 8:47:04 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

What's the fix though in this day and age; the press not report it? A city or town cannot pretend a mass shooting didn't happen and try and bury the event. With a mass shooting, others are involved beside the shooting victims such as family and friends. Family and friends would communicate the news either verbally or on the Internet. These conversations then spread across the country and the news media would eventually pick it up and report it.

Can you imagine the uproar if Americans woke up in 2017 to find out 27 mass shooting resulting in 80-100-200 deaths occured in 2016 which they nefer knew about and the press and government covered up the crimes with self-imposed silence? Imagine if another Newtown, Ct event occurred in the country and the press and government surpressed the news.

I would be very angry.

Keeping the name of the mass shooting killer out of the press would work for a while but it would eventually be publically known. Secrets and/or witholding information eventually comes out.

I guess it depends on what is more important to you.  Awareness of an event that has already ended over which you have no control that has a very, very low probability of affecting your life.  Or avoiding doing something that encourages mentally unstable people engage in mass shootings to get their name in the media.

Mass shootings are going to happen with or without the press acknowledging them.

[raeoflyte]

It's always sad, but it is different when it is close by. We've had 2 school shootings (including Columbine), and the theater shooting within 15 minutes of my home.

[chiver78]

it's scary when it's close by. the Marathon bombing and the carjacking/police shooting/standoff situation a few days later when the surviving brother was finally caught were both in places I have spent quite a bit of time. I wasn't at the Marathon that year by chance, but the block that got blown up was pretty much right where I would park myself for the race. the suburban neighborhood that was locked down a few days later is a very densely packed area with multi-family homes. a college friend of mine grew up there, and his parents still live in the same house. we spent gobs of time there during and after college. I was rattled for quite awhile.


glad you're okay, @donethat . take it easy on yourself for being rattled about this.

[Deleted]

May 30, 2016 20:09:22 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

I had an active shooter about four blocks from me about 15 years ago. The guy wasn't all there in the head. He shot and killed his wife in their home. To draw attention to his home, he set his house on fire with his wife's body still in it.

He went outside and hid while waiting for the police and fire department to arrive. Once they arrived, he shot and killed one police officer and two firemen.

The husband was convicted and is in prison with no chance of parole.

On a side note, about a year later, a call was transfered into my office from the company switchboard. A local woman was on the line and told me she had been offered a vice president position in our customer service department. She was wondering whst her start date was as it was not noted in her offer letter. I told her I would make a couple of calls to find out what was going on and get back to her.

I spoke with one of the directors in our CS department and told her about the call and the job offer. I told the director the woman's name. The director's voice softened and told me she knew who the woman was. The woman caller used to be an employee of our CS department but had left several years earlier due to problems with schizophrenia. The director told me she had not interviewed for a VP job or any job with our company.

The director told me the woman's schizophrenia had been gotten under control, but she had gone down hill during the padt year because her brother had been the only person who could get her to take her medications. Sadly, her brother had been one of the two firemen murdered by the active shooter in my neighborhood a year earlier.

Sort of a hideous ripple effect spreading out across the community from the fireman's death.  So sad.

[Deleted]

I wish I had a better knowledge of why PTSD is so prevalent in Iraq and Afghan vets.  What is different about these conflicts from Vietnam, Korea, WWII?  Obviously I've never been in combat so I'm clueless.  I have a good friend who served many tours in Iraq and he's okay, except for the whole skin cancer issue.  

[Tennesseer]

May 31, 2016 18:09:03 GMT -5 @donethat said:

I wish I had a better knowledge of why PTSD is so prevalent in Iraq and Afghan vets.  What is different about these conflicts from Vietnam, Korea, WWII?  Obviously I've never been in combat so I'm clueless.  I have a good friend who served many tours in Iraq and he's okay, except for the whole skin cancer issue.  

PTSD: National Center for PTSD Vietnam Vets

[tskeeter]

May 31, 2016 11:29:04 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

May 31, 2016 11:06:21 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

I guess it depends on what is more important to you.  Awareness of an event that has already ended over which you have no control that has a very, very low probability of affecting your life.  Or avoiding doing something that encourages mentally unstable people engage in mass shootings to get their name in the media.

Mass shootings are going to happen with or without the press acknowledging them.

If you have been following mass shootings for the last several years, you would have seen reports that shooters chose that course of action because the media provided shooters with the 15 minutes of fame that several of the shooters sought.  If the media quit fulfilling the shooter's agenda, there would be little point in pursuing the course of action that several shooters chose.

[Deleted]

Tskeeter, are you in Houston?

[Tennesseer]

May 31, 2016 21:54:35 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

May 31, 2016 11:29:04 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Mass shootings are going to happen with or without the press acknowledging them.

If you have been following mass shootings for the last several years, you would have seen reports that shooters chose that course of action because the media provided shooters with the 15 minutes of fame that several of the shooters sought.  If the media quit fulfilling the shooter's agenda, there would be little point in pursuing the course of action that several shooters chose.

So what do you suggest-the news of the mass murders not be reported in our country? Should Internet social websites operators screen messages for any mention of mass murders and the murderer's name?

How do we stop people from communicating about mass murders and who did it?

[tskeeter]

May 31, 2016 23:14:35 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

May 31, 2016 21:54:35 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

If you have been following mass shootings for the last several years, you would have seen reports that shooters chose that course of action because the media provided shooters with the 15 minutes of fame that several of the shooters sought.  If the media quit fulfilling the shooter's agenda, there would be little point in pursuing the course of action that several shooters chose.

So what do you suggest-the news of the mass murders not be reported in our country? Should Internet social websites operators screen messages for any mention of mass murders and the murderer's name?

How do we stop people from communicating about mass murders and who did it?

I think the media is the key.  It's a question of self discipline vs pandering to the lowest common denominator.  Every day, media outlets make decisions about what stories they will report, which stories will be on the front page, and how long that media outlet is going to keep trying to dredge up new slants on an event. 

It's a little like what happened with our local newspaper.  The paper latched on to stories about people stealing copper to sell for scrap.  The paper basically constructed a how to series on copper theft, citing the types of places with large amounts of copper, why it was valuable, and how to dispose of the stolen copper.  These stories went on every two or three months for a couple of years.  The stories finally ended after a report on tens of thousands of dollars of damage done when copper wire was stolen from scoreboards and lighting systems at a local park.  I suspect that the park district went to the paper and told them their reporting was contributing to the problem with the frequency and type of reporting they were doing.  After the paper quit writing about copper thefts, the number and severity of copper thefts and other salable metal thefts decreased in the area.  How do I know that the thefts declined?  By watching the metal thefts at my employer.  The pattern of metal thefts experienced by my employer followed the newspaper's reporting.  And, a couple of months after the copper theft reporting stopped, so did most of the metal theft experienced by my employer.

[Tennesseer]

Jun 1, 2016 17:55:26 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

May 31, 2016 23:14:35 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

So what do you suggest-the news of the mass murders not be reported in our country? Should Internet social websites operators screen messages for any mention of mass murders and the murderer's name?

How do we stop people from communicating about mass murders and who did it?

I think the media is the key.  It's a question of self discipline vs pandering to the lowest common denominator.  Every day, media outlets make decisions about what stories they will report, which stories will be on the front page, and how long that media outlet is going to keep trying to dredge up new slants on an event. 

It's a little like what happened with our local newspaper.  The paper latched on to stories about people stealing copper to sell for scrap.  The paper basically constructed a how to series on copper theft, citing the types of places with large amounts of copper, why it was valuable, and how to dispose of the stolen copper.  These stories went on every two or three months for a couple of years.  The stories finally ended after a report on tens of thousands of dollars of damage done when copper wire was stolen from scoreboards and lighting systems at a local park.  I suspect that the park district went to the paper and told them their reporting was contributing to the problem with the frequency and type of reporting they were doing.  After the paper quit writing about copper thefts, the number and severity of copper thefts and other salable metal thefts decreased in the area.  How do I know that the thefts declined?  By watching the metal thefts at my employer.  The pattern of metal thefts experienced by my employer followed the newspaper's reporting.  And, a couple of months after the copper theft reporting stopped, so did most of the metal theft experienced by my employer.

I live in Tennessee. Should I not be informed, say of the killing of the nine black church goers in S.C. last year by the white kid who wanted to start a race war?

Or how about the 26 women and children murdered in Newtown, Ct several years ago. Should that news be held from me, from you, from all of us?

[Kolt!]

But, okay. I do get your point. I do.

But, what happens when a mass shooting happens and say nobody knows about it? And say they continue and nobody knows about it?

How can they be stopped or anything be done to try to fix them if the media stops reporting about them if the public doesn't know? 

Also they actually aren't in the public as much as they once were. They're becoming too common that the outcry is becoming less and less. There was a total of nineteen shootings last year that killed 3 or more people, plus injured people and we only heard of maybe three or four for the outcry.

This last mass shooting the public outcry isn't as huge and media coverage isn't as huge now because they're becoming too common. 

Nothings being done and people are becoming blind and deaf to the fact they keep happening. There isn't as much uproar anymore. 

In fact, there was more uproar about the Gorilla being killed then the mass shooting that happened in the same week. Although, I won't give my two cents on the Gorilla shooting. >.> Because I'm just as angry about both, haha. 

I don't think taking away media coverage will take care of it all. We need something more with health coverage or gun regulations. We need to look to the United Kingdom and see what they're doing differently to prevent these mass shootings as they're happening to frequently. 

[Tennesseer]

And what if the shooter is not killed, captured or commits suicide after his murder spree. What if he is on the loose. Should we not be made aware of what he looks like, what he is suspected of doing wrong, and if (s)he should be considered armed and dangerous. We would be potential sitting ducks..