As the grief shakes within me, as the numbing sensation of senseless loss engulfs my mind, I reel with the sickening knowledge that this has happened again... again... again...scores of lives cut short in a burst of gun violence - more children without parents and parents without children.
As I contend with the sadness, another emotion wells within me, an unrelenting and abiding anger. How can we consider ourselves the greatest country on earth and allow this to happen again... and again... and again... Are we really so powerless and impotent? Those are not the qualities I have come to expect from this nation or its leaders.
I grew up in a gun culture and have owned guns. But there is a difference between common sense and senselessness. And right now many of our gun laws are senseless. The scale of carnage in Las Vegas suggests a level of firepower that has no business being in the hands of civilians.
Is it too soon to say we have been here before? Does it disrespect the memories of the most recent innocent victims? I am sure many will think so. But if not now, when? In the wake of terrorist attacks, we pledge to do whatever is necessary to protect lives in the future. Isn't this a terrorist attack? I am sure those in the audience last night felt the terror in their hearts. After plane crashes, we look at every possible source of failure or weakness and fix the system. Why should guns be different?
And one final note on last night's shooting. Most of the initial news reports didn't mention the shooter's race or religion. Could you imagine if the circumstances had been different? It's a reminder that sickness and violence is not bound to any one demographic. And we should be very careful before we fall into simplistic narratives.
There are no words or prayers we can offer to lesson the lifetimes of grief that lie ahead for those affected. But we can pledge to all do our part to unite and do our best to find ways to diminish the chances of it happening again.
A semi-automatic weapon is much deadlier than full automatic weapon, IMO.
It'd depend on the situation though. In an event like this where you have hundreds or thousands of people crowded into a contained space, its about lead on an area. He sat there for a couple of days watching this concert and planning his kill zones.
I agree in most situations I'd rather have a semi-automatic weapon that allows me to reset and aim and control my fire.
But in this concert he was walking rounds through a packed crowd.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
My first call this morning was to my parents. They winter in Vegas. I know they rarely head to the strip, but there's always a chance they were meeting someone, etc.
I've never been so happy to hear my Dad's voice.
The Following 15 Users Say Thank You to habernac For This Useful Post:
Full auto is really only useful at close range. From long range you won't hit a thing past the first couple shots due to muzzle rise.
Full auto was a perfect selection for what this monster wanted to do.
Muzzle rise would have helped him, start at the closest point, fire and use muzzle rise to walk the rounds to the furthest point and then reset and do it again.
This guy had it planned and timed and he wanted maximum ammo and maximum killing power.
He didn't care who he killed as long as he killed a lot of them.
He probably also selected this weapon because of the range and velocity of the rounds.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
This is just awful. However you wish to slice and dice this, it is an act terrorism IMO.
I am watching these videos, and it is clear people knew he was in the hotel at an elevated position, and there are these know it all people yelling stay down? Maybe some of the military folk can chime in, but if a guy is shooting from 30+ stories up, is laying down basically not as stupid as standing up if the shooter was on the horizon?
You'd think standing/moving targets would be much harder to hit from above.
I'm also curious as to how many people died from gunfire, and how many people died of being trampled because I can see the Gun Nut/NRA spin already. "Trampling kills people! NOT GUNS! And had the concert goers been packing their Barrett .50 cal sniper rifles with infra-red night vision scopes, we wouldn't be here. Concert security is to blame!"
Rough interview with the brother. I feel bad for his family. By all accounts he was just some normal guy and as the brother mentions, there's nothing to give any indication as to why he'd do something like this.
This is just awful. However you wish to slice and dice this, it is an act terrorism IMO.
I am watching these videos, and it is clear people knew he was in the hotel at an elevated position, and there are these know it all people yelling stay down? Maybe some of the military folk can chime in, but if a guy is shooting from 30+ stories up, is laying down basically not as stupid as standing up if the shooter was on the horizon?
You'd think standing/moving targets would be much harder to hit from above.
I'm also curious as to how many people died from gunfire, and how many people died of being trampled because I can see the Gun Nut/NRA spin already. "Trampling kills people! NOT GUNS! And had the concert goers been packing their Barrett .50 cal sniper rifles with infra-red night vision scopes, we wouldn't be here. Concert security is to blame!"
I'm not going to get into this too deep, but lying down probably wouldn't have made that much difference, a guy shooting from 30 stories up across a road with a SAW isn't aiming for individual people, he's aiming for spots with clusters. I would also bet that a 60 year old + guy doesn't have eyes like a hawk.
He could have basically been sweeping the weapon back in forth in what he defined as his kill zone and gotten the results that he got.
When he was people stampeding to the exit he's aiming at a cluster not a person. Its more about the probability of being hit then being picked out.
If he wanted to selectively kill, he would have used a scoped semi automatic weapon and picked his targets. He just wanted to kill a lot of people, he didn't care who they were or if they were standing up or lying down.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I am watching these videos, and it is clear people knew he was in the hotel at an elevated position, and there are these know it all people yelling stay down? Maybe some of the military folk can chime in, but if a guy is shooting from 30+ stories up, is laying down basically not as stupid as standing up if the shooter was on the horizon?
The proper course of action is to run (preferably not in a straight line) to cover. Easier said than done when you're in a crowd of 22,000 people.
__________________
"If you do not know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
- - Joe Tzu
Someone earlier had asked for a source for my comment alleging the weapon was an M240. Sorry, I don't have a source except for discussions down here at Scuttlebutt Lodge. Someone here at work commented that someone (in Vegas) leaked a story that the weapon was an M240. A Google search indicates that M240 is being discussed elsewhere, though.
__________________
"If you do not know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
- - Joe Tzu
Might have helped if they'd turned off the lights but beyond that I cant see anything baring scrapping the 2nd amendment that would have prevented this
Might have helped if they'd turned off the lights but beyond that I cant see anything baring scrapping the 2nd amendment that would have prevented this
If he was using a gun like a 240 and he had been in that hotel for the first few days of the festival, I have my doubts that he was doing anything but firing into a kill zone. He knew where the exits were as well so if the lights went out he probably would have hit those zones.
On top of it, you turn out the lights during a episode like this and the panic would be even worse.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
So one of my refs was there during the shooting. This is the email I got about him:
When the shooting started Ref ran with his Wife and he helped push her over the fence so that she could escape and told her to keep running for safety
-Then Ref stayed at the fence and kept helping others over the fence
-That was when he was shot in the leg
-He was one of the first people shot and is in serious but fortunately not life threatening condition
Thankfully there are guys like him around to help in a crisis. I'd like to think that by helping people over the fence, and putting himself at risk he saved a few people from an even worse fate.
The Following 39 Users Say Thank You to CMPunk For This Useful Post:
I don't know how else to describe it, I'm not here to upset people, and if I am, I'm tremendously sorry.
No no, not like that.
I just mean it's upsetting to hear that an active kill zone existed on the Las Vegas strip and it was nothing but civilians involved. It's upsetting to hear.
So one of my refs was there during the shooting. This is the email I got about him:
When the shooting started Ref ran with his Wife and he helped push her over the fence so that she could escape and told her to keep running for safety
-Then Ref stayed at the fence and kept helping others over the fence
-That was when he was shot in the leg
-He was one of the first people shot and is in serious but fortunately not life threatening condition
Thankfully there are guys like him around to help in a crisis. I'd like to think that by helping people over the fence, and putting himself at risk he saved a few people from an even worse fate.
Your friend is a hero.
He may need a gofundme page to pay for his treatment and hospitalization in the US. If that is the case, I hope you inform this Forum so we can help.
The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to longsuffering For This Useful Post:
Oh and they're taking up a bill this week to make it much easier to buy silencers, because Murica. Just imagine this event with a silencer. Probably 5 times as many deaths. Murica is such a lost cause.
The shooter was approximately 425 yards away so the report from the gun would have been faint. The sounds you hear in the video are the bullets, not the gun reports.
A silencer would have been irrelevant to those people in the target area because the sounds they would have heard would have been the supersonic cracks of the bullets, not the reports from the weapons.
__________________
"If you do not know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
- - Joe Tzu
