Las Vegas

[ToomuchStuff]

I think Williamsmith has a point. Our history as conquistadors is relatively short, and maybe we're still working it out of our cultural DNA. By contrast, Europe has been sitting happily with no desire to go out conquer each other for a long, long time. Back in the 15th & 16th century, the peace loving Europeans stayed home, while the other land-hungry devils went out and conquered the Americas and parts of Africa and Asia.

I subscribe to the "seven generations" philosophy, although in our case it goes back more like 14-15 generations. I also believe that if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

How funny. 1492, being part of the 15th century, there are a bunch of people who died because of these "peaceful" European's your talking about.

[Tammy]

I believe that the mentally ill are more often victimized than they are the aggressor. I Believe there is research to support that. However I'm home from work today sick, and I honestly don't have the energy to look it up.

[Rogar]

There are parts of the world, including civilized nations, where bombings, terror attacks, mass murders or genocide are part of every day life. We might be reaching a point in our American culture when we just have to adapt the British motto, "stay calm, carry on".

[bae]

I just got a note from a friend of mine who works with an unspecified LV law enforcement group, so here’s a direct non-media account:

“I’ll be brief since I’ve been up for just over 40 hours with no sleep. This was a single dude in a suite that sat on a corner of the Mandalay Bay. Metro SWAT executed an explosive breach on his room just shy of 20 minutes after the shooting started and he self selected out of the gene pool just before someone was going to cancel his subscription for him. He had set up for the long haul with cameras in the halls to detect the police, a shooting platform built innhe room, tripods, laser rangefinder, binos, spotting scope, etc. along with a diagram of the venue with exits and entrances marked. It was something he had spent some time planning and setting up.

I spent most of the night triaging injured people in advance of the transport teams moving them to the casualty collection point and out to the hospitals and the last part going back over the dead to make sure they weren’t just severely injured and had been missed in the confusion. I haven’t seen carnage like this since Iraq in 04-05 when AQI was trying to start a sectarian war with suicide bombers and VBIEDs. Pretty surreal, at least for today. As P. mentioned earlier, I’m good, just need a few hours of sleep. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers. I’ll check in tomorrow when I’ve got some time.”

[catherine]

How funny. 1492, being part of the 15th century, there are a bunch of people who died because of these "peaceful" European's your talking about.

That was my point--the not-so-peaceful ones went out and conquered.

[Williamsmith]

I just got a note from a friend of mine who works with an unspecified LV law enforcement group, so here’s a direct non-media account:

“I’ll be brief since I’ve been up for just over 40 hours with no sleep. This was a single dude in a suite that sat on a corner of the Mandalay Bay. Metro SWAT executed an explosive breach on his room just shy of 20 minutes after the shooting started and he self selected out of the gene pool just before someone was going to cancel his subscription for him. He had set up for the long haul with cameras in the halls to detect the police, a shooting platform built innhe room, tripods, laser rangefinder, binos, spotting scope, etc. along with a diagram of the venue with exits and entrances marked. It was something he had spent some time planning and setting up.

I spent most of the night triaging injured people in advance of the transport teams moving them to the casualty collection point and out to the hospitals and the last part going back over the dead to make sure they weren’t just severely injured and had been missed in the confusion. I haven’t seen carnage like this since Iraq in 04-05 when AQI was trying to start a sectarian war with suicide bombers and VBIEDs. Pretty surreal, at least for today. As P. mentioned earlier, I’m good, just need a few hours of sleep. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers. I’ll check in tomorrow when I’ve got some time.”

Today it’s the nuts and bolts of it. Later, your friend will really need the thoughts and prayers.

A person whose plans are that detailed and nobody knows about it....is a real recluse. He will be a Ted Kaczynski type with a little bit of a survivalist interest in the end of the world as we know it. Yeah, brilliant analysis...I know.

[Rogar]

I have read a few reports claiming the gunman used what they are calling a bump stock, which essentially converts a semi-automatic rifle to a full auto. And it's apparently legal and easy to get. There's something for the gun control folks to latch on to.

[bae]

I have read a few reports claiming the gunman used what they are calling a bump stock, which essentially converts a semi-automatic rifle to a full auto. And it's apparently legal and easy to get. There's something for the gun control folks to latch on to.

If you hold a semi-automatic rifle "loosely", so that it is not quite contacting the correct area on your shoulder, when you pull the trigger and it fires, and it recoils, it will bounce back, hit your shoulder, and bounce forward again. If you have held your trigger-finger firmly-but-loosely during this process, and if your forward grip hand is somewhat loose, as it bounces back it will attempt to travel past the spot where your trigger finger is, and your finger will-reengage the trigger, and the firearm will fire again. And the process will continue.

This is a bit of a stupid thing to do generally, more of a parlor trick, as rifle accuracy is dependent upon properly shouldering the firearm, maintaining a correct alignment of muscles and bones, tension, breath control, trigger control, and sighting. Accuracy with the "bump" method is very very poor, and it's not the safest thing in the world to do.

The "bump-fire" stocks make the stunt easier to accomplish (a bit, it only takes 2-3 minutes to learn to do this without any equipment), but the stocks don't really address the accuracy issues. IMO they are a novelty item to separate foolish shooters from their money.

Note also that the same effect can be had with a piece of string.

The BATF technical division has issued several detailed letters on the subject that people interested in facts can dig up easily enough.

[iris lilies]

I like to think of the United States as being out of the ongoing strife of the rest of the world, protected largely by geographical boundaries with oceans on either side. And those nice Canadian up north are hardly a threat, and the Mexican government still likes us more or less, at least likes our money and remains open.

But maybe this internal strife, the ongoing shootings, is our violence/cross to bear. Maybe humans have internal need to have violence in their lives. There is a theory of war that war allows acceptable outlet for killing, raping, mayhem for those who have this need. That is not at all people of course, not by a long shot, and our military folks are largely not of this mental mindset.

When we dont have outside enemies, we turn on ourselves. That is what I noticed in my neighborhood, when we have no outside threats, and this neighborhood has risen up against several strong threats. When no outside challanges present themselves, we turn toward each other infighting.

I suppose a well drawn common enemy does wonders for national unity.

None of these are things I believe absolutely, but they may have some validity.

[pinkytoe]

When we dont have outside enemies, we turn on ourselves

I think there may be something to this.
Also, though I can't say why, I have a sense that some males are becoming more "brutish", i.e. prone to violence, lack of self control, disregard for others...
I hope too when they look into this dude's private life, that they check what meds he was taking.