The Horrror of Las Vegas

"Come back. Even as a shadow, even as a dream." -- Euripides

It is like a scene from one of the suspense novels I read.  A lone gunman, whose normalcy is interrupted only by the fact that he was a high stakes gambler, murdered 58 people and injured another 400 or so.  From a high building, with semi-automatic rifles that had been modified to behave like automatic weapons, which are outlawed in this country to citizens.

Chasing the information is never easy.  From all the news accounts, we see how hard everyone -- including the media -- is working to find some hidden aberrations to complete the profile, to make the killer into a mental health problem, or a terrorist, or a very angry man.

The concern of course is that with all this attention on the gunman and his victims that others will want to try a copy-cat situation.  How will we know who those persons are and stop them?  What else can we do to minimize the likelihood that this will happen again?


No answers yet.  Add this event to the last several, and you have to wonder what kind of a society we have become.  Leading up to this mass shooting event, here's what we look like:

•Orlando Nightclub (49 dead, 58 wounded)

•Virginia Tech (32 dead, 17 wounded) 

•Sandy Hook Elementary School (26 dead, 2 wounded)

•Killeen, Texas Luby’s Cafeteria (23 dead, 27 wounded)

For more detailed recommendations on this topic, see my column published on October 9th, called "America as a Killing Field," which includes my thoughts on what more we need in terms of regulation.