I'm thinking it's not that unusual, considering the demographics. Don't know what he's retired from, but unless he was using social media pre-retirement, I'm not surprised that a 64ish-year-old male retiree has a limited social media presence.
Mass Shooting -- Las Vegas -- 01OCT17
- Thread starter James D. Macdonald
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And, would these things happen if the Mob still ran Vegas? I know, it's a stereotype, I shouldn't be saying things like that. But, if according to the NRA the defence against a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun, wouldn't a badder man with a gun work just as well?
Which in all honestly is a relief considering Trump's late comments and writings. It's a shame though that the president of a country has to be censored this way.
I'm not going to comment on political issues that might get attached to this horror, not just yet, at least. We need to know a hell of a lot more about Eric Paddock, how he obtained his weapons and ammunition arsenal, how he got those things all up there in that hotel room, and, if possible, WHY. Among other things.
But what really creeps me out is the certain knowledge that there are other people out there thinking and perhaps planning similar and possibly worse events.
caw
But what really creeps me out is the certain knowledge that there are other people out there thinking and perhaps planning similar and possibly worse events.
caw
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And already, GOP spokespeople are insisting it's "not the time" to talk about gun control.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...f-you-look-to-chicago/?utm_term=.0fc3b67aa713
It's never the time, of course. Right after a disaster is "too soon," and anyone who brings gun control up is dismissed as taking advantage of the tragedy to push an agenda. Then it's, "we still don't know all the details of how or why this happened." By the time the victims are buried and we have the information, it will have faded from peoples' mind and be lined up behind tax cuts and gutting peoples' health care and all the other stuff people in congress tend to focus on these days.
It never seems to be the right time, so these massacres keep happening.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...f-you-look-to-chicago/?utm_term=.0fc3b67aa713
It's never the time, of course. Right after a disaster is "too soon," and anyone who brings gun control up is dismissed as taking advantage of the tragedy to push an agenda. Then it's, "we still don't know all the details of how or why this happened." By the time the victims are buried and we have the information, it will have faded from peoples' mind and be lined up behind tax cuts and gutting peoples' health care and all the other stuff people in congress tend to focus on these days.
It never seems to be the right time, so these massacres keep happening.
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Eric is the brother. Stephen is the goblin.
I worked the front desk at a limited service hotel for a while. I didn't pay much attention to the number of bags people had. I imagine in a convention town like LV, the desk and bell staff pay even less attention to it. "You've got 12 bags? I'll get another cart." An AR will break down into two pieces each maybe 2.5 feet long, and that's with a fixed stock. I can see 3-5 guns in a big rolling suitcase. Use 2-3 of those with ammo spread out through the bags, and he's set. Make multiple trips to the room and no one will be the wiser.
As for mag changes, old cops will talk about a "New York reload" being the fastest reload around. A New York Reload is "grab another gun." That may be the whole reason he had so many rifles. 15 guns with a 30-round magazine in each gives you 450 rounds with no reloads.
I know a lot of military and LE types who won't go to large venues like this anymore, precisely because they've thought about how easy it would be to turn it into a bloodbath. And how many thriller writers think on how to kill lots of people? I figured out the next attack against aircraft four or five years ago, and it'd be devastating, and impossible to defend against.
Thank you for saying this. I've been thinking it all day. The "thoughts and prayers" and "moments of silence" fill me with rage when they're spouted by gun lovers* to cover a truth: that this kind of sporadic, mass bloodshed is a price 2nd amendment advocates will merrily pay if it means they can cling to their weapons and their Walter Mitty fantasies of being "the good guy with the gun."
*Non-gun lovers, who I assume are praying, thinking and moment-of-silencing with sincerity, get a pass. Although I still think legislation and enforcement would go a lot further keeping us safe than thoughtful inaction.
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This Chicago Tribune article has more information on the goblin. He was apparently a mid-to-high stakes gambler and was known to stay in hotels for months at a time. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a regular at the Mandalay. Content warning: the primary photo is of coroner workers and filled body bags.
My error, sorry.
I'm aware of all that, and wouldn't expect hotel employees to be responsible for stopping a determined guy with a well-planned scheme. The latter being the main point. This obviously was no spur-of-the-moment thing. I'm sure the investigating authorities will be paying a hell of a lot of attention to security video, and no place is likely to have more of that than Vegas does. Paddock obviously drove there from his nearby home, which he apparently did a lot. The car, the home, and every purchase he made over recent weeks will be the object of scrutiny. Where did he get all these guns? Where did he keep them? Where did he buy the ammunition?
And if he bought all these weapons legally, why in Jesus's placid universe do we allow any individual to amass that kind of arsenal?
caw
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I'll be interested to know when he acquired all these weapons, whether it was en masse or gradual. It seems to me the FBI could have an algorithm that flags someone suddenly buying a lot of guns all at once, or in a short period. If they've never done anything like that before (like a dealer would have) it seems like something that might warrant an extra look-see. Not that there's any stopping it, but if this guy had never owned but 2 handguns in his life like his brother says, and suddenly acquires 38 high capacity semi-automatic and long rifles (they found at least 18 more at his house) in a short period, it seems like maybe something to be curious about at the very least.
IDK, I'm for gun control, so maybe I'm talking out of my ass.
IDK, I'm for gun control, so maybe I'm talking out of my ass.
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Well, of course the obvious answer is the 2nd amendment, or rather the current interpretation of it.
But the other answer is that there's no way to tell. There is no federal database that people could access to get that information. Even trying to find where a particular gun was sold is difficult.
And that's no accident. Just as the NRA has pressured congress into preventing the CDC from funding any research into gun violence, they've made it illegal to use technology to track gun sales
https://www.thetrace.org/2016/08/atf-ridiculous-non-searchable-databases-explained/
This is fucking insane, but clearly no amount of death and carnage is going to change this anytime soon.
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Oh, so buyers' names aren't kept in the database? So if you buy 40 guns in 30 transactions, fill out the paperwork each time, there will be no commonality linked? Like, the same guy having the background check over and over won't be obvious?
Well I'm sure the shop that sold the guns put out a very sincere thoughts and prayers...
Evil people will find a way to harm, no matter what the law says. We are society of robots and violence is a way of life on TV in movies and so on.... We need to search our spiritual side and human nature which are dominated by our animal instinct....
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Or start having a bloody serious conversation about firearm control, which ends in actual firearm control.
So we should just give up, once again not do a damn thing?
There is science, evidence, it doesn't have to be about ideologies.
But the fucking gun lobby actually pushed for and got a ban on CDC research into gun violence? What is wrong with people they don't recognize this for what it is, people making money off gun sales controlling the narrative, controlling the legislators, pumping millions of dollars into campaigns to control the narrative.
We need to expose the marketing, see if it can immunize a significant number of people against the gun manufacturing manipulation of people's perceptions of reality. Follow the money. Who in the hell pushes legislation against research into gun violence? What could possibly be the point of such legislation?
I so envy you Aussies in that you got a gun control measure through which actually took assault weapons out of circulation. I envy the UK and Canada in having prevented a lot of arms flooding into their country in the first place.
But I'm not giving up on this country's backsliding as the alt-right and the billionaires like the Kochs and the Mercers and the Scaifes use them to create a nightmare for the rest of us.
All those lost lives over what? Over someone making a profit off small arms manufacture. That's where the money trail leads.
It's not about the Second Amendment, it's not about the Constitution, it's about people promoting a message that takes advantage of manipulating beliefs.
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Your NRA is doing all in its power to get more guns into our country. Including funding politicians.
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+ the Coalition government was trying to buy support from at least one of the Senate cross-benchers* to enable some not-very-good industrial relations legislation through.
*the deeply unpleasant Libertarian David Leyonhjelm
I'm on your side.
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I said Miller, immediately. It mentioned citizens like 3x, leaning hard on it.
I think you're looking for the hurricane threads; they're that way ---->
I cannot believe I'm quoting January Jones of all people, but her tweet, amongst all the celebrities with pray for Las Vegas things, said "if you're going to #prayforvegas you must also #voteforguncontrol and #protestforguncontrol."
Sure, you know how often you see those dolphins climb up on a coral reef with an uzi.
And you know how often these mass shootings happen in Australia, England, India, China, Switzerland, Iceland, man the mass shootings, because it's a way of life in tv and movies, which are often more graphic and often violent in those countries than here. Oh, wait, except despite their getting American movies and tv and having more graphic of their own, it's the exact opposite of that.
What could the difference be? I mean sure, there are evil people, but there don't seem to be tens of thousands of people shot to death every year in ALL those other countries, or dozens and dozens of mass shootings every year.
What could possibly be the difference?