Sadness in Vegas

Sadly another shooting claimed the lives of almost 60 people late last night. This time a Vegas country music concert became a horrific scene of mayhem as fans ran for cover as a man from across the street rained down bullets on them. I got the alert early this morning on my phone. I need to turn that thing off for peace and quiet before I start the day. Some days are tough enough to just begin as it is. This is partly why I start off my days with teaching and a bible verse. I need to get my mind centered on positive things. Also I avoid the radio in the car on the way to work. I used to love the local talk radio station, anymore though I need to go to God.

There is still too much we don’t know about why the 64 year old single man decided to go sniper on a crowd of people. I won’t say conspiracy but some things don’t add up. He used a fully automatic weapon. Those are almost impossible to get even by illegal means and he wasn’t really a gun guy. He owned a handgun and a couple of rifles but nothing in his past suggests a fascination with firearms. The Islamic terrorist group I.S.I.S claimed responsibility but even this seemed fishy. So far investigators can’t locate any evidence of that. I am sure older white Americans occasionally sign up for jihad without anyone knowing how radical they are, but it isn’t likely. This guy owned a handful of properties and seemed to be well off if not wealthy. Nothing suggests he might fire indiscriminately into a crowd killing 60 and wounded over 500.

 This was monstrous--a real nightmare scenario for Vegas police. Over 40,000 fans crammed into an open air venue make a perfect target for a psychopath. Unfortunately even large scale mass murders like this recent act of terror are getting too common. This may carry a news cycle for a few more days; the ugliness of it washed over by the regularity of it. Not that the slaughter of so many people happens every few weeks but the lone killer taking a few with him before he offs himself is shockingly regular. The Orlando night club shooting happened just over a year ago. Most of these acts of terrorism, recently, are connected to Islam. This may be as well but he doesn’t seem like the convert to Islam type.

 I.S.I.S has been keen on a war with the West from the Paris concert killings to the Brussels airport bombing and truck attacks in London. They have professed jihad and set about recruiting Americans, Brits, French and other Europeans. This latest one is a real mystery, a total head scratcher. It could take a week or so to make sense of it. God be with the families of those poor souls gunned down for doing nothing more than enjoying live country music. I started off trying to read other stuff online, Facebook posts and job board listings. Everything seems hollow next to this. Tom Petty also died today but there doesn’t seem room in our minds for mention. Nothing against Tom but a whole lot of people just had their world turned upside down. Fixating on celeb deaths and sports feels so wrong.