Thread: The Pulse Shooting

People defend their homes everyday, even kids, and the perp was in there 3 hours. I find it hard to believe if someone was carrying they would have not been able to do something.

Have a great day...

My thoughts and sympathies are with the families and survivors.

Lot of interesting points brought up in this thread.
Homophobic, anti- American, personal denial of his own sexuality, Media whore, geez so many choices to blame such a singularly awful atrocity on that gets repeated over and over increasingly as time goes on. I pick all of the above Monty!
Heard one commentator stating there been over 100 of these horrific events during Obama's rule vs some other number under the last administration. Almost like it was an ERA stat for a pitcher, disgusting sensationalism by the media, devalues the individuals with it's inference.
The Japanese ban is an intelligent decision to minimise the sensationalism component for certain, but really impossible to enforce over here I think. Paparatzi style media has been gaining, not losing ground since the loss of Princess Diana years ago IMO. No putting that genie back.

Where I struggle, I just don't get the blind hate to the point of killing and being killed. As some said, if he was in denial of his orientation, I guess his choice to go out in a blaze there makes a twisted 'sense' to prove to himself he wasn't 'queer'.
If it was just terror, well he epitomizes cowardly behaviour choosing a club of unarmed party going civilians and will be provided a special kind of hell in the next life regardless I hope, if there is one.
Seeing some of the self pictures he took, I tend to agree he was counting on the media exposure as he was seemingly into the current selfie generation mentality.
It is all just so horribly tragic and wasteful.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Where I struggle, I just don't get the blind hate to the point of killing and being killed.

I don't think we (relatively) sane folk ever will. I certainly don't.

I'm pretty shocked at some of the homophobic and - to be frank - loony posts in this thread. As to publicity - are you really suggesting that the death of these people should be suppressed? This is world-wide news and I think some Americans just do not realise how other people view with amazement the ease with which the perpetrator was able to acquire his killing tools.

For some contributors to then suggest that it should be suppressed - and that the media is in some way to blame just beggars belief.

IMO, the occurrence of the heinous act(s) should not be suppressed.
It's the resulting 'in-depth' backstories, publicised facebook profiling, and made for TV cable specials about the perpetrators lives that should stop. The 'celebritising' and exploring of their messed up minds and such to ostensibly 'understand' what made them go off. That's where I feel the media could improve their quality of service over here. Stop, or minimize the sensationalising of the perps, somehow. It might not make a lick of difference, but to me, it might.
Personally I don't watch the news much anymore beyond local weather and coming local events. TV in general is off more than on, cept for HNIC, or Game of Thrones..

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

In the military you are psyched up when out on patrol or a mission and are primed for action. In a civilian situation that's not the case.

No one, unless they have been in a critical situation knows how they will react and if they think they do they ain't got a clue. When the situation arises you are being tested and that's when you find out for sure.

Everyone says and hopes they would react positively and you know if you are in a situation like that laying down is the worst thing to do. It's movement and distance that will save your life. Most folks, even guys who consider themselves marksmen can't hit the broad side of a barn if the target is moving.

At any rate my point here is for the average human the typical first response is panic and and an inability to move or think or move the wrong way. No different than a herd of animals being chased by a big cat.

I can agree to a point, MOST people may not switch into survival mode. They panic, my point is this place had a fairly large number of people in it. And gun free or not, it is not unusual for at least some who don't care about that rule. How many were ex military, or even military? I,m not an idiot, I know that some reactions are different, even in combat also, cause until the fight happens you don't know. But accepting slaughter is not the way. He can't see behind him, and he took time to reload. I wasn't there, but I just can't understand this whole thing. Not to mention this guy was looked at yet he was able to get his guns.

Not matter our different opinions, I think it's a tragic stain on our society, a senseless loss f life, and a great reason to be ready to protect ourselves against those who would do harm to us just because of who we are. Tc

Originally Posted by UKRob

I'm pretty shocked at some of the homophobic and - to be frank - loony posts in this thread. As to publicity - are you really suggesting that the death of these people should be suppressed? This is world-wide news and I think some Americans just do not realise how other people view with amazement the ease with which the perpetrator was able to acquire his killing tools.

For some contributors to then suggest that it should be suppressed - and that the media is in some way to blame just beggars belief.

Nothing of the sort. Using the country I cited as an example - Japan does NOT suppress that it happened. They the DO as MikeB52 indicated - they do not publicize the guilty party. Their name isn't mentioned, their face isn't plastered on every media outlet known to the country. No TV specials trying to 'get into' the killer's head. They've eliminated, or at least reduced, the kind of publicity that inspires copy cat killers. I said as much in not so many words in my original post.

Originally Posted by UKRob

I'm pretty shocked at some of the homophobic and - to be frank - loony posts in this thread. As to publicity - are you really suggesting that the death of these people should be suppressed? This is world-wide news and I think some Americans just do not realise how other people view with amazement the ease with which the perpetrator was able to acquire his killing tools.

For some contributors to then suggest that it should be suppressed - and that the media is in some way to blame just beggars belief.

I think you have a presupposition on what motivates the criticism of the media in this latest atrocity. Take the tragic death of Princess Di as an example. Big news no doubt, but it was a feeding frenzy of worldwide media for weeks.

That same week Mother Teresa died and it was minimally reported by comparison. I'm betting that had Mother Teresa died a month before or after Princess Di the frenzy would have been similar. In the 1970s a passenger plane went down in the Florida Everglades. This was long before the 24 hour news cycle, when you had morning, afternoon and evening news.

The crash happened shortly before the 6PM news and reporters rushed to the airport area where relatives and friends were awaiting the arrival of their loved ones. With cameras on shoulders and microphones in hand the reporters filmed the reactions of the families as the arrival screen told them to please go to concourse so and so for more information.

They attempted to interview people who had just learned that the plane had crashed with no survivors. I watched this and burned with anger at the total lack of sympathy for these grieving people. I felt like going down there with a baseball bat and maiming news reporters. I also lost all respect for them. That was well before the 24 hour news cycle which is a beast that must be fed.

It was a time when there was still a certain sense of decency and decorum among some people in some places. Not so much anymore. It seems that Yeats' poem 'the second coming' was prophetic ;

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Originally Posted by Marshal

Nothing of the sort. Using the country I cited as an example - Japan does NOT suppress that it happened. They the DO as MikeB52 indicated - they do not publicize the guilty party. Their name isn't mentioned, their face isn't plastered on every media outlet known to the country. No TV specials trying to 'get into' the killer's head. They've eliminated, or at least reduced, the kind of publicity that inspires copy cat killers. I said as much in not so many words in my original post.

This is what you wrote -'A sensationalist media giving scumbags like this fame, setting up a sick game where every whack job is looking for the new high score is almost as culpable as the shooter themselves.' You are accusing the media of incitement - what proof do you have? Can you imagine the outrage - and claims of a cover up - if there was a Government directive that a Muslim killer's identity cannot be released?

Originally Posted by UKRob

This is what you wrote -'A sensationalist media giving scumbags like this fame, setting up a sick game where every whack job is looking for the new high score is almost as culpable as the shooter themselves.' You are accusing the media of incitement - what proof do you have? Can you imagine the outrage - and claims of a cover up - if there was a Government directive that a Muslim killer's identity cannot be released?

You have to understand here in the U.S there is a sizeable population of people who feel you can't trust the Govt or the mainstream media for anything and in fact they are both conspiring to destroy the country and the answer to this sort of tragedy is being more proactive with the gear to protect oneself.