Las Vegas, 'The City That Never Sleeps', now may never sleep peacefully again.
We start this week with news of a horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
For some reason the most shocking thing to me was that the sniper was shooting down into the crowd – a country music concert crowd – from high up in a luxury hotel. How do you protect people from that? There were metal detectors and purse checks at the venue, but that wasn’t where the threat would be coming from. It would come from a guy on the 32nd floor of the Mandolay Bay Hotel. Reporters called it a “kill box." That description really got to me. They described it as if the shooter was “shooting fish in a barrel." People would have had no idea where the shots were coming from and so had no clue where to run to. Terrifying! Four and a half minutes that changed countless lives.
There are a few things that make this incident feel especially scary.
Maybe partly because so many of us have vacationed in Las Vegas so we know exactly the locations they are referring to. It could have been any of us at any time.
The fact it was at a music festival is upsetting. How can we ever be truly safe in any large crowd? The fact is we can’t and that is chilling. We are told by politicians not to let the bad guys win by keeping us from our regular activities, but this kind of tragedy certainly makes you think. Do I need to go to that concert, play, movie, sporting event? Should I take that trip? It makes you reconsider plans. How do we keep from being controlled by fear?
I think most of us are asking “What is wrong with the world? Why is everyone so angry and filled with hate?"
Obviously, there are no complete answers.
I’m certainly no expert but, to me, it starts and ends with guns.
Why are so many people running around with weapons?
I will never understand the American love of guns. I just don’t get it. I know they cling to the right to bear arms. It may be a right but it’s a wrong one. I wouldn’t want to be near a gun.
Why does anyone need to walk around with a gun unless you are law enforcement or security? I have seen people walking into U.S. stores with a gun slung on their hip. Can you imagine watching some guy sashay into Hobby Lobby with a revolver? It gave me the creeps. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
This Las Vegas shooter apparently had 10 rifles in the hotel room. It remains to be determined if there were more in his home. How does a person get 10 rifles? Legal. Illegal – who cares? There can be no good reason. There are too many weapons and they are too easy to get. That may be simplistic but that's my feeling.
Here’s another reason to be a grateful Canadian. With all due respect to my American friends, we aren’t gun crazy. I hope that never changes.
This horror that happened in Vegas will not stay in Vegas – it affects us all.
