I served two tours in Iraq. Through the course of my Army service, I knew many war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who had problems , but none of them resorted to shit like this. Dealing with the aftermath of war is something veterans have done for ages, without the compulsion to open fire on innocent people in a bar.
Read this article. The asshole was a real nutbag.
From The Daily Mail
The gunman who massacred 12 people at a country music bar in southern California on Wednesday night has been identified as an honorably discharged ex-marine whose neighbors say he was plagued with PTSD and terrified his own mother.
Ian Long, 28, opened fire on the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks at 11.20pm on Wednesday night during its weekly College Country Night where students from nearby schools line dance and listen to music.
He used a Glock .45 which had an extended magazine to kill 11 people inside the bar, including 22-year-old Cody Koffman, 23-year-old Justin Meek and Alaina Housley, 18, and throwing smoke grenades among the crowds to confuse them as they tried to flee.
Long then shot sheriff’s sergeant Ron Helus, a 54-year-old, 29-year veteran who was one of the first on the scene. He died in the hospital of multiple gunshot wounds.
……Before SWAT teams entered the building, Long took his own life in an office inside. He used a legally purchased .45 caliber handgun to carry out the attack and had modified its magazine so it could hold more rounds.
……In April this year, deputies were called to the home he shared with his mother after neighbors heard loud crashes coming from inside.
He was acting ‘irrationally’ and was ‘irate’ so police called in their mental health specialist but they cleared him, deciding against having him committed. Neighbors told DailyMail.com on Thursday that his mother Colleen was ‘terrified’ he was going to harm himself or others.
……Blake Winnett, who claims to have shared an apartment with him in 2014 while he was a student there, told The New York Post that he was a ‘loner’ who danced alone in their garage.
‘He didn’t want to help anyone do anything. He was just lazy I guess,’ he claimed, adding that he once responded:
‘That’s not my f****** job’ when Winnett asked him to take out the trash.
‘He wasn’t violent but he was mean….’
……Richard Berge lived around the corner from alleged shooter Ian David Long and had taken care of the family’s dogs.
She lived in fear in case something happened. He wouldn’t get help. She was beside herself and didn’t know what to do.Neighbor Richard Berge, speaking of Long’s motherBerge, 77, said Long had smashed furniture and kicked in walls inside the family’s house and that his mother, Colleen, was afraid the problem would escalate.
‘She lived in fear in case something happened,’ Berge told DailyMail.com. ‘He wouldn’t get help. She was beside herself and didn’t know what to do.’
He and other neighbors described an incident in April this year, when a neighbor called the police after hearing loud crashes coming from Long’s house.
Berge said multiple police cars rushed to the home and found Long had kicked holes in the walls and broken furniture.
……Long had modified his legally purchased handgun so that it could hold more rounds.
‘The handgun is designed to hold 10 rounds and one in the chamber. This weapon did have an extended magazine on it.
California has one of the most stringent ‘gun control’ laws in the country. Long illegally modified his firearm, which once again proves why many gun control laws are pointless.
Armed criminals and psychopaths deliberately choose soft, unarmed targets. They couldn’t give one shit less about the idea of restrictive gun laws. Every law-abiding American citizen has the right to defend themselves from low life thugs and deranged morons. I own a firearm and I would use it only for self defense or to defend others.
Like Nikolas Cruz, there were numerous warning signs, and law enforcement refused to do anything about it.
Newsflash for the anti-gun nuts: It’s not the gun that’s the problem, it’s the psycho wielding it.
Related post:
https://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/jim-geraghty-on-gun-control/