Fascinating read, Charles. Thanks. I heard a gaming expo is starting in Vegas. They'll have to come to grips with the reality of a very accomplished first-person shooter.
I swear someone told me more guns make us safer last week. They said something about mass shootings never happen at NASCAR events or Country music concerts because people that go to these carry and "gun free zones" are just killing zones. Whenever anyone tells me this I always point out Maurice Clemmons and how he walked into a donut shop full of cops to shot the place up.
The people who knew this normal guy, when interviewed, have all said they had no idea he loved guns or collected them, and as far as they knew never went to gun shows or talked a lot about second amendment rights or even belonged to the NRA.
People didn't think his humongous arsenal was weird mainly because it seems nobody had any idea it existed.
Hey Stranger- how about you fucking grow a pair and write an article titled 'TERRORIST WITH LEGAL GUNS WINS BEST EVER KILLING CONTEST ON US SOIL' and stop complaining about other media. Wtf are you scared of? Your advertisers??
You make some good points, Charles, about troubling stereotypes. And, yet, the emerging portrait of Paddock does not suggest normalcy of any sort. The addictive high-stakes gambling; his apparently tempestuous marriages and verbally abusive behavior towards his current girlfriend; his father being on the FBI's Most Wanted List and comments from those who know Paddock that he "was never the same" after a neighbor took him from his home at age 7 so that he didn't have to see his father get arrested and hauled away; the apparent drug prescription in June to help him deal with stress; his frequently gruff, dismissive tone and hermetic tendency to disappear for long stretches; the odd behavior during his lawsuit against The Cosmopolitan a few years ago... This does not suggest normalcy, white guy or not. This sounds like a repressed psychopath hatching horrifically twisted plots of vengeance. And stereotypes aside--and, to be sure, you're right that many over-indulge them--there's no way this is a "normal guy," and I don't care what color you want to call him. It might be best to wait and learn a bit more before assuming anything about this man. But "normal" seems a stretch, at least at this point.
The people who knew this normal guy, when interviewed, have all said they had no idea he loved guns or collected them, and as far as they knew never went to gun shows or talked a lot about second amendment rights or even belonged to the NRA.
People didn't think his humongous arsenal was weird mainly because it seems nobody had any idea it existed.
And I suppose if he did this in the Chicago southside he'd be a typical black guy