The individual responsible for the deaths of 12 people a few days ago at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California was posting on social media during his deadly attack. In the posts, he gave a little insight into his mental state, and it’s even more reason that we should be talking to everyone about being responsibly armed and ready to defend themselves.
Documents obtained by ABC News show Long posted on social media at:
11:24 p.m. PST: “It’s too bad I won’t get to see all the illogical and pathetic reasons people will put in my mouth as to why I did it. Fact is I had no reason to do it, and I just thought… f***it, life is boring so why not?”
11:27 p.m. PST: “I hope people call me insane (2 smiley face emojis).. wouldn’t that just be a big ball of irony? Yeah… I’m insane, but the only thing you people do after these shootings is ‘hopes and prayers’… or ‘keep you in my thoughts’… every time… and wonder why these keep happening… (2 more smiley face emojis).
While it’s certain that mental illness played a roll in this massacre, this individual was a person who people saw in different ways. Some described him as a nice man, while others were somewhat fearful of his actions. In most cases, it seems that the majority interviewed would have never imagined that he would be capable of doing something as terrible as this.
Regardless of the case, this is the reality that we live in. The bar where this happened, according to the Sheriff’s office, had numerous off-duty police officers inside during the shooting.
They were all unarmed.
While they couldn’t fight back in a way that they wished, they helped people get out of the way of danger and definitely saved lives.
In California, it is illegal to carry a firearm at any location that serves alcohol. Plus, it’s also a state that makes it nearly impossible to get a concealed carry permit.
Why anyone would call for gun control after this incident is beyond me. California is a state with the strictest gun control laws on the books, yet it didn’t stop this man from doing what he did. No law would, either. It was going to happen no matter what. That’s the reality.
So what do we do with this information? Some would say to ban firearms, but we know that’s not going to happen and is also not a correct approach.
What do we really do with this information? We talk to others about being responsibly armed, and we discuss why it’s so important to us. We do this in a way that doesn’t make us look like ‘gun nuts’, because most of us are just regular every day gun owners who carry firearms in the same manner as we would always carry our wallets.
The discussion needs to move away from gun control and focus on two important things: Mental health, and responsibly armed citizens.
