'Tis the season... for another senseless MALL SHOOTING SPREE

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 6:12pm

...in Omaha.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071205/ap_on_re_us/mall_shooting

[harris007]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 6:16pm

sad very sad

[wexy]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 6:29pm

Terrible and then someone will blame guns.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 6:37pm

And then the national media will turn the killer into a tragic celebrity du jour, and discuss at length "why he did it," which is exactly what he wanted.

They will give him his chance to be heard and remembered.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 6:41pm

i have to agree with besty. this f*cker deserves to have zero attention paid to him for this craziness. it's bad enough the families had to live through it the first time around

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 6:43pm

Wow. Makes my stomach turn.

[Jon]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 7:09pm

I actually worked at the Westroads Mall in the mid-1970's. My parents ran the Westroads Dinner Theatre and I worked as a busboy/prop person (I was in high school). We left in 1976. The dinner theatre closed 2 years later.

At one point in the 70's there were three Equity theates in Omaha. Now there are none.

[Yawper]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 9:00pm

and in all the public analysis there won't be a peep said about the lack of mental health parity and access to treatment

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 9:21pm

This is always so sad, but this time of year makes it even harder. I mean, lets face it, in addition to the loss of life this mall's holiday profits are done. Would you want to shop there now?

Personally, I would like to hear about the shooter. I think it fascinating to try to understand what makes people snap.

And Besty, if you feel that strongly about it, why did you start the thread? I mean you are adding to the attention, aren't you? (I am not criticizing, just curious how you and folkboy justify posting about it if you don't think the guy should get any attention.)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 9:29pm

"i have to agree with besty. this f*cker deserves to have zero attention paid to him for this craziness"

We're Americans, we love our crazies. This explains why HD is still allowed to post here.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 10:33pm

My friend's relative was in the store. Very tragic, we were in that mall a few weeks ago!

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 11:25pm

"which is exactly what he wanted."

Apparently his suicide note says he wanted to "go out in style" and "now I'll be famous."

DISGUSTING.

[Yawper]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 11:38pm

it said more than that
Gunman Called 'Gentle' but Troubled

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 11:41pm

Getting fired from McDonalds?

I thought anyone could work there!

"do you want fries with that?"

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 11:46pm

And sweetQ is off and running...
nice way to put anyone who works at McDonald's down, sweet. I even hate calling you that. Can I just refer to you as Dumbmoroninthedark?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:27am

(sorry, that was too tasteless, even for me.)

Updated On: 12/6/07 at 12:27 AM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:29am

I never find degrading McDonald workers or their jobs funny. It is an honest work in a service industry. Maybe not high on the payscale but an honest job none the less.
It is so sad when people who need help are either overlooked or fall throught he cracks. I don't profess to know what demons this boy was battling with but it is very sad that it caused so much loss of life. I am sure ther were warning signs, just no one there to read them .

[DG]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:32am

Shoot his mother!

I'm kidding. Honestly.






And Sueleen, despite our difficulties, I really do think you are wonderful most of the time - like here, for instance.

[Yawper]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:45am

Nothing like doing everything the way you're taught you should - be nice to people, be helpful, be thankful - and still get screwed over by life - lose the girl, lose the job, family had already kicked him out -

anger and frustration turned inward become depression, sometimes there's too much to be contained

What does a 19 year old like him see for his future?

[DG]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:53am

"What does a 19 year old like him see for his future?"

Are you SERIOUS with that?!?

And to follow your ideology - concerning doing 'everything you're taught' - where did the idea of shooting strangers as a solution come from?

[Yawper]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 1:12am

yeah, I'm serious with that - some kids have it a lot rougher than others and just don't have the resiliency to bounce back many times

the idea of shooting strangers isn't a solution - it's a public venting - a brief moment of empowerment

the suicide is the solution

[DG]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 1:29am

Sorry, Yawper, but as someone who attempted suicide myself - WITHOUT deciding to take anyone else with me - I don't buy it.

If, indeed, the road was 'rougher than others', then my sympathy is intact. But not to the point of explaining - much less excusing - this kind of action.

At some point, we ARE responsible for our own decisions - and this kind of disdain for any other life is inexcusable. At least in my world.

I continue to shudder at the thought that there are those who don't agree.

[Yawper]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 1:41am

I'm not excusing or endorsing anything - just describing a behavioral pattern.

And no one else's situation is invalidated just because it doesn't match yours.

[DG]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 1:44am

"And no one else's situation is invalidated just because it doesn't match yours."

I agree. Seriously.

But I just can't reach a point where the random destruction of other people's existences is justified by your own pain.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 7:52am

But I just can't reach a point where the random destruction of other people's existences is justified by your own pain.

Once you accept the fact that people with mental illness are not always rational it becomes easier to understand.