Las Vegas and Other Mass Shootings - Possible Responses

The Las Vegas machine gun shooting of 10/01/2017 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel was the carefully premeditated and inhuman murder of 59 innocent people trying to find a moment of joy in an increasingly difficult and violent world at a music concert. It was also attemped murder and wounding of hundreds of others trying to find the same moment of joy. Truly a sick and cowardly deed. How many of the couple thousand people who were there will have PTSD from this event as they go forward with their lives?

On October 23, 2017, more than three weeks after the shooting we still do not know if this guy was crazy, or whether he was radicalized by Daesh (they say he was their soldier). We don't know if perhaps violent video games and movies motivated him or dehumanized other people to him. We don't know if he hated America, or Las Vegas, or country music, or Republicans, or just hated people. Did he have a brain tumor? Did he have a drug or alcohol problem? Was his brain easily susceptible to negative manipulation? Or was he just seeking to become famous for murdering the most people in the shortest amount of time? Where is his manifesto or statement of action? Did he write the plans for his heinous act down somewhere? Did he plan to do this alone? What do the people in his life know about his actions or mental state? I hope we start hearing some answers soon. The families require it. The rest of the United States needs it too.

With love and respect to all of the victims, those who have passed and those who were injured and traumatized, I would like to suggest that in this case (Mandalay Bay shooting) and other future cases, that there is a method that may have worked at stopping or slowing the shooter and reducing the terrible damage that was done. Remember that some concert-goers, maybe many or all, eventually knew where the gunfire was coming from. Some people were able to key in on the sound to locate where the shooting was coming from. In the dark the muzzle fire may have been visible to other people. In videos from that night, people were looking up at the hotel windows and cursing the shooter. I suggest that if one or a few people had a moderately powered laser (from 5 to 500 milliwatts or above) and aimed it up toward the shooter they may have blinded (temporarily or for longer) the man and brought on some relief from the deadly situation. At any rate he would have found it impossible to shoot at targets on the ground with one or more superbright lasers shining up toward that window and his eyes. A gun from down on the concert grounds would have been almost useless unless it were a rifle in very capable hands, but the laser light would have been instant and accurate and the spread of its terminal spot of light at the distance of 300 yards or more would have been enough to cover a wider area in the window more likely flashblinding and at least frustrating the shooter. This may have worked in the Orlando night club shooting, and the Batman movie theater shooting too. In certain other mass shootings a laser will not have worked.

It is my hope that people will begin to carry commercially available lasers (of 5 to 500 milliwatts or more. Lasers of less power than 5 mW will be less effective.) with the intent of using them as defensive weapons in a case like this. And, of course concert venues and sporting events, etc., will need to allow them in if found on someone's person. Bad guys need their eyes to see what they are doing and if someone with a laser is in a life-or-death situation like this and they use their laser and it causes the shooter even just to have to close his eyes, that may make a difference which allows someone to take action. It will certainly be something unplanned for by the shooter and may cause him to make a mistake. It may save a life or lives.

I hope that we soon find out the motive behind this spineless shooter's evil murder of so many innocent people, but whatever the cause ends up being, a lesson that we can take from this is that people need to have something to else to fight back with to save their own lives. The police cannot act instantly in every situation (though they were heroic here) and even concert-goers carrying handguns would not have helped in this situation; neither would mace or a Taser. I contend that one or more moderately powered lasers would help in this sort of situation by blinding or temporarily frustrating an attacker.

Wicked Lasers sells more powerful lasers on their website but 5 milliwatt lasers are also easily available on eBay and Amazon.

Disclaimer: This suggestion is for defensive purposes only and in situations where life or limb are threatened. Any time you hurt someone else you are responsible for your actions and possibly blinding someone is a serious action which will have serious consequences unless it was done for the right defensive reasons. Lasers should never be aimed in a frivolous manner toward any plane, car, or other object where a person or people may be at or near the end of your beam. Check local laws regarding possession of laser emitting devices. Eye protection should be worn when in the presence of or when handling powerful lasers.

9/11 Photo Books Available Now

Be sure to check out the new books New Jersey 9/11 Memorials - A Photographic Guide and The National 9/11 Memorials - A Photographic Guide. One is a photo book of more than 80 different New Jersey September 11 memorials with information about each, a chapter on the history leading up to the terrorist attack, a timeline of the day itself and events of the following years. Also included is a chapter with all of the victims and first responders names, as well as a foreword by Thomas Kean, former governor of New Jersey and Chairman of the 9/11 Commission. 

The other book, The National 9/11 Memorials, has dozens of photos of the four nationally important 9/11 memorials with information about each, a chapter on the history leading up to the terrorist attack, a timeline of the day itself and events of the following years. Also included is a chapter with all of the victims and first responders names.

Hell Welcomes Its Newest Resident

Passport to Hell Stamped Approved

Almost ten years after planning, funding, and training fellow jihadists for the attacks of September 11, the founder and leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network, Osama bin Laden is dead, gone from this world thanks to the CIA, the Navy Seals, and other special ops forces, and a strong leadership hand from Barack Obama. You can see the president's statement here.

The U.S. special ops team raided bin Laden's mansion/compound in Islamabad, the CAPITAL of Pakistan, killed the world's leading terrorist, and dragged his body out of there with them, presumably in their Blackhawk helicopter. Later, after gathering the evidence needed for proof of his having been killed (whether DNA or photographic or both, we don't know at this moment) the terrorist's body was buried at sea so that a Muslim tradition of being buried within twenty-four hours of death could be adhered to.

I want to congratulate President Obama for staying strong in terms of wanting to find bin Laden and for not hesitating to go into Pakistan to do it. I remember candidate Obama stating that he would go into Pakistan if necessary to pursue al Qaeda, the Taliban, and bin Laden and he has shown willingness to do so. President Bush wanted very badly to find Osama bin Laden and had seven years to do it. We don't know if it was for lack of trying, or lack of political will, or lack of intelligence on the ground that he didn't find bin Laden. But thank God he has been finally found and brought to justice, and the families of the 9/11 victims and all U.S. citizens and residents, and all civilized peoples can for a moment feel that justice can be served in this world, and that evil people and evil acts can and will be punished at some point in time.

The world is clearly better off without its most notorious terrorist and Islamic radical jihadist, but the coming days could see a spike in terrorist bombings or bombing attempts as al Qaeda cells strive to prove that the fight will go on without their infamous and now deceased leader. It is also clear to all that the war against terror will and must go on until the radical, bloodthirsty wing of a religion that is practiced peacefully by most of its adherents, find nonlethal tools to express themselves. Unfortunately this doesn't seem likely to happen anytime too soon. For the moment at least, we have some good news in the war against civilization - General Osama bin Laden is dead!

Wikileaks - Saboteurs of the Public Good

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the leak of the Afghanistan war documents creates a real potential threat to put American lives at risk.

This Julian Assange who runs the Wikileaks website and the people who supplied U.S. government documents that may hurt troops on the field and may also reduce operational effectiveness (ie. undermine the war against al Qaida, the Taliban, and terrorism) should be rounded up for being traitors if they live in this country and as enemy combatants if they live in another country. It’s hard enough to win a war without our own citizens undermining the efforts of the free countries of the world to win the fight against oppressive and evil regimes, and organizations.

Government secrets are secrets for a reason. While there may be damning information in any cache of documents, when citizens obtain state secrets and release them, they are practicing statecraft without a license. Sort of like if they decided to tell a surgeon what cuts to make on a patient in surgery, or backseat air traffic controlling. They are assuming that they know better than said government about the issue that the state is trying to keep secret.

In this case, it works out to be an anti-west, anti-US, anti-good, pro-bad guys theft and release of government secrets.

Again, it is my opinion that everyone involved in this "state secrets dump" in a substantial way should be tried as a traitor or an enemy combatant and taken to Guantanamo Bay. They are not a force for public good and may be putting American and NATO troops at risk. There are watchdogs and there are saboteurs. Wikileaks founder and his cohorts are saboteurs.

With Friends Like Russia

Hey Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev! Does Russia want to be friends with the United States or make things difficult for the U.S. and the rest of the world?  Seems like you want to be difficult to me. Because your consistently cozy actions with Iran are not the actions of a friend. Especially now. (I mean come on, let's have a Super Soaker shootout and leave all the animosity in the past.)

What would you say about us if we were pals with separatists in Chechnya and supplied them with missile systems or nuclear technology?

Iran has stated that it wants to destroy Israel. And you want to continue to give them tools that will make it easier to do so? Iran also trains and supplies insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Insurgents that kill civilians and troops from many countries. Do you want to enable and buttress this kind of activity? Apparently you do. Normal relations with a terrorist state is tantamount to tacit approval of their policies.

Maybe supplying long-range surface-to-air S-300 missiles to Iran, a country that is openly hostile to the U.S. and the west in general is a bad idea. Maybe helping them with their nuclear program when everyone in the world is worried about their intentions is a bad idea. Doing that and some of the other things you do leave us normal, everyday citizens of this country with the impression that you would rather help our enemies than us. It leaves us with the impression that you are indeed on the side of our enemies. Why? What's up with that? Power politics? You can be a powerful nation without propping up terrorist regimes. Why do you want to help the whack-job President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamist Ayatollahs?

Sanctions are going to be ineffectual, of course, if you and China and Turkey and Brazil and Indonesia and others ignore the sanctions or are selective in implementing them. And the fact that you need an exception to the sanctions on Iran with a dangerous new weapons system is exactly the wrong kind of breach of sanctions the sane world would hope for. Weapons that could result in harm to Israel, U.S. and NATO soldiers, Iraqi and Afghan citizens.

How about you start acting more like a friend and less like an old enemy and maybe we'd feel less like we need to protect ourselves from you.

Happy 170th birthday to Peter IIyich Tchaikovsky.

Would it be OK to Taser Terrorists?

Deaths to individuals from Tasering by police in the U.S. since 2001 -- +335


Deaths to terrorists from waterboarding in the U.S. since 2001 -- 0