At least nine people are dead after a man opened fire in an Omaha, Neb., mall today. Included among the dead was the gunman.
While this is certainly sad and somewhat shocking to most people it is even more shocking that incidents of such nature don’t occur more often. A high body count can take place anywhere a high number of targets happen to gather. I’m not saying that to be callous or certainly not trying to be funny but rather I am stating a fact. And, especially during the Christmas season, people’s nerves are all on jagged edges and they may occasionally fall over those edges. You never know when someone is going to snap and if he or she has a gun when that break happens, then Katy bar the door. Or rather, Katy hide behind the door.
Having spent three days in the VA hospital last week plus hearing of this latest mass shooting raises a thought I have had time and again. It is that I am amazed more people don’t go over the edge and shoot up their local VA hospital or clinic. You have people — both patients and workers — who may have serious mental health issues and veterans who are VA patients may sometime get treated like the worst piece of s**t on your shoe in such facilities. Perhaps the fact that most VA facilities now have armed police may act as a deterrent but I kind of doubt that would deter someone who really wanted to light up the place.
I hope my biggest hopes that nothing of that sort happens at a VA hospital or clinic. But some of the smart asses or worthless states of matter who occasionally get jobs at the VA may just piss off the wrong person one of these days and the news will be all over it and people will say: “We didn’t see this coming!” Well, yes, you really should have seen this coming but I don’t care to be the one to say “I told you so.”