Eight shot in attacks across city

[Loomis]

This is nuts. Last night 8 people were shot in six different places in Chicago. I have been away for thirty years. Before i left for Minnesota there were very few places in Chicago I was afraid to go and in Minnesota we never locked our doors on the house.

 

[Soup]

It's getting scary! I've seen the news reports about gun related killings in Philadelphia & Chicago. Many of the shooters as well as the victims are so young. I wonder where the heck those kids are getting all those guns from. Shootings are rare here in QC. When they do happen, they're typically mafia people doing their so-called settling of accounts or something involving the police.

 

[Cerulean]

Scary. Not much shooting seems to go on in my city but we have had the surrounding neighborhoods hit in broad daylight by break and enters. They knock, if no one answers they just bust in the back door and rob them. If someone does answer, they make up a story about having lost their dog. I'm glad to be living at my dad's right now- the crazy right wing gun collector and target shooting enthusiast He just bought me some pepper spray for jogging the other day, woo.

 

[Bay]

Seven people were killed today in a Sikh temple outside of Milwaukee today. Shot dead in another mass shooting.

 

[Arashi222]

I just want to say that I would like us all to remember that there are people dead here. That people will no longer be with their families and maybe just give them a moment of respect and care. I understand that its news but it really is a terrible tragedy for everyone that has been involved in something like this. I feel for everyone's families that lost someone in another senseless act of violence. Shooting and guns and violence is not the answer to any of this and maybe there is no answer but this is very triggering for me and I just believe that violence against violence doesn't solve anything ever.

 

[Soup]

I don't think anyone here is indifferent to the suffering of the victims & their families. Just this afternoon, CNN finally shared some information about the victims & some of their heroic self-sacrifices in order to save others. Information about the shooter was also released.

While it is vital to remember that actual people suffered badly that does not diminish the importance (to many of us) of being able to look these crimes in the face, analyze & critique them. There's an underlying theme of severe mental/emotional distress going un-noticed or down-played by people in the societies in which these crimes are most prevalent. Troubled people are shuffled ineptly through the system, often enabled (albeit inadvertently) by friends, family members, colleagues etc. who either aren't sure what to do about the distressing symptoms they're seeing & are torn between loyalty to the person & the desire to protect their loved one and the need to act on the knowledge they have.

Two serial killers I know about off-hand were apprehended because a family member recognized something published about the killer & alerted authorities. While people DID die in both cases, had the relatives (in both cases a brother) NOT spoken out, MORE people would undoubtedly have died.Imagine how hard it must've been for those brothers to make the call to the police?

I, for one, NEVER want to find myself in the position of so many people who are shocked to realize that they knew a killer & missed all the signals that the person was both in real distress & in need of immediate help or that I minimized a threat someone made.

We ALL have different issues, subjects & circumstances that trigger us. Some here are hypersensitive to sexual subjects. Others tend to overreact when a thread veers even slightly off topic. Some must preface what they say with apologetics like 'this is only my opinion' & end with 'I hope this doesn't upset or offend anyone'. Others still don't like any discussion of crime (be it murder, rape, terrorism or what have you). I have my triggers too HOWEVER... as an older Aspie, I strive to remind myself that I have no right to expect others to refrain from discussing certain things (so long as they remain within the rules) because of my individual quirks. I know what subjects might upset or annoy me so I take responsibility for my choices & avoid those threads: after all, the people who posted them did not do so with any malice or intent to harm or upset me.

@Arashi222: I know that several people here share my interest in deviant-type crimes & the links between that & mental illness. I share your love of dolls & teddies but some people here don't. I AM sensitive to the impact murder (& suicide) has on those left behind to deal with the loss. My way of supporting them is to look these crimes in the face, discuss them, analyze them in an effort to detect patterns & underlying themes in the hopes that one day society will be better able to detect these people before they have the chance to act & possibly save them from themselves in the bargain. The families of perpetrators suffer horribly & are unfairly judged & victimized & blamed. Why didn't they know is a valid question BUT so is how could they have known! Most parents & siblings aren't profilers or psychiatrists. Even then, their objectivity is compromised by their closeness to the person. No even marginally sane person wants to believe that one of their relatives could so something awful. I know the feeling: someone related to me once did but I was just a child when it happened but I've never seen people the same way since.