Bizarre & Horrifying Maine Shooting

jtr1962

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Population is 37,000. 22 killed. This is really huge relative to the population. It's like 5,000 people getting shot in one day in NYC. I'd love to know the motive of the person who did this.
 

idleprocess

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Three locations per Reuters - bowling alley, bar & grill, a distribution center.

"There are no initial signs of terrorism"…….. what?
Will depend on the definition of terrorism. Most of the time it's used in association with disfavored political movements. Although unexpectedly shooting up several places will indeed inflict terror on the locale.

A mere ~3 hours into it they've presumably not run into any statements, a manifesto on any social media the suspect may use, indications from questions posed to their family/friends/co-workers. Likely a bit premature to say as much since considerably more is likely to be revealed as the investigation covers more ground in the coming days.
 
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Stress_Test

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Just a reminder that the lone-wolf terrorist attack on the Fort Hood Army base was labeled a "workplace violence" incident at the time, at the insistence of a President I won't bother to name.

Apparently the criteria for terrorism depends on who is running the government at the time, who the shooter was, who the victims were, and how close the incident is to an election. I hate our politicians.
 

Toulouse42

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Jersey
Legally, the definition of terrorism is violence or the threat of violence (I'm summarising / paraphrasing here)

In circumstances where:

  • the use or threat is designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public; and
  • the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.
 

Falcon9h

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I've had my own mental health problems (depression, anxiety) and the real issue is, "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Smith, Dr. xx isn't taking any new patients" or "Our first appointment is (six months down the road)"
I'm in central PA. Just you try to get any psych appointment expediently. Only way is to crash land in the ER. There are very few doctors here and no one can get appointments.
 

idleprocess

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Anybody else hear he was a firearms instructor, or is that more fake news?
Real enough for Reuters to report on it:
State and local police identified Robert R. Card, who reportedly had been committed to a mental health facility over the summer, as a person of interest in the case.
[...]
Several media outlets reported that a Maine law enforcement bulletin identified Card, 40, as a trained firearms instructor and member of the U.S. Army reserve who recently said he had been hearing voices and had other mental health issues, and that he threatened to shoot up a National Guard base.
 
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I'll say this. If this nutjob is on any type of medication it's time to hold pharmaceutical companies liable

This. I think we're slowly working our way toward this. Class action suits will solve this problem eventually. With 90 million peaceful gun owners in the USA, you can only blame guns for so long before the blatantly obvious elephant of psyche drugs becomes impossible to ignore.
 

idleprocess

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Initial reporting is that his demons were well known and that those responsible for protecting society from him were either unwilling or unable to do so.
I can agree with that - especially with reporting indicating the suspect was committed to a mental institution.
 
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I can agree with that - especially with reporting indicating the suspect was committed to a mental institution.

He previously threatened to attack an Army Reserve location. It's no coincidence that most if not all mass-shooting perpetrators chose victims that will be unarmed. Crazy, but not too crazy.
 
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