The shooting in Las Vegas was terrible, make no mistake about it. But, as someone who tries to look beyond the event, I had several thoughts.
First off, how were the different sides going to react?
I knew this question would all depend on the race, and religion of the shooter. What sickened me was the reaction by a faction of the left which saw the event, a country concert, and made it a political one. There were tweets by many talking about they were glad, and hoped a lot of Trump supporters were killed.
Yeah, way to go left, way to be supportive of people who just lost a loved one. Doesn’t matter which political party, or who they voted for.
Second, I knew the conversation once more would focus on gun control.
For me, this has always been a sticky conversation. Not that I love shootings, but a muddy mess of facts half understood, misused and twisted and bent until the truth is buried so far down no one want to look at it. But I find its a distraction.
Here is an analogy. Imagine we are on a boat filling with water. I view the gun control activists as those who say if we have more pumps we can get rid of the water. It doesn’t fix the problem. The problem is a hole in the ship letting the water in. The ship is society, the hole is the problem, which we ignore.
Last, is my policy to wait with such events.
Why wait? Simple, early on there will be a lot of misinformation spewed forth by all groups trying to push their agenda. Conspiracy groups will come out, adding to the mess and misinformation and not to be outdone the mainstream media will take and run with things if it fits their political agenda.
So I like to wait a few days, a week to allow everything to settle down and the truth to the float to the surface. However, this means I don’t read about it, don’t listen about it, and wait. It means I don’t get tainted by emotions and tie it to a lie.
With social media the way it is, the mainstream media and everything in between, we should take some time before hitting that like, or sharing that link to step back, think about what we are doing. Is it the truth, or am I spreading a lie?
So, I will think about Las Vegas, pray for those who lost a love one (its really all I can do), and wait to see what the media circus will do.