Inexplicable- the Carnage in Las Vegas
When all is said and done, we many never know just what prompted Stephen Paddock to perpetrate the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. As of this writing, more than fifty lay dead and several hundreds of others are wounded, all the result of one crazed shooter, and for reasons known only to himself.
A Nevada resident, living in an upscale retirement community located in Mesquite, Paddock checked into the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, secured a room on the thirty-second floor, barricaded the entrance to his room, and opened fire on a crowd gathered across the street to enjoy the last night of a three-day country music festival. Equipped with ten rifles including automatic weapons, and an abundance of ammunition- enough to kill hundreds, Paddock was well-prepared to exact massive carnage and he even set up a video feed to alert him of the imminent approach of law enforcement officers dispatched to neutralize him. Given the amount of ordinance he carried into his hotel room, this was doubtlessly a well-thought-out, pre-planned attack which was meant to maximize the taking of innocent life prior to the commission of his own suicide.
Licensed to carry firearms and to fly private airplanes, Paddock, who was believed to work as either an accountant or an auditor, apparently had no prior felony charges even though he was “known to local authorities,” according to a Fox News report. He had no ties to domestic or international terrorism and apparently carried no racial or religious animus, and there was nothing about the man to suggest a propensity to launch such an attack…and that might well prove to be the most frightening aspect of all.
After all, how can such an attack, at the hands of such a person, ever be prevented?
Sadly, it can’t be, and that is part of what is so very disturbing about this horror.
The mainstream media will no doubt search for some reason that Stephen Paddock went off the rails of sanity, and decided to kill on a broad scale. They will “hope” that they can somehow find a way to tie this shooting to President Trump, or to the “alt right” or to some other entity which drives their pre-conceived narrative that this is the result of Trump’s whatever, fill-in-the-blank. They will resurrect the cry for gun-control, even though, as we have learned, anyone wielding a knife or driving a motor vehicle can achieve the same dastardly results, given the propensity to do so.
Yet the reason- the real reason that this attack took place may be staring all of us in the face, though we all are loathe to admit it.
The simple fact is that there is evil in this world- pure, diabolical evil that is at the heart of what took place in Las Vegas, in the evening hours of October 1st, 2017. It’s the kind of evil that can only come from diabolical and demonic forces which are very real- forces that are set upon mankind from without, to foment a steeping hatred from within, and exact revenge on the innocents at their most vulnerable. The fact that such attacks take place often defies all logic or reasoning.
Nevertheless, it is for each of us to see this for what it really and truly is, and to pray that we all may be delivered from the evils that surround us in such a troubled world.
-Drew Nickell, 2 October 2017
© 2017 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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