Rant #2,897: Stop

Just like all of us, I am completely sickened by the scene this past weekend in Buffalo, New York, where a white supremacist shot up a supermarket in a predominately black neighborhood.
 
And this white supremacist was a teenager, fresh out of high school, who had shown racist, anti-Semitic and numerous other violent tendencies in the past, which were either ignored or mitigated to the point that he wasn’t much on the radar of law enforcement, or at least not enough to warrant some type of strong watch being put on him and his every move.
 
This shooting rampage left several people dead, mainly black people but two whites, and as the background of the shooter is coming out in drips and drabs, it is beyond belief that this teenager was able to carry out his mission the way he did without any interference at all.
 
Not only did he plan the entire thing out—researching the community, which is mainly black—but he traveled to the area several times to make sure that his target was the "right" one.
 
He also supposedly targeted other businesses in the area, too, but step one was the supermarket.
 
He was able to buy at least two of his firearms legally, but hopped them up with parts so that more rounds could be shot from them than the original manufacturer intended—or is legal.
 
He was able to buy protection for himself, battle-style bullet-proof body-armor vests and other gear to protect himself fully from any return fire to him—in fact, a security guard who was later among the dead shot at him, hit him at least once, but the gear protected the shooter from harm.
 
It was later discovered that not only did the shooter broadcast at least the first few minutes of his rampage on line with a helmet cam, but that he had written a manifesto outlining his rage against blacks and Jews which was also online.
 
This manifesto referred back to a concept that the Nazis used during the World War II era to annihilate Jews and others, which states that the white race—or for the Nazis, the supposed Aryan “race”—was being polluted by others outside that race—for the Nazis, the Jews—and the “polluters” had to be extinguished for the betterment of the main race—for the Nazis, the supposed Aryan “race.”
 
The shooter had been investigated at least once before, when he threatened to blow up his high school, but little is known about what happened with that review, other than the fact that he was still out on the street.
 
I assume that he continued to live at home after his high school graduation, so it is easy to blame the parents as sort of a third party for his later indiscretions, but in New York State, unless a person poses a clear and present danger to himself, he cannot be put away in a mental facility without his agreement.
 
I would think that he did pose a clear and present danger to himself, but again, it is probably very difficult to prove, and we don’t know the background, whether his parents tried to have him committed and failed, or simply had to stand aside as this Frankenstein monster fomented his rage right under their roof.
 
The whole situation, from top to bottom, is a horrible one, one that really needs investigation as to why this person, even after constant red flags, was out on his own and was able to mastermind this horrid event the way that he did.
 
You have just read what I had to say, which was pretty much what you could get off any news show or any newspaper, and I read and watched the same things you did.
 
It is just unconscionable that such a situation can happen in our country in the year 2022, but the influence of social media has to be taken into account here.
 
This fellow—who, by the way, has pleaded not guilty to the charges—had a poisoned mind for whatever reason, and then latched onto online sites that pretty much fed into his paranoia about blacks and Jews.
 
This gave him the direction and strength to act out his fantasies, and what’s worse, this whole incident could have been even worse if he was able to leave the store and move on to his next stop, where he would have killed more people.
 
How does somebody in such a mental state able to legally purchase guns and body armor like he evidently did? Were there no checks and balances in place to stop him from doing so?
 
There are so many questions to ask about this case that need answers that it truly boggles the mind how someone in this mental state could do what he was able to do without any hurdles for him to scale.
 
These types of incidents are becoming rampant in our country.
 
The need for people to have guns is problematic, it is something I do not understand, and why anyone would want to have artillery in their homes Is beyond my comprehension.
 
Yes, people are to blame, not the guns, for using the firearms in such a way, but the checks and balances tor those who feel the need to purchase weapons like this need to be strengthened to prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening again.
 
But you just know it will, whether the guns are purchased legally or illegally, and that leads me to social media.
 
The outlet that social medial provides to mentally ill people like this really gives them strength to do such horrid acts, and if we are unable to regulate the purchase of guns, then perhaps we should regulate the immediacy of social media.
 
It is just too easy to purchase guns in this country, and it is just too easy to get onto social media and vent one’s rage.
 
It is enough already, don’t you think?