LAX Shooting

[DaddyTorgo]

Terminal 3 (Virgin America).

Rifle.

Several people shot.

Details still coming in.

[DaddyTorgo]

2-3 patient incident, including one TSA agent.

[DaddyTorgo]

3 injured, shooter in custody.

[Desnudo]

I'll be honest - my first reaction was thanks asshole for making future travel even more of a pain ass.

[panerd]

Meh. Stuff happens in Chicago every night. Here's hoping it isn't a Middle Eastern shooter or the press won't let it go for 50+ 24 hour news cycles.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by panerd

Meh. Stuff happens in Chicago every night. Here's hoping it isn't a Middle Eastern shooter or the press won't let it go for 50+ 24 hour news cycles.

Someone, just kill me if I ever get to the point where I say "meh" about shooting incidents.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Someone, just kill me if I ever get to the point where I say "meh" about shooting incidents.

2 dead, 7 wounded across Chicago, including girl, 15 - chicagotribune.com

What's different? You go to the airport. (And people died in Chicago) You absolutely feel meh about the Chicago shootings. It's fine if you like to get bent out of shape by shootings that could effect you and don't care about ones that don't but this shit happens everyday all over the world, this time just happened to be at an airport.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by panerd

2 dead, 7 wounded across Chicago, including girl, 15 - chicagotribune.com

What's different? You go to the airport. (And people died in Chicago) You absolutely feel meh about the Chicago shootings. It's fine if you like to get bent out of shape by shootings that could effect you and don't care about ones that don't but this shit happens everyday all over the world, this time just happened to be at an airport.

How you deal with this is your own business. I am saying I wouldn't respond the way you did. I don't want people shot in LA or Chicago, and I think it's a tragedy wherever it happens.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

How you deal with this is your own business. I am saying I wouldn't respond the way you did. I don't want people shot in LA or Chicago, and I think it's a tragedy wherever it happens.

Fair enough. Though you are clearly superior to me with your reaction of asking someone to kill you if you react the way I do. My meh was more for the upcoming media coverage and not the shooting victims but whatever.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by panerd

Fair enough. Though you are clearly superior to me with your reaction of asking someone to kill you if you react the way I do. My meh was more for the upcoming media coverage and not the shooting victims but whatever.

That wasn't all too clear, so I am glad you clarified it. Media coverage of shootings such as these is an understandable target for derision and doubt.

I don't apologize for sounding superior in my reaction, though, because had you meant what it at first sounded like, that you were "mehing" the shooting itself, I completely criticize anyone who takes that stance and I do believe I am superior in my attitude to anyone who shares that opinion.

[Ronnie Dobbs3]

If you can't understand why a shooting at LAX would provoke more media coverage than a big city shooting then there is little to no help for you.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Someone, just kill me if I ever get to the point where I say "meh" about shooting incidents.

Purely out of interest when you hear about shooting incidents in foreign countries or involving military forces do you ever think 'meh'? ....

Most people do for some things - everything tends to affect people according to their personality and the closeness of their event to themselves.

I'm sure the 'meh' didn't indicate a lack of sympathy for the people involved - just lack of a direct connection to them and anticipation at the forthcoming media frenzy, when Princess Diana died I was very 'meh', I knew it'd be a right ruckus of media rubbish and didn't look forward to that at all ... I sympathized hugely with her family, especially her kids ... but f*ck no I didn't want to hear fake gushing about it every 5 minutes

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs3

If you can't understand why a shooting at LAX would provoke more media coverage than a big city shooting then there is little to no help for you.

Good lord.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs3

If you can't understand why a shooting at LAX would provoke more media coverage than a big city shooting then there is little to no help for you.

Well now, let's hold off a second on that I think ... and here's why.

If it's some baggage handler shooting another baggage handler in the break room because one was bopping the other one's wife the location doesn't make it particularly more notable

The notable part of the story, so far is this bit

Witness Brian Keech said he heard "about a dozen gunshots" from inside the security gate at Terminal 3.

THAT makes it notable at LAX, but not simply "at LAX"

[Ronnie Dobbs3]

Originally Posted by panerd

Good lord.

Well I guess we agree on something here as I had the same reaction to you doing your thing again.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Purely out of interest when you hear about shooting incidents in foreign countries or involving military forces do you ever think 'meh'? ....

Most people do for some things - everything tends to affect people according to their personality and the closeness of their event to themselves.

I'm sure the 'meh' didn't indicate a lack of sympathy for the people involved - just lack of a direct connection to them and anticipation at the forthcoming media frenzy, when Princess Diana died I was very 'meh', I knew it'd be a right ruckus of media rubbish and didn't look forward to that at all ... I sympathized hugely with her family, especially her kids ... but f*ck no I didn't want to hear fake gushing about it every 5 minutes

This. I never once said I didn't have any sympathy for shooting victims or didn't understand why it would be the subject of mass coverage. I just meh'ed the fact that the coverage was coming and double meh'ed the pending overcoverage if it happened to be a brown shooter. (and yes I think full newscycle coverage of an airport shooting is overblown much like backpage Chicago tribune of 2 dead is underblown)

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs3

Well I guess we agree on something here as I had the same reaction to you doing your thing again.

Your fasicination with me and my posts here on FOFC > mine with yours I guess.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Purely out of interest when you hear about shooting incidents in foreign countries or involving military forces do you ever think 'meh'? ....

Most people do for some things - everything tends to affect people according to their personality and the closeness of their event to themselves.

I'm sure the 'meh' didn't indicate a lack of sympathy for the people involved - just lack of a direct connection to them and anticipation at the forthcoming media frenzy, when Princess Diana died I was very 'meh', I knew it'd be a right ruckus of media rubbish and didn't look forward to that at all ... I sympathized hugely with her family, especially her kids ... but f*ck no I didn't want to hear fake gushing about it every 5 minutes

I never think "meh" when I see someone has been killed, anywhere, not in real life. But maybe that's just me.

panerd was really unclear in his first post. He has since clarified it was about the coverage, so I get that. But he has to take responsibility for being unclear at the start. His first post as written came off as callous and uncaring.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I never think "meh" when I see someone has been killed, anywhere, not in real life. But maybe that's just me.

I have to ask, in all sincerity, how do you actually manage to function? I mean, given how incredibly common those stories are.

Maybe I'm misreading (or interpreting differently) what you're thinking instead of "meh". But anything other than a brief "aw, that's too bad" would seem like a serious investment because of the sheer numbers of death-related stories in a given day.

Do you avoid virtually all local news by chance? National & international too? Or is a story about one death (such as the youngster who stepped in front of a car last night in an Atlanta suburb) roughly equal emotional weight with a story about 30 deaths (from yesterday afternoon reporting of clashes in Yemen)

Now I figure you (or somebody) will think I'm being far more flippant than I actually intend, so please allow me to add some context to my question.

Dealing with death stories was something that I both contemplated and eventually learned to deal with back in my radio days, but not before a discussion with my mother. After some particularly deadly earthquake overseas (hundreds dead, thousands injured, etc) she asked me how on earth I managed to read that story & the details every hour at the top of the hour throughout the day. How it didn't just become overwhelming at some point. I explained that basically -- in order to function in my job-- Stalin was pretty much right when he said "When one man dies it is a tragedy, when thousands die it's statistics. If you contemplated the enormity of something that killed hundreds or thousands, you'd end up overcome by the horror of it. At some point, it becomes abstract numbers instead of people.

Point being, I'm not sure that "meh as a general rule" couldn't merely be a way of describing a coping mechanism.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I have to ask, in all sincerity, how do you actually manage to function? I mean, given how incredibly common those stories are.

Maybe I'm misreading (or interpreting differently) what you're thinking instead of "meh". But anything other than a brief "aw, that's too bad" would seem like a serious investment because of the sheer numbers of death-related stories in a given day.

Do you avoid virtually all local news by chance? National & international too? Or is a story about one death (such as the youngster who stepped in front of a car last night in an Atlanta suburb) roughly equal emotional weight with a story about 30 deaths (from yesterday afternoon reporting of clashes in Yemen)

Now I figure you (or somebody) will think I'm being far more flippant than I actually intend, so please allow me to add some context to my question.

Dealing with death stories was something that I both contemplated and eventually learned to deal with back in my radio days, but not before a discussion with my mother. After some particularly deadly earthquake overseas (hundreds dead, thousands injured, etc) she asked me how on earth I managed to read that story & the details every hour at the top of the hour throughout the day. How it didn't just become overwhelming at some point. I explained that basically -- in order to function in my job-- Stalin was pretty much right when he said "When one man dies it is a tragedy, when thousands die it's statistics. If you contemplated the enormity of something that killed hundreds or thousands, you'd end up overcome by the horror of it. At some point, it becomes abstract numbers instead of people.

Point being, I'm not sure that "meh as a general rule" couldn't merely be a way of describing a coping mechanism.

I would imagine that there is something lost in translation between what I am reading as "meh" and what you (and presumeably panerd) are. Of course, I don't dwell on the death and dying in the media every day. I'm just saying when I run into it, I never react with my interpretation of "meh", which to me is cold and heartless given we're talking about life and death.

Do I spend more time than a moment reflecting on the sadness of it, that people lost their lives, or that I am powerless to affect it? Of course not.

But my reaction is just never "meh".

[Chief Rum]

FWIW, while I believe that I have a "non-meh" reaction to pretty much any story like this, this one in particular does have a more real feel to me because I am pretty familiar with LAX and can reasonably recreate a visual of what happened.

That said, I know there is no story involving innocent deaths to which I would react with "meh", regardless of whether or not I could emphathize with the victims or be familiar with the setting in which the tragedies occurred.

[panerd]

Yes perhaps I used the wrong word to start my thought. Maybe ugh? Maybe here we go? I don't know. I certainly wasn’t “mehing” somebody’s dad/friend/husband being killed. My thought was here comes 24 hour coverage and God forbid if it’s a Muslim a national crisis. Part of the allure IMO for the mass shooters for these acts (especially the adolescent school shooters) is the amount of over-coverage/notoriety they can generate for an act that happens in the South Side of Chicago every night. Of course I understand why it gets more coverage. Joe citizen goes to the airport, eats at McDonalds, and sends his kids to middle school... he doesn't hang out in crack houses or on drug corners. But damn if I still don't get pissed off at the media when they run with this shit and convince a lot of people that society is unraveling before them and maybe set off a light bulb in the next suicidal loser that instead of just killing themselves maybe they can take a few with them and make CNN/FOX/ABC for a few days.

[EagleFan]

So..... 22 posts and only the first 3 are actually about the incident. Is that what we have become?

[DaddyTorgo]

Apparently.

[Chief Rum]

You guys recognize the irony in your posts, right?

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

You guys recognize the irony in your posts, right?

No. I am bashing the mass media on a football video game forum that I visit to discuss a wide range of topics. I am not covering the LAX shooting 24-7 for a national audience and speculating on what the motives were. I think I responded to you in every one of my posts except the first and responding to the Dobbs nonsense. In fact panerd was mentioned in 2-3 of your posts before I cleared up the use of the word "meh" for you again.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

So..... 22 posts and only the first 3 are actually about the incident. Is that what we have become?

I think this happens in just about every thread.

[Pyser]

wow, my flight was at 9:20 this morning at terminal 5 at lax. pretty far away so we didnt know til we were in the air (god bless live tv on planes).

lucky to get out of there (the city, not the airport, again, was nowhere near it). wild.


totally randomly, this was my 2nd shooting of the year. the santa monica college shooting over the summer was outside the front door of my office. i better study up on final destination or something.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by panerd

No. I am bashing the mass media on a football video game forum that I visit to discuss a wide range of topics. I am not covering the LAX shooting 24-7 for a national audience and speculating on what the motives were. I think I responded to you in every one of my posts except the first and responding to the Dobbs nonsense. In fact panerd was mentioned in 2-3 of your posts before I cleared up the use of the word "meh" for you again.

Umm, that wasn't for you. That was a response to EF and DT, the direct posts above my post you quoted. I was noting to them that they were criticizing the direction the thread had gone while doing the same thing themselves (extending the thread without commenting on the actual incident).

[Autumn]

I saw this happening live on my Twitter feed, because of some people who were at the airport while it was happening. Very surreal to not have anything reported on the news yet but seeing it all over the feed.