It did not take long, but it still came out. Another Crazy Vet suffering from PTS goes on a rampage and kills several!
Except that is not true.
Yes he was crazy, and yes he was a vet. But the crazy part was there BEFORE becoming a vet.
More after the fold.
The crazy vet slander is something military members face all the time. More so when you are in the Reserves/Guard and have more contact with the civilian world. It is a mix of pitty and contempt. (Vietnam Vets get it a lot more as the homeless vet image is very strong) But after 12 years of wars (5 + under Obama by the way) we are starting to see the homeless OIE/OEF vet image.
This image hurts vets ablity to get jobs, and how they are treated by others. What is sad is that many of these "homeless vietnam vets" you see out on the street begging are too young to have been in vietnam and to old to have been in Iraq/Afgan. (I ask them because there are many programs that can help vets recover from addiction, get homes, medical care that are not well published and have aided a few vets get that help. Sadly i've had 30 year olds claim to be Vietnam Vets, yet the war was over before they were concived.)
This guy will get played up as a Vet suffering from PTS. Because it is already being reported as such. The washington post reported that the man's father felt he had PTS and points to the 2004 shooting of tires as proof...yet that was THREE YEARS BEFORE HE JOINED THE NAVY!
(an aside here, becomeing "blacked out with rage" and shooting tires of a car should have resulted in a conviction that would have made him inelgable to join the Navy or buy a shotgun from a dealer - a week before the shooting. Yet he was never charged? Just arrested, no charges, no trial, no conviction. What happend? That is the real issue, maybe had the City of Seattal done its job this guy would not have been able to buy a shotgun. Or what ever gun he shot in his texas apartment - again not charged or convicted which would have taken away his ablity to buy/own a gun. )
He was kicked out of the military for his anger issues and inablity to control his weapons. Yet even with a general discharge he was hired up as a contractor to work in an senstive area. Mostly likely because he never got chaged with crimes like assault (he spent two nights in jail for "disordaly conduct" in Georgia, shot tires out in Washington, and fired off his firearm in Texas but by not answering the door or phone, avoided punishment.)
Maybe some of those RKBA's are right - if we would enforce the CURRENT laws we won't need new laws. (I know, if he could not get the shotgun from a store he might have gotten it some place else, but had he been charged in 2004, there might be 12 people going about thier daily routeen today, or at least it would have been harder for him. And it would have kept him out of the military.)