Friday, March 06, 2020

A Win

Lean in, folks. This is good news. 
Authorities arrested a Sunnyvale man who was planning a mass shooting at the Unite Parcel Service facility there.He was taken into custody after a short pursuit and booked on charges including suspicion of evading police, driving under the influence and several weapons violations. That's when they searched his apartment. 
More than twenty thousand rounds of ammunition, high capacity magazines, five tactical rifles, a shotgun, three handguns, body armor and tactical backpacks filled with the previously mentioned ammunition.
Alleged. Assumed. And so on.
Police believe this gentleman was planning a mass shooting at his place of employment. The previously mentioned United Parcel Service. Planning. Preparing. The backpacks were staged at the doorway of his home. 
No one was injured. The potential gunman did not take his own life and all his co-workers were able to return to work the next day. Alive. Relived. And probably stuck with the feeling that they had missed becoming yet another sad story, statistic. Thanks to the providence of time. Being ahead of the schedule of whatever program this fellow had laid out for himself. The ones he had texted to his employer. 
You may remember a few years back when a disgruntled UPS worker shot and killed three of his co-workers, injured three others before taking his own life. Before police arrived. Four dead, three wounded. That doesn't keep you in the news cycle very long these days. Especially since that same day a gunman across the continent in Washington D.C. shot up a Congressional Softball practice, wounding four before being killed by police responding to the scene. 
So what I am suggesting here is that body count should not be an issue. Lives saved should be the concern. That is what makes this such a fine exception. A fine, creepy exception. Living in a world where we can take heart in all twenty thousand of those rounds not being fired is the silver lining in a very dark cloud. Good job.
There is still so very much work to be done. 

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