Holy Crap! Another person shot...I am officialy terrified

Cohen, its your opinion, I respect that..but I think you're way off base here.
An accident is a horrible way to die, but having some random nutcase runnin around with a sniper rifle and shootin people dead?...no comparison IMO..

Stay safe DC-area guys..keep your eyes wide open at all times...

EDIT: damn DC..well said...stay safe man..

 

You know. . . I'm waiting on this nutcase to send something
to Anthony hopkins about BECOMING something.

What worries me most is. . .COPYCATS!!!

When I heard this one in Virginia that was my 1st thought
.. .but when i seen it was not that far away from the
others. . . I was still worried but not as much.

Rocket River

 

Jeezus DCkid!!!

Stay at home man.......

 

Looking at statistics, Cohen is correct.

If you're really that concerned about it, then perhaps you should stay home.

wait, scratch that ... you have a better chance of your house catching fire and you burning alive .... or your house getting robbed while your there, getting a bullet in the head or your throat slashed ... ect .. ect ..

 

I saw on the news earlier that this latest gas station shooting did not fit the profile.They said it was close range and that a shotgun was used.

If I lived around that area I'd definitely be scared ... I wouldn't stay home but I don't think I'd be chilling outside at the park either.

Stay safe guys

 

It isn't like any of that stuff. If you're house catches fire you can run. It isn't like a traffic accident either...most traffic accidents don't happen while you're going back to your car after grabbing a donut and some OJ from the food mart. This is a madman randomly shooting people from a distance. He sets up and picks somebody off. This is much scarier.

All posters in the DC area...please take care and remain vigilant. You are all in my prayers that you will remain safe.

 

Walk in our shoes for a second, and tell me you would go to a gas station to get gas where a sniper has been hanging out picking off people. Not likely. That's fear. The people are being randomly killed. But the event itself is not random. It's god damn happening. None of us will shut in, but we are afraid, and we will be on the lookout.

By the way, one of those damn mitsubishi's drove right past me jogging this mourning. Wholy crap. I took the license plate just in case. UVM2 (L or I) .....

Luckily it's raining today. That should hamper his attack. But it was raining some yesterday night too.

 

Originally posted by Rokkit
Two different types of fear. A traffic accident is a random occurence, true, but one of those things that are a part of day-to-day life. It would be like going through life scared of everything outside your home...might as well be a shut in.

My point exactly.

So even if the threat to your life is greater in a traffic accident, you control the fear (h*ll, we practically ignore it).

But this is someone willingly and knowingly taking lives. Think about it. You and I both know either one of us could die in a traffic accident at any given moment. Now pretend that there's someone high above your street shooting random people as they come out of their door.

The randomness of the act is there. But the accident is gone. It is replaced by threat. You are seriously saying they should generate equal amounts of fear?

No. I expect them to generate different amounts of fear. But do you believe that they should generate greatly disparate amounts of fear? If the traffic accident threat is a much more likely to take your life, why is the fear generated from the threat of dying in a traffic accident a 0 and this a 10? It appears to be a good opportunity to change one's perspective on the present threat to control the fear. If people don't want to try this apporach, that's fine. I guess it's possible that instead of reducing the fear of a gunman, they could possibly find that they should live in crippling fear every time they gof or a drive.

Whether it's a drunk driver hurling a 2000 pound hunk of metal at 100 mph the or a wacko hurling a 0.1 pound hunk of metal at 1800 mph, the end result is the same. IMHO, we should use fear to help stay alert, but don't let the fear rule you.

 

Actually, I think the odds are pretty slim you'd be one of the people he shot. But keep in mind, we can't form an accurate etimate yet, because the sample size is incomplete-- we don't know how many people he'll kill before he gets caught, or how quickly he'll kill that number.

You can't measure the likelihood you'll be shot against an entire calendar year, or the entire metro population. We don't know what area his targets are limited to yet.

 

Originally posted by PhiSlammaJamma
Walk in our shoes for a second,

I lived in LA for ten years.

and tell me you would go to a gas station to get gas where a sniper has been hanging out picking off people. Not likely.

I won't stand in the middle of an intersection either.

 

Is there a fear quota? I didn't realize people have to balance the books for it.

Its pretty easy. One is a psycho on the loose taking lives. The other is a random traffic accident.

No, you shouldn't let fear 'rule' you. Far from it. But I think its pretty rational for the people who live in the area to be more concerned over the fact there is a serial killer among them.

 

Great. We agree on all of that.

Now, have any suggestions on how to help those effected ease and manage their fear?

 

Pretty stuff ... the first shooting happened right across the street from where I work, the first gas station that was struck.

I don't know, personally I'm not in fear per se, cuz in the back of your head, you can never fathom that it will be you. The shootings have all hit close to where I live/work, but again you never think it'll happen to you, so the fear hasn't gripped me yet.

My thing is, if it's time to die, it's gonna happen anyways right ... you can't delay the inevitable so why worry about it, either by bullet, a train, heartattack ... whatever it will be, the randomness of these shootings doesn't change that bit. Did that make ANY sense?!?

What I do find frightening is some sick psycho gets pleasure out of this, that scares me. *shudders* That's a very creepy thought, the idea of getting amusement by taking lives. With all the craziness going on, it really seems like a lot of people have lost respect for life, and its sacredness.

I hope the bastards are found and killed, there needs to be no freaking trial or anything ... find em, blow em up, and we'll all be back to normal.

--rockit

 

wow, i had no idea that so many of you guys were so close to the situation. please be safe and careful!

 

Discounting their fears and telling them to 'put things in perspective' probably doesn't help.

The disagreement was never about whether everyone should become a shut in...rather that its hardly fair to believe the people that live there, by not equating the situation to that of a traffic accident, are overreacting. Its not an everyday thing....and it isn't a reach to be more concerned than normal.

 

I did not equate it with traffic accidents. I use the traffic accident threat to ones life, which is not minimal, to help gain perspective on the current threat.

The intent is not to discount people's fears or claim that they are overreacting. Only to help find a way to diminish or at least manage the fear. Don't discount advice from those that don't live in the area, many others have lived through similar or worse circumstances and might be able to offer some advice on how to deal with the situation.

I find it difficult to just sit here and let ya'll live in fear. Do you want us simply to say 'sorry bud, good luck with your fear'?

It's only advice, nothing more. It's how I would ease my mind if I were there. I use similar comparisons to ease my own mind about terrorism.

Stay safe.

 

Now I see where you are coming from. I think most of us missed your point. I did. You were implying we should use that to manage our fear. ok. That can work. And I'm pretty much of the opinion that if it's my time to go it's my time to go, but I'm not going to make myself a target either. I'm not going to pump gas without carefully deciding where to do it.

 

Exactly. Like PhiSlammaJamma said, it seemed to me that you were just trying to make DC feel like he was overreacting or thought it unneccesary that he was concerned. The way you stated it, that's the point it sounded like you were making. That's what I was disagreeing with. If that wasn't your intention, I'm relieved.

The guy has a serial killer in his area. I was thinking you weren't cutting him much slack.

 

Another shooting, this time a little SW of DC in Fredericksburg, VA. On the way to work, there were a gazillion police cars racing by, and I thought 'must be a pretty bad accident' since it was rainnig pretty hard and all. Then a 'breaking news' report comes on radio ... turns out they blocked the entire areas highways (I-95) and parts of the DC Beltway. Every ramp, exit, intersection is manned by police officers, and they're checking every white van that is going thru.

They have blocked access all the way into Maryland, a good 40-50 miles from where the shooting took place. I hope the b*stard is caught with the police out in such force.

Good news tho: the guy who was shot did not die, he is seriously wounded, but alive, nonetheless ... best of wishes for his recovery.

--rockit