It is unfathomable to believe that a 64-year-old apparently well-off man could hole himself up in a hotel room, smash out a window, and open fire on a crowd of more than 20,000 concert goers below, slaughter at least 59 and injure hundreds more.
Why would such a man do such a horrible thing? How could anyone, for whatever reason, be so deranged, so evil, so much of a coward as to hide 35 stories up and rain bullets down upon innocent people?
Why?
I've been to that hotel many times on business, and so has my son, Mike, who is a national event photographer, and some of the people who work for him. I have other photographer and event planning friends who have been there as well, and even though I haven't been touched by this tragedy directly, it has wrenched my soul.
Somehow, maybe, it would be easier if, indeed, this was an act of terror by Isis or some other crazy terrorist group. I don't know. Thank God it was a white man with no past criminal record and not a Muslim, black or Hispanic, or Trump would be railing against them and making all kinds of threats.
How can it be that anyone can smuggle 10 suitcases, apparently most filled with guns and ammo, into a hotel room without anyone noticing?
Why do we allow ordinary people to purchase weapons so deadly, weapons that have no conceivable purpose than to kill other people? Trump said Tuesday morning, "We'll be talking about guns as time goes by." We'll see what that means, but don't hold your breath. The 2nd Amendment? It was written when guns were muskets and it took two minutes to load a single shot.
Meanwhile, among the Las Vegas victims is a young woman from Maryland who was shot in the eye, and who will lose her sight should she survive. At last report, she was in a coma. Why? All she wanted to do was have fun and hear some music.
With all of the tragedies that have befallen us in recent weeks, this has touched me the most. Hurricane Irma, which cost me a business trip to Chicago and during which son Mike was hospitalized in Tampa (a big scare, but all is well), and which caused so much horrific tragedy for so many people, did not affect me in this way. My heart goes out to the people of Puerto Rico and I'm angered at Trump's self-centered, self-important attitude, but hurricane are unavoidable acts of nature.
This horrible shooting was not unavoidable. It was a deliberate act by a crazy man who was armed to the teeth.
And we still don't know why.