Gunman Kills 5 At Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting, Situation Remains Active

Edit inserted by Aerianne:

There was a tragedy at Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood Airport today. A man shot at and killed 5 people. At last count there were 8 additional wounded.

He was taken into custody. He is an American citizen, apparently suffering from, what I think is, PTSD from the Iraq war. His family reports that he has mentally unstable since returning from that service.


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=36a_1483729043



I'm repairing this thread in MorphGirl's absence.

We should have the thread.

I'll remind everyone: The title is fine but what you need to do is to provide some comment/dialogue from you. You can't just put a title and then only have a link in your post.

 

The shooter is a United States Army Veteran of the Iraq War.

He hasn't been mentally well since he returned from the war.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/esteban-santiago-identified-gunman-fort-lauderdale-shooting-article-1.2937904

 

If I heard right he had a gun in checked baggage and there is talk if that should not be allowed.

Because if someone wanted to shoot up an airport they couldn't just walk up to the security line then start shooting.

 

It is hard, impossible really, for me to feel any sympathy for anyone who does something like this

But in general I do feel a lot of sympathy for Iraq vets who spend a year, or years in some cases, in a violent combat zone then are just dumped back into civilian society with minimal, if any, mental health services

 

This is why citizens should not have guns.
Especially those who just came home from deployment in a hostile area.

 

This is the news section.

If you'd like a gun debate there are some here. You can use the search function.

 

ok this is something I don't understand and doesn't make sense to me. I am not from the USA

This guy was in the reserves and national guard.

My understanding of this is that someone in the reserves and national guard is involved in homeland security and would not be sent to iraq at all.

Is this correct?

I am just trying to suss out the details as some things don't add up to me... like people saying he was in iraq. There were reports originally that he flew there from Canada, which was not true. People in the reserves and national guard stay home, they do not go abroad?

 

Reserve units were deployed to Iraq - In times of peace they do not deploy, but they are in reserve if needed in times of war. Some reserve units were deployed more than once to Iraq

Not sure if the national guard is ever deployed

 

Some National Guard and Reserves have been deployed over the last decade or two. I've never understood that, I thought they were for homeland protection.

 

Here's some info on his service:

In an email, Ms. Olmstead said that Mr. Santiago joined the Puerto Rico National Guard in December 2007. In 2010, he deployed to Balad, Iraq, with the 130th Engineer Battalion, which spent a year clearing roads of improvised explosives and maintaining bridges; he was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation.
At least two soldiers from his company were killed in insurgent attacks during the tour, but there is nothing in the record that indicates Mr. Santiago had been in combat.
Ms. Olmstead said he served in the Army Reserves before joining the Alaska Army National Guard in November 2014. Before his discharge last year, he had worked as a combat engineer as a private first class. An official service record released on Friday by the Army showed that Mr. Santiago had received a number of commendations, including the Army Good Conduct Medal.http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/fort-lauderdale-airport.html?_r=0