Yesterday morning I woke up to another shooting only this one about 20 minutes from my House.  Funny I had never been to Antioch until this week and was considering another sub job at Cane Ridge a school just near the Waffle House and decided not.  Good thing.

The shooting took place at 3 am a common time for Waffle Houses to be busy as it is the post bar closing hangout for many types of individuals.  Now this Waffle House was located in a very mixed area surrounded by many new housing developments and apartments, one unit that enabled the gunman to walk home post shooting.  The gunman drove his vehicle, was seen exiting the vehicle and began opening fire in the parking lot before entering the premise, killing one employee and another customer who was chatting with him during his smoke break.  This was all witnessed by another customer who had not yet gone in to the Waffle House, who was Hispanic.  Of the dead, two were young Black Women, the young cook, also black and one Hispanic man. The man who witnessed this in the parking lot Hispanic, and the man who stopped the gun man - black.  A young man who has utterly denied being a hero despite wrestling the gun out of the arm of the lunatic and getting it tossed out of his hands and access, and as he says it, was running for the door pushing the man with him on his haste to get out.  It was not heroism but it seemed that way despite his protestations to the contrary. But he had no gun, was a young black man who was afraid and fear and flight collided that stopped the man from killing them all.

The shooter again fits a prototype that I have come very familiar - White, 28/29, long history of mental health issues, isolated, and able to buy an AK 15.  An AK 15 taken from him after an insane gun issue at the White House, promptly the gun taken from him, returned to his father the legal owner who then promptly returned it to his son who again had mental health issues, including believing Taylor Swift was stalking him which may have been behind his reasoning to relocate from Ohio to the Nashville area. 

The shooter is still on the run.  He entered the Waffle House nude other than a jacket which he discarded and apparently walked home to his apartment found some pants and took off and has not been seen since.  And of course armchair Police, News reporters and the stationary crazy who elect to never leave their home to spread their crazy took to social media with their conspiracy theories regarding the shooting.

Here was a Black man on Twitter who has decided it is a coordinated effort by White Supremacists to fake mental illness and kill as many black individuals in known places they congregate, which is apparently a Waffle House.  Funny I see all kinds of people in a Waffle House in Tennessee and race is not a factor, poor food choices however and the availability of it after a night of drinking, the post Church set or those who work unconventional hours yes.  And again the Waffle House is to the South what was Denny's to the North. What was even more despicable in his hysteria was the neglect of the one Hispanic victim who he decides does not fit his narrative and is not worthy of a mention.  Yes but starting a race war is.

Then there were others that were equally as divisive with accusations that this was again politically motivated , that he had a vehicle full of dangerous arms and was a Southern Redneck protesting some political agenda.  Yes and walking in partially nude to a Waffle House, leaving nude and going on the run shows he was clearly sane.   Again sane enough to carry a gun.  But no he left his truck, it was registered, a witness identified him quickly and there was no Police standoff where he was left standing because he was white.  The Police here would have killed him standing there naked of that I have no doubt.  I live here and they live for this kind of shit.  It is terrifying to think that you have a Police force that has wet dreams for a mass shooting as they can then validate their being and military obsession that is co-joined at the hip for fetishists here in Nashville/Tennessee.

Again, mental health aside, it was clear he had major issues regarding that aspect of his personality.   Again access and availability to that is very akin to the shooter that nearly killed Gabrielle Gifford's and that too was badly neglected despite the signs that he was clearly delusional.  Yet nothing prevented him from getting guns.

Yesterday my favorite kids of Parkland did hit social media to remind everyone that this is about GUNS.  Access and availability to those, however, not a problem.  And way cheaper.  Have a problem? Get a gun, use it on yourself on or others either/or you are good to go.

The story is still unfolding here and I refuse to go down any ulterior motive or theory behind the shooting yesterday.  But I will as always rant about guns.  Again the young man took the gun away from the shooter with his hands and they show the scars of that.  The same was true of another shooting in the area a year ago when a Black man did walk into a small church and shot up White parishioners.   And yes he is alive and a hate crime was mentioned and like many of these stories, little is followed up with where that stands regarding his status but again that seems to be buried in the dust bins of mass shootings.

This is about Guns.  Access to absurdly large military grade weapons that have no purpose other than to do mass damage.  Again why does a civilian need a gun of that level? Oh that is right the 2nd Amendment or that thing with the NRA that may be the real reason as they have robbed us at gunpoint of our democracy.

So the  NEXT time a gun crazed shooter goes on a  rampage, quit with the armchair cable news bullshit and start writing, calling and joining activist groups that care about gun laws and finding Politicians that will support changing them.  2000 votes beats 2000 dollars proffered by the NRA.

Then have a Waffle and think about what it means to be free to enter a public facility, a school, a library, a mall, a movie theater without having to arm up.  These are just one of many here in Tennessee. What about your community?