The Warning Signs Were There

I wanted to touch base on the shooting last week in Southern California.

There is admittedly something weird about seeing your name in a headline about a mass murderer.  

I'm not going to make a joke about that because there’s nothing funny about any of this.

Still, seeing “David Long” in a headline about such a tragedy is still a bit… weird.

It seems to be me that this particular mass shooting has not gained traction in our collective consciousness. Maybe the it’s the competition for our compassion with 31 dead from the fires in California. 

Maybe the unsettled state of our 2018 mid-term elections is eating up too much mind space with new electoral debacles unravelling among calls and accusations of FRAUD from Li’l Donnie Trump.

Maybe we’re still stunned from the previous mass shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh. Not to mention the two women shot and killed in a Florida yoga class or the two black people shot to death in a Kentucky grocery store. All over a two week period. 

Maybe its the sameness of the shooter: yet another angry white man, just like the other shootings.  

Trump’s not paying attention to this story. The killer was not from a caravan of Central American refugees. The shooter was not an immigrant, illegal or otherwise. His skin was not brown. His religion was not Muslim. The victims were college students in California so likely not part of the Trump base of support. Nothing here to get the attention of his narrow, egotistical focus. 

So just as a reminder: 11 people last week were shot dead last week at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, CA. A police officer who rushed to the scene to help lost his life as well.  Then the killer shot himself.

That’s a lot of people dead by means of a gun.

Another problem we’re having with this story is that maybe we’re tired, just so bone achingly tired of this narrative: crazy guy with a gun kills a bunch of innocent victims with the aftermath being nothing will be done as the next crazy guy with a gun locks and loads for his turn at the shooting gallery.  

Who was this crazy guy with a gun? Who was this David Long who snapped and decided to solve his problems with high speed projectiles shredding the flesh of innocent human beings? 

Well, apparently in high school, David Long was an asshole. 

Evie Cluke coached Ian David Long on Newbury Park High School’s track team in 2007 and 2008, describing him as a “ticking time bomb” who constantly lost his temper, threw tantrums and would scream at coaches when he didn’t like their decisions. He once assaulted another female coach. “He was out of control. He would scream and cuss and his face would turn bright red and people would actually back away from him.”

Long was kicked off the track team immediately after he assaulted the female coach but the boy’s track coach urged her to reconsider because that could compromise Long’s goal of joining the Marines. The head track coach reversed Long’s expulsion from the team while the principal brushed it aside as a one-time incident.

Cluke would disagee with the “one-time incident” assessement, citing that  she  repeatedly reported Long’s behavioral problems but to no avail.

As for that goal of joining the Marines, here’s what Cluke said Long once told her about why he wanted to sign up for the Marines.  “He said he wanted to be in the Marines because he wanted to kill for our country.”  

Cluke believes that if other coaches and school administrators had acted following complaints about Long, “he could’ve gotten help and 12 innocent people wouldn’t be dead now. The warning signs were there.”  

So far, authorities have not determined a motive.

I’m willing to go with Ian David Long was a crazy asshole with a gun.