A tragedy in Pittsburgh

[davidpizzica]

Last night a lone gunman walked into a LA fitness center in Pittsburgh and killed four women and wounded nine others before killing himself. The women were attending a dance/aerobics class and he turned the lights off and started shooting. A note was found and police are going over some text messages to try and find a motive. I'm asking for PT prayers for the victims and their families.

[Laura's Babies]

I saw that on TV and it is so sad... I have already been praying for the victims and their families.

[RICHARD]

Man really does know how to be cruel.

Prayers to all affected.

[Medusa]

Did you hear what some of his reasons were for going berserk? He hadn't had a date since, I think, '84 and he hadn't had sex for at least 3 years. Well. There are good reasons for committing murder. Tell me, where are we safe? A health club is the last place that you would think a crime of this nature would be committed because people are health conscious and trying to get fit. Can't go to convenience stores any more w/out worrying that you'll get popped. Even church is becoming a dangerous place. So where can we go? What can we do? One of the instructors that was shot is pregnant. I haven't heard as of yet whether or not she and her baby survived. Tragic. And pointless.

[Karen]

Sad, the victims and the community will be in our prayers.

[lvpets2002]

:( That was so Sad & Horrible.. I just dont know why these people cant just kill themselves First.. Why do they have to kill others & wound others.. Did you see on ABC where they was reading his Blogg.. This guy had it all on his Blogg for a year now of what he was going to do.. Its just Sick..

May the others Rest In Peace & Heal Soon.. Prayers for all of them & familys..

[CountryWolf07]

My mom's friend's husband knew one of the four women that were gunned down. Such a tragedy!

[chocolatepuppy]

How awful.:( It seems you just aren't safe anywhere. Prayers ...

[Edwina's Secretary]

How awful.:( It seems you just aren't safe anywhere. Prayers ...

No...sadly...with all the guns (and nuts to used them) out there...you are not.

[happylabs]

It really is horrible and shocking. They have excerpts from his blog on abc.com. He definitely hated women which if you read his blog stems way back to how he was treated by his mother. I know that sounds weird but if people would just get help and counseling before they are too far gone they wouldn't do this kind of thing. You really are not safe anywhere these days.:(

[davidpizzica]

One of the wounded women turned out to be 10 weeks pregnant. I believe she was the aerobics instuctor. She was shot twice, once in the back, and once in her left shoulder. One miracle was that her unborn baby was unharmed.

[chocolatepuppy]

No...sadly...with all the guns (and nuts to used them) out there...you are not.

It's not the guns I'm afraid of, they can't hurt me without being in a nut's hands. This nut would have had a gun regardless of gun laws.

[davidpizzica]

Did you hear what some of his reasons were for going berserk? He hadn't had a date since, I think, '84 and he hadn't had sex for at least 3 years. Well. There are good reasons for committing murder. Tell me, where are we safe? A health club is the last place that you would think a crime of this nature would be committed because people are health conscious and trying to get fit. Can't go to convenience stores any more w/out worrying that you'll get popped. Even church is becoming a dangerous place. So where can we go? What can we do? One of the instructors that was shot is pregnant. I haven't heard as of yet whether or not she and her baby survived. Tragic. And pointless.

Mary, the pregnant instructor is in stable condition and her unborn child is unharrmed.

[happylabs]

One of the wounded women turned out to be 10 weeks pregnant. I believe she was the aerobics instuctor. She was shot twice, once in the back, and once in her left shoulder. One miracle was that her unborn baby was unharmed.

Yes. She is the ex-girlfriend of the shooter!!! :eek:

[kokopup]

It looks like we are starting to see a trend, Unstable Suicidal people getting a gun and killing others before killing themselves. Since 55% of gun shot deaths are from suicide, future deaths may really esculate with the gunman being suicidal. It appears to be a sign of our times. He was obviously crying for help on his blog but it doesn't look like he had any readers. If he did have readers it appears their head was stuck in the sand or they just didn't want to rock the boat.

[blue]

It looks like we are starting to see a trend,

Not a new trend either.


By Marthe Fourcade and Michelle Fay Cortez

July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Murders and suicides spike with unemployment, U.S. and European researchers said.

The scientists, who combed through almost four decades of European Union records, found that a 1 percent increase in joblessness brings about a 0.8 percent rise in suicide and murder rates. Government programs to help workers offer some protection, they wrote in the July 8 issue of The Lancet.

The global economy is now in its deepest recession since World War II, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicting the output of its 30 members will shrink 4.1 percent this year. The slump has pushed unemployment to its highest since 1983 in the U.S. and the most in a decade in the 16 nations that use the euro.

“The effects of a financial crisis depend crucially on how governments chose to respond,” lead researcher David Stuckler of Oxford University said in a telephone interview. “Financial crises cause significant hardships for many people, but they don’t have to cost them their lives.”

Stuckler, Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues said governments may be able to use the findings to help people better cope with the recession.

A bigger jump in joblessness made things worse, the researchers found. When the unemployment rate grew more than 3 percent, the increase in suicides was 4.5 percent.

Silver Lining

In that scenario, the scientists also found a 28 percent surge in deaths from alcohol abuse, a link that “lends support to the notion that short-term negative effects of unemployment mainly affect psychological distress,” they wrote.

There was a silver lining: the scientists found that for every 1 percent gain in unemployment, the number of road traffic accidents dropped 1.4 percent, a development they explained by the fact that people tend to walk more than they drive when times are hard.

Also on the brighter side, the rise in unemployment didn’t boost suicide rates in countries where governments spent at least $190 per person on programs to help workers keep their jobs or train for a new one, according to Stuckler. The U.S. and the U.K. spend less than that, and countries in central and eastern Europe have weaker protection for workers, the researchers said.

“Some places have done much better than others, even with the same levels of unemployment,” McKee said in an interview. “Those employment policies don’t interfere with the benefit you get in road traffic accidents. You are getting a win-win situation.”

Tip of Iceberg

Stuckler cited the New Deal, which U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted in 1933 to help pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression.

“Death rates fell, even though many people learned about the Great Depression by hearing about bankers jumping out of windows,” he said.

Suicides have claimed some prominent investors and executives in the last 12 months. German billionaire Adolf Merckle stepped in front of a train in January. David Kellerman, chief financial officer of Freddie Mac in McLean, Virginia, hanged himself in April. U.K. investor Kirk Stephenson jumped in front of a train last September.

“The U.S. and the U.K. currently spend under $190 to help workers get back into the workforce and retain jobs,” Stuckler said. “So we would expect to see more rises in suicides in the U.S. and the U.K. than in countries that have better resourced active labor market programs.”

Overall death did not increase when unemployment climbed, the researchers found. They noted that the increase in suicide and murder rates was for people aged under 65.

“Suicides are just the tip of the iceberg,” Stuckler said. “We can’t measure all the emotional distress. There is much more going on in the background in terms of human suffering.”

The Centre for Crime and Justice at King’s College in London and the Wates Foundation, a U.K. charity, funded the research.

Link. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aJp2H_Axtn68#)

[Medusa]

Yes. She is the ex-girlfriend of the shooter!!! :eek:

Not according to what the police are saying. They say that he didn't have a relationship w/any of his victims. He just couldn't understand why women didn't find him attractive and he was bitter about it. He felt that the women at the gym were so beautiful that they didn't appear human.

[caseysmom]

I have also heard on the news that he didn't have a relationship with any of the women.

[moosmom]

The idiot's reasoning was because he got shafted by all the women he dated. I KNEW he looked familiar!!!!!!! Ugh!! He complained he hadn't had a date in 19 years!!!:eek: