Again, horror: No sense to be made of a senseless act

The first few officers through that hotel room door on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino Sunday night in Las Vegas were spared the burden of having to take a life.

Despite their bravery, willingness and training, Stephen Paddock had already turned his weapon on himself.

If only his last act had been his first.

Instead, prior to committing suicide, the 64-year-old multimillionaire from Mesquite, Nevada, for reasons still unknown, pried open or busted out the window of his high-rise hotel room and opened fire with semi-automatic or automatic rifles into a crowd of thousands below.

They were gathered there to attend an outdoor country music festival. Paddock, it seems -- he'd been at the hotel for several days already -- had other plans for them.  

So far the death toll has climbed to 59. Another 530 were injured either by the gunfire or the ensuing stampede.

Las Vegas, long the mecca of those drawn to the neon lights and ringing slots, now lays claim to the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, eclipsing the 49 killed inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando two years ago.

And yet, as with the mass shootings that preceded it -- San Bernardino, Aurora, Newtown, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, Columbine; the list seems endless -- we are left to contemplate whether Paddock's actions constitute an act of terrorism or that of a "lone wolf" in the throes of mental instability.

We are poised for another fruitless debate over whether stricter gun control laws or penalties for the illegal carry or discharge of firearms can prevent another deadly attack.

They can't. And whether or not Paddock's intent was to induce terror, he did.

Those debates might reign on for days or weeks or months to come on social media and before the Senate and House floors, but they will bring no comfort to the families of the victims, nor to Paddock's.

There is no political stance or moral imperative to be enacted here that can rationalize the senseless act of a man whose explanation presumably left his body with the bullet that killed him.

We are left only to mourn, to reexamine our security measures and to hope and pray that this time be the last time. And undoubtedly it will, until the next time.

Published in Editorials on October 2, 2017 10:30 PM