james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2013-02-05 09:19 am

Gun therapy hits unexpected snag

[Chris Kyle] returned home to become a best-selling author and a mentor to other veterans, sometimes taking them shooting at a gun range near his Texas home as a kind of therapy to salve battlefield scars, friends said. One such veteran was Eddie Ray Routh, a 25-year-old Marine who had served tours in Iraq and Haiti.

But on Saturday, far from a war zone, Mr. Routh turned on Mr. Kyle, 38, and a second man, Chad Littlefield, 35, shortly after they arrived at an exclusive shooting range near Glen Rose, Tex., about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth, law enforcement authorities said Sunday. The officials said that for reasons that were still unclear, Mr. Routh shot and killed both men with a semiautomatic handgun before fleeing in a pickup truck belonging to Mr. Kyle.

[identity profile] scentofviolets.livejournal.com 2013-02-05 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
You know, when I was getting too rambunctious, I was sent outside to split wood. Or weed the garden.

I was never told to set up the cans and start plinking away.

[identity profile] nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com) 2013-02-06 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
The suggestion above was that it was a good relaxation method, not a useful household chore.

[identity profile] scentofviolets.livejournal.com 2013-02-06 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
So what your saying is you never split wood or weeded a garden.

[identity profile] nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com) 2013-02-06 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
In fact, I did both. The garden needed weeding, and the fireplace needed properly-sized wood.

The cans, however, did not need additional holes.

(If I was unclear, I was referring to the grandparent post: plinking is relaxing. I did not find weeding relaxing-- I found it intensely boring. Chopping was slightly better, if only because each piece of wood needed a slightly different approach.)

[identity profile] james-nicoll.livejournal.com 2013-02-06 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Weeding is only attractive as a relaxation in contrast to rock picking. Or baling. I hated baling.

Chopping is good. Shooting is good. Washing dishes is good.

[identity profile] lostwanderfound.livejournal.com 2013-02-07 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
From recent personal experience, weeding is excellent relaxation. At least when compared to a laboratory research PhD.

[identity profile] scentofviolets.livejournal.com 2013-02-06 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I was under the impression that a big part of the justification for these programs is so that participants will not cause mischief, yes?

How much mischief did you feel like making after laying in a half a cord of wood? All of it done by hand, no chainsaws need be applied.

[identity profile] kithrup.livejournal.com 2013-02-06 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
Amazingly enough, I was.