Gun therapy hits unexpected snag

[james_davis_nicoll]

[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.

Comments

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

physical activity requiring high dexterity and mental focus helped them cope with PTSD

Yes, that's why my grandfather liked woodworking. But that doesn't make gunplay an obvious parallel. Similarly, overcoming small challenges helps people deal with depression, but that doesn't mean setting them large challenges they'll probably fail at is an even better idea.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Target shooting really is good for a lot of kinds of regular old daily stress; it's fundamentally a relaxation contest with a point scoring system.

Combat veterans with PTSD, though, yikes. I can see exactly why it helped Chris Kyle and exactly why generalizing was a bad idea.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Yes, exactly. Contextually, it's the wrong solution.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I used to love target shooting but if I had to do it over, I would shoot just a little less so I could save up enough money for hearing protection.

[scentofviolets.livejournal.com]

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.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

The suggestion above was that it was a good relaxation method, not a useful household chore.

[scentofviolets.livejournal.com]

So what your saying is you never split wood or weeded a garden.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

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.)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

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.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

From recent personal experience, weeding is excellent relaxation. At least when compared to a laboratory research PhD.

[scentofviolets.livejournal.com]

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.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Amazingly enough, I was.