May 2018 Veteran Facility Killing is PTSD Fueled by Firearms

SPECIAL UPDATE: February 17, 2019

Please see our blog about new Ketamine treatments for PTSD and depression. There are new micro-dosing breakthrough treatments available that work fast with minimal side effects. Ketamine is used in anasthesiology and yes, in large doses, it is known as the street drug Special K. 

Original post:

It’s hard to see veteran suicide and be-pro gun.  Firearms are the number one method of veteran suicide. We’d love to be put out of business, and guns keep us here. It’s the law, but it’s not helping our American veterans or their families. Now news of this:

A veteran, suffering from PTSD, murdered three defenseless women – one of them 7-months pregnant – in a Yountville, California veterans facility. It could be described as a perfect storm of three wrongs making a fourth. The wrongs; PTSD, a disturbed person easily getting a hold of guns and ammo, and the culture of mass murder in America.

Sadly, this incident breaks a wall that surprises in a world where nothing can anymore. A look at the sad facts reveals that even those trying to help vets suffering from PTSD are not safe where so many guns are within arm’s reach.

The victims were identified as The Pathway Home Executive Director Christine Loeber, 48; Clinical Director Jennifer Golick, 42; and Jennifer Gonzales, 29, a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. A family friend told The Associated Press that Gonzales was seven months pregnant.

 70% of Veteran Suicides are Caused by Firearms

These three women who worked at Pathway Home, a residential program within the Yountville Veterans Home, were there to help people like the murderer, but in a sad, sick twist, found themselves victims of the same issue they were there to ease. The murderer was a veteran, having served in the Middle East. His intent was clear as he wore body armor (who needs that to go hunting or shooting?) and sported ammo rounds “hanging around his neck”, as described by an eye-witness. He was expelled from the facility days before. Why isn’t know at this time, but the irony is disturbing.

Ms. Loeber, the director of the Pathway Home, was so dedicated that she often times slept nights in her office to cover a vacant shift. Ms. Gonzalez, the pregnant victim who was heading to D.C. to celebrate her upcoming birth with family, was described as by a learned colleague as a “brilliant” talent who did amazing work with veterans with PTSD. How that assistance is gone for those by the cowardly, self-centered act of one person. Again, PTSD meets guns and it’s over.

The murderer also exposes the failings of our armed forces. He was not “the best of the best” but was an emotionally at-risk individual going in. This is the kind of recruit that our armed forces thrives on these days. With numbers shrinking all the time and millions and millions of advertising dollars needed to be spent on TV ads and NFL sponsorships, our military is bloated, sick, and getting worse.

Guns in America, PTSD, and how we treat our veterans are a highly-volatile combination that don’t have a bright future. But this blogger knows that only one of them can be legislated out of existence and over time. Only one of them was used to kill three civilians. Only one of is supported by corrupt dollars in the hands of corrupt special-interest groups and those politicians willing to sell their souls. In the end, there’s a chance that banning guns and all the military-style accessories that come with them, will give us a chance at ending PTSD and war as we know it. We need to start somewhere and we need to start now.