California Bar Shooter Was A Marine

According to KOMO 4 (November 8, 2018) the gunman who shot and killed 12 people at a country music bar in a Los Angeles suburb was a former U.S. Marine. Ian David Long, 28, served in the Marines for nearly five years, including a seven-month tour in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. He left with the rank of corporal in March 2013.

In April 2018, a neighbor called authorities to report loud noises coming from Long's house. Deputies found Long "was somewhat irate, acting a little irrationally" and called in a mental health specialist. They also were concerned that Long might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, "basing that (on) the fact that he was a veteran and had been in the Corps." The mental health specialist assessed Long but concluded he couldn't be involuntarily committed for psychiatric observation.

Authorities haven't identified what motivated Long to open fire during college night at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, a city of about 130,000 people about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles.
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Did Long's military service have anything to do with his actions 5+ years after his separation from the USMC? Maybe, maybe not... it seems unlikely, but we cannot know for sure.

What is known is that military personnel, government employees, and veterans do not have an easy path to obtaining mental health counseling and assistance. Too often they are ignored, belittled, or seen as weak and told "just let it go" when asking for help. Some agencies have even retaliated against employees who reported problems and asked for help! This is unacceptable, and may have led to Long's actions in a bar in California years later. ???

Even in crisis, should you attempt to contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline Chat, you may find that many people are in line and that you have to wait hours to be connected to a counselor. 

Approximately 34 percent of the 83 shootings committed by men between the ages of 18 and 59 were veterans, per an analysis by World Beyond War.  Veterans also have higher rates of mental health problems than civilians; one study reports that veterans kill themselves at a 50 percent higher rate than civilians, per The Los Angeles Times.

As Hugh Gusterson, professor of international affairs at George Washington University notes to The New York Times, veterans account for 13 percent of the population, “but more than a third of the adult perpetrators of the 43 worst mass killings since 1984 had been in the United States military.” (Heavy.Com, November 8, 2018)

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A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way