RPF0489-Lessons_from_Las_Vegas
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00:00:31.200 | In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting here on October 1, 2017, I'd like to use a few
00:00:36.760 | minutes of your attention to share some suggestions and thoughts that I hope will be helpful to
00:00:41.760 | you. This is Radical Personal Finance, and I try to keep my commentary and discussion
00:00:47.940 | on the show focused on personal finance. Today's conversation will be tangentially related
00:00:53.680 | to personal finance. Not talking about any personal finance techniques or specific financial
00:00:58.800 | planning discussions, but I do think that the comments I have to share with you are
00:01:02.900 | appropriate because they are practical and related to real life. In the same way that
00:01:09.160 | I consider a discussion of home security, how to protect your items against theft, to
00:01:14.880 | be an entirely valid aspect of personal finance, I consider a discussion of personal safety
00:01:21.280 | and security to keep you, when possible, from being killed, thus leaving your family without
00:01:27.160 | you and without your income, or to keep you from being injured, thus leaving you and your
00:01:31.920 | family without income. I consider these topics of personal safety to be important in the
00:01:39.480 | context of personal finance discussions. Everything I have to share with you in today's show
00:01:44.720 | will be very practical and I believe will be very useful to you.
00:01:49.720 | Whenever we have events like this, I always try to analyze them and learn any lessons
00:01:55.560 | that I can apply to my own life. I'll share just simply my lesson that I have learned
00:02:00.920 | from this event and some of the specific actions that I'm going to take as a result of this
00:02:06.160 | particular Las Vegas event. I think this is a very practical way to approach analysis
00:02:12.040 | of events that other people face, is to always look for the practical lesson, not to look
00:02:16.600 | for the thing to get mad about or the thing to get upset about, but look for the practical
00:02:20.280 | lesson, the thing that you can practically do. This is very important to me, that we
00:02:24.600 | always focus on what we can do and focus on the things that we can control and ignore
00:02:29.640 | most of the things that we can't control for our own mental health. And so I've been doing
00:02:34.640 | that with regard to this particular crime in Las Vegas.
00:02:40.760 | When analyzing an event like this, I think it's important to stay focused on the fact
00:02:44.880 | that you can't build your day-to-day life on black swan events. It's important to consider
00:02:53.600 | an event like this, but not to overreact. When there's an event that has heavy emotional
00:03:00.840 | weight, it's easy to allow the event to take on an outsized influence in our thinking and
00:03:08.040 | not to analyze it rationally and logically. So I recommend that you study the event carefully,
00:03:16.240 | learn the lessons that you can apply to your own life, but not let a very statistically
00:03:25.280 | improbable event deeply control your actions and your behaviors. Be careful to respond
00:03:32.120 | appropriately, but not to overreact. Speaking broadly and statistically, the likelihood
00:03:40.520 | of your ever being involved in an active shooter event, such as the Las Vegas massacre, is
00:03:48.120 | extremely, extremely small. The likelihood is increasing, and I think it's worth your
00:03:57.240 | taking seriously, but it is extremely small. You are far more likely to die from a heart
00:04:06.240 | attack due to poor health than from an active shooter targeting you when you're attending
00:04:15.400 | some sort of outdoor music concert. So if your heart health is not in tune or not on
00:04:21.680 | track, it's better for you to spend more time focusing on increasing the health of
00:04:26.400 | your heart than preparing for an active shooter scenario.
00:04:32.580 | Another reason why the Las Vegas event is very difficult to use as a model is it's
00:04:41.000 | an event that is unlike any other active shooter scenario that I've personally studied. It
00:04:49.400 | was a unique event with an impossible tactical layout from the perspective of any kind of
00:04:55.040 | defense or any kind of – well, defense. So in this situation, all of the old discussions
00:05:03.120 | about, "Well, if you had a handgun on your hip, you could defend yourself," none of
00:05:06.080 | that applies in this situation. I'm convinced that given the particular unique situation
00:05:11.360 | of this specific event, you could put three or four squads of Marines armed with heavy
00:05:18.760 | machine guns in the middle of that crowd and they would have been in every bit as much
00:05:23.940 | danger as everyone else who was unarmed. This was a unique event with an awful tactical
00:05:33.080 | situation. It's a miracle that the event was resolved as quickly as it was and with
00:05:38.440 | as little loss of life as it had.
00:05:44.400 | Now that's my analysis just simply from an external untrained perspective, just simply
00:05:49.880 | looking at it and considering the tactical situation of – it's incredible. Now time
00:05:55.720 | will tell when the full after-action reports are done by the appropriate police departments,
00:06:00.920 | et cetera. More details will emerge in time. So let's talk about what you can do. I'll
00:06:04.960 | just lead with what makes sense to me and then I'll give you some other suggestions
00:06:08.720 | of things that I have changed in the past when it comes to events like these.
00:06:13.520 | For me, this particular event has spurred and kind of pushed me forward to recognize
00:06:19.440 | the value of taking some medical training. I've generally ignored medical training.
00:06:26.000 | I've never had any formal medical training as have most of us. Perhaps we know some basics
00:06:30.920 | of how to put a band-aid on and how to keep a cut clean in hopes of avoiding infection.
00:06:37.080 | Perhaps we've practiced the Heimlich maneuver or we've had a simple CPR class somewhere.
00:06:43.120 | But I've never really done much beyond that when it comes to medical training.
00:06:48.160 | Looking at the scenario there in Las Vegas, it really brought home to me how valuable
00:06:52.760 | it would be for me to have some more basic – some more understanding of how to deal
00:06:59.060 | with a disaster, a disaster zone like that. Now from all of my understanding, it seems
00:07:06.840 | like dealing with bleeding, especially with gunshot wounds, things like that, that dealing
00:07:11.760 | with that is largely a matter of stop the bleeding, which the primary tool in my understanding
00:07:16.360 | of stopping the bleeding is to use pressure to do anything you can to stop the bleeding.
00:07:21.520 | But still, I've recognized, you know what? I'd like to be a little bit more competent
00:07:24.760 | when it comes to medical training. When I put myself in that situation as a victim and
00:07:30.760 | I imagine myself there with maybe my wife or my children or some friends that we were
00:07:35.920 | with at a concert got shot and I think how utterly helpless I would feel if I had nothing,
00:07:41.040 | if I had no tools, nothing associated with that, no training to deal with that and I'm
00:07:46.520 | just sitting there as a sitting duck watching one of my family members bleed out, then I
00:07:51.680 | don't want to be in that situation.
00:07:54.440 | So for me, I'm going to personally investigate taking advantage of some medical training
00:07:59.920 | and I'm also going to personally consider and try to see – assess the viability of
00:08:06.880 | carrying some basic medical equipment. For example, a lot of people will carry a tourniquet
00:08:11.720 | with them whenever possible. A tourniquet in my understanding can make a huge difference
00:08:16.200 | when somebody has been shot, when there's major blood loss, a tourniquet can potentially
00:08:19.880 | be a life-saving device.
00:08:21.560 | Now that's me. That may ring true with you. Maybe you want to consider doing that as well.
00:08:25.840 | I think it raises – I can see the approach and I can see the value of having some additional
00:08:33.000 | medical training and perhaps having some better medical supplies to help sustain life until
00:08:38.480 | a paramedic can arrive in a situation like that.
00:08:40.600 | But here are a few other things that I've focused a lot on over the years that I hope
00:08:43.760 | will be practical to you.
00:08:45.920 | The biggest thing that makes a difference in my study and analysis of these types of
00:08:49.520 | events is paying attention, having good awareness of the situation that's happening around
00:08:55.760 | you. In our modern world, it's my observation that very few of us spend time paying attention
00:09:01.240 | to the things that are around us. There has been an increase in people being hit by cars
00:09:06.640 | over the past years as people have become engrossed in their cell phones and people
00:09:10.720 | just wander out in the street and get hit by cars. I think we could all relate to that.
00:09:15.200 | It's common that sometimes I'll be doing something on my phone and I'll completely
00:09:20.200 | just miss out on what's going on if somebody is speaking to me or if I'm involved in
00:09:26.160 | something else and I'll just blank out on the circumstances that are happening around.
00:09:29.680 | We all know the impact of texting and driving or doing something on our phone while driving
00:09:35.480 | and how dangerous that is and what a major impact that can make and can shorten your
00:09:39.960 | life.
00:09:40.960 | Hopefully, you've taken steps to avoid texting and driving or avoid Facebooking and driving
00:09:46.840 | or avoid surfing the web and driving, avoiding all of those kinds of things. Hopefully, you've
00:09:51.520 | taken steps to control that. That's a major risk factor in your life and it's stupid
00:09:55.400 | to be committed to something like, "I don't drink and drive," but then to allow yourself
00:10:02.600 | to text and drive. It's dumb.
00:10:05.400 | Hopefully, you've done that. Frequently, when you're out and about in a public situation,
00:10:11.900 | if you just pay attention, oftentimes a few extra seconds of reaction time can make a
00:10:17.760 | difference. It's a good idea. Don't have the earbuds in your ears or if you're going
00:10:22.040 | to be listening to something, don't listen in both ears. Keep your head up when you're
00:10:24.880 | out in public. Look around. There are old tricks, of course, things that I do and I
00:10:29.640 | hope that I think are simple. I always try, for example, when I go in a restaurant, I
00:10:33.200 | always try to sit with my back to the wall so I can see what's going on in the restaurant
00:10:36.720 | and not be taken by surprise by something.
00:10:40.040 | Those are simple things that you can do that don't cost anything financially. They don't
00:10:45.160 | cost anything in terms of lifestyle, just simple tricks that you can do and take advantage
00:10:52.520 | of so that you pay attention. Oftentimes, if you can pay attention in a situation, then
00:10:58.120 | you can have a little bit of advance notice. So train yourself and be diligent about paying
00:11:03.220 | attention to the circumstances that are around you.
00:11:05.480 | Now, this wouldn't, of course, apply to the Las Vegas scenario, but many times you can
00:11:09.680 | sense when trouble is starting to brew. If you think about a riot or a political rally
00:11:17.160 | that's going to turn violent, etc., you can start to sense a change in the crowd. When
00:11:21.440 | that happens, leave. If you sense trouble or if the hackles on the back of your neck
00:11:26.760 | go up and you start to sense that you might be in a dangerous situation, people are looking
00:11:31.840 | sideways at you and you start to feel uncomfortable, leave. Pay attention to that sense that you
00:11:37.880 | have and get out of the situation.
00:11:40.200 | Now, in just a moment, we'll talk about paying attention in the context of the Las Vegas
00:11:44.460 | event and possibly how that could have helped. Another suggestion I have for you, something
00:11:50.440 | that I have made the change in in past years is when you're out and about and you're
00:11:55.240 | in a circumstance where you may wind up involved in something like this, you're out at a
00:11:59.640 | market, you're at a concert, etc., make sure that you always wear good footwear. I
00:12:05.120 | became convinced of this. Now, maybe you don't think about this, but in Florida, I've
00:12:09.160 | practically lived in flip-flops for the last decade. I've worn flip-flops constantly.
00:12:14.680 | It's kind of just part of the normal thing. I've gone out and I'll go out and walk
00:12:18.940 | miles in flip-flops. I've climbed up mountains in flip-flops. So I'm just accustomed to
00:12:23.200 | wearing flip-flops. And flip-flops work really well when you just need to walk, but they
00:12:28.760 | don't necessarily work all that well when you need to do something other than walk.
00:12:35.960 | Last year, last July, just over a year ago, when terrorists drove a truck into crowds
00:12:42.840 | of people at the Bastille Day celebration in Nice, France, I really paid attention to
00:12:49.840 | that one. That guy killed 86 people and injured 458 other people in addition to the 86 who
00:12:57.280 | died. So he killed 86 people and injured 458 people before he was shot by the police. Just
00:13:03.900 | incredible damage and incredible havoc. When I looked at that and analyzed that situation
00:13:07.780 | for myself, I realized that I wouldn't want to be caught in that type of situation and
00:13:13.420 | not be able to run, not be able to move. And for me, my life has changed. When I was single,
00:13:19.860 | I always considered that it was relatively simple and easy for me to move and to run.
00:13:24.700 | I could probably run and get away in flip-flops. But then I recognized that now I have the
00:13:28.700 | charge of three small children and my wife, and I have a responsibility to protect them.
00:13:35.820 | And if I need to scoop up three children and move because there's a truck barreling through
00:13:41.020 | a crowd at me and I'm desperate to get out of the way, I don't want to be wearing flip-flops
00:13:46.020 | in that circumstance.
00:13:48.580 | And when I looked at the video and watched the video from the Las Vegas shooting, I had
00:13:53.660 | kind of a similar response. If you're ever facing somebody who's shooting at you, your
00:13:59.620 | most effective defense is almost always going to be to run, to run and get away from there.
00:14:06.660 | There's this popular mythology that you're guaranteed to be shot if you're confronted
00:14:13.780 | by somebody with a gun and people tend to wilt and melt down in fear with somebody with
00:14:19.660 | a gun. But if you actually start studying gunfights, you find out that it's incredible
00:14:23.680 | oftentimes in a gunfight how few bullets actually land on a person's body during a gunfight.
00:14:29.580 | You can study the police statistics of how many rounds a police officer commonly will
00:14:36.100 | fire in a gunfight and how few will actually connect with the person they're shooting at.
00:14:40.940 | Now when you take that and you add additional stress and additional problems and additional
00:14:44.580 | energy, if you run, you can be pretty confident of your being able to get away or at least
00:14:52.780 | sustain less of a serious mortal wound if you're facing a gunfight. There's a popular
00:15:00.340 | shirt in the military community that snipers like – or a slogan, "If you run, you'll
00:15:04.940 | only die tired." Well, that may be true if you're facing a professional, calm, cool,
00:15:10.460 | collected military sniper. But we're not talking about that. Most of the time when
00:15:14.300 | you're dealing with an active shooter, you're dealing with somebody who is obviously a criminal
00:15:20.620 | but you're dealing with somebody who isn't – is probably not going to be trained and
00:15:25.580 | is probably not going to be all that effective.
00:15:29.360 | Many people who are trained and experienced with guns can't effectively hit a moving
00:15:33.920 | target and many criminals, most criminals are terrible gun handlers who are unused to
00:15:40.180 | handling their weapons, who are terrible at – terrible shots. If you are running and
00:15:47.020 | if you're moving, it's very hard to hit a moving target with a firearm. But it's
00:15:52.780 | hard to run if you don't have decent shoes.
00:15:54.420 | Now, when you think back to the video of the Las Vegas event, my observation about the
00:15:58.820 | only thing I could think of to do tactically in that situation is to run and figure out
00:16:04.740 | – it's hard to know what direction to run in but you want to do everything you can to
00:16:11.620 | run. The only two solutions if you're being fired at is to find cover, something that
00:16:17.980 | would adequately stop bullets that are coming at you. That was hard to do, not a whole lot
00:16:23.460 | of cover when you're in a crowd of people in an open scenario or to run.
00:16:27.660 | Of course, running is hard. Best if you can find some kind of back exit or something away
00:16:33.000 | from the crowds. But at least if you're moving, there's less of a chance of your
00:16:36.560 | being shot. It's easy to overestimate the risk if you're in a situation like this.
00:16:43.300 | Remember this. In a crowd of – my understanding, a crowd of about – of over 20,000 people,
00:16:49.080 | some say 22,000 people at a concert, horrifically, 58 people are dead. You run the math on 58
00:16:57.660 | people out of 22,000, you got a pretty decent chance of survival there. 58 people out of
00:17:04.100 | 22,000 is like 0.0026 percent. That's – I think if I can do my conversions right from
00:17:12.740 | decimal to fractions, that's about a quarter of 1 percent chance of dying from a gunshot
00:17:17.780 | wound.
00:17:18.780 | Now notice another 400 or 450 people were shot. But so far, there have been significant
00:17:24.260 | numbers of survivors. People often overestimate the chances of dying when it comes to a gunshot
00:17:30.340 | wound. There are case after case after case after case of people receiving multiple gunshot
00:17:36.220 | wounds and living.
00:17:38.660 | So just simply being shot is not a death sentence. Now if you're shot in certain places or
00:17:44.520 | in certain ways, of course it is. Tragically, there are obviously 58 people that are dead
00:17:49.060 | at this point in time. But being shot, it's in and of itself is not a death sentence.
00:17:53.900 | So you want to do anything you can to minimize the chance of getting hit or if you are going
00:17:59.260 | to get a hit, you want to do anything you can to minimize the chance of it being an
00:18:02.140 | easy shot or of taking multiple shots.
00:18:05.620 | Your best solution is to run. It's hard to run if you're not wearing good shoes.
00:18:09.860 | So I know one of the changes that I've made in my life is I've determined that when
00:18:12.620 | I go out in public, I'm going to wear decent shoes. Again, I felt the responsibility of
00:18:17.780 | protecting my family pretty heavily. That's a big one for me. That may or may not apply
00:18:21.900 | to you.
00:18:23.140 | But consider especially if you're going to a place where there are crowds of people,
00:18:27.260 | crowds of people who have been disarmed, then it's a higher risk profile, higher target
00:18:34.180 | and you should pay attention to that.
00:18:36.180 | Next practical suggestion, something that I have also changed over the years is I think
00:18:43.020 | it's a good idea to always carry a flashlight. This wouldn't have made much of a difference
00:18:47.820 | in Las Vegas in terms of you're not going to flash a light at somebody's eyes who's
00:18:56.460 | 32 stories up. But a lot of times in other scenarios, this does make a difference. In
00:19:01.380 | Las Vegas, perhaps it would have made a difference if you're trying to escape that you can get
00:19:07.740 | out and there's a dark hallway or something like that and you have a flashlight so you
00:19:11.780 | can point it down the hallway to be able to see out.
00:19:16.420 | Or perhaps it would have made a difference if you were trying to care for a friend or
00:19:21.060 | just someone else who had gotten shot that you had a light that you could actually see
00:19:23.900 | so you could see where they were bleeding and see to try to apply pressure and stop
00:19:28.280 | the bleeding, something like that. I think it's a good idea to carry a flashlight and
00:19:31.820 | there are many tactical situations in which a flashlight can make a big, big difference.
00:19:36.380 | You're crossing a dark parking lot, leaving your office late at night, somebody comes
00:19:40.360 | up to see you, a strong bright blinding flashlight can incapacitate somebody for enough time
00:19:47.940 | for you to turn and run and get away. A strong bright blinding flashlight can make a major
00:19:54.860 | difference in some kind of active shooter scenario. Think back to the guy that shot
00:20:01.020 | up the movie theater in Colorado a few years ago. A strong flashlight to be able to shine
00:20:05.620 | their eyes and hopefully have a weapon as well. But a strong flashlight to shine an
00:20:09.940 | eyes can make a big difference. I think back to the Pulse nightclub shooting when there's
00:20:14.340 | confusion all around and chaos all around, the flashlight to be able to see what's going
00:20:18.700 | on and get you and some other people out as long as you're not targeted can make a big,
00:20:23.380 | big difference. There are so many great flashlights now that are small, that are bright, that
00:20:27.500 | are easy to carry. I recommend it. I think one of the things that you find is if you
00:20:31.980 | actually carry a flashlight, is you find it useful in more circumstances than not. I think
00:20:37.140 | most of us have gotten so used to frequently using the flashlights on our phone. Now that
00:20:42.620 | the phones are built where we can just basically automatically turn on the light on the back,
00:20:47.100 | we find how useful that is. Well, they are useful, but an actual standalone proper flashlight
00:20:52.660 | is many times far more useful. One that I carry is a tiny little light called a 4/7
00:21:01.300 | Mini Mark II. This is a neat little flashlight. It's about the size of my thumb. A little
00:21:08.380 | bit smaller, a little bit shorter than my thumb. So just a tiny little thing, but it's
00:21:12.020 | got multiple modes. It's got a turbo mode, which is unbelievably powerful for a tiny
00:21:19.300 | little flashlight. It's incredibly powerful, incredibly bright. That can be useful in a
00:21:24.740 | scenario that you need a really bright flashlight. But then it's also got, of course, a high,
00:21:30.820 | medium, low, but then it's got this tiny little, they call it a moonlight mode, that's very,
00:21:35.500 | very dim. I find that I use that all the time. I go into my children's rooms to look at them
00:21:39.760 | at night before I go to bed and check on them, make sure everything's good. I use that little
00:21:43.340 | just very dim flashlight constantly. So I think a flashlight is a very useful thing
00:21:51.180 | for you to consider having. Always take a few minutes when you're in a scenario, when
00:21:56.820 | you're in a concert, church building, movie theater, etc. Always take a few minutes when
00:22:01.860 | you sit down to do the same thing you do on an airplane. Look around and try to figure
00:22:04.700 | out where your closest exits are and think through, "Okay, if I need to get out of here,
00:22:09.300 | if there's a fire, if there's a shooter, if there's a violent incident, if I need to get
00:22:13.740 | out of here, where is my closest exit?" And keep in mind that the closest exit may be
00:22:19.080 | behind you. So when you sit down on an airplane, you always take a moment and look around,
00:22:23.660 | find out where the exits are. Make that a regular practice for yourself. If you sit
00:22:27.540 | down in a restaurant, if you sit down in a movie theater, look around and look for the
00:22:31.780 | exits. We have kind of a common tendency often to just think about one way. We think about
00:22:38.580 | the way that we came in and it takes a little bit of training, a little bit of practice
00:22:43.060 | to think about looking around for other exits. But that can be very, very helpful if there's
00:22:49.220 | a scenario you need to get out.
00:22:51.180 | And then my final comment I guess would be in most situations, if you have an opportunity,
00:22:56.740 | if you can't run or if running doesn't seem like the right move, fight like crazy. To
00:23:04.180 | be very clear, this doesn't apply to the Las Vegas scenario. That was shooting fish
00:23:09.460 | in a barrel. The guy had an incredible tactical position, high ground, no cover for the people
00:23:16.100 | down below. There was no way to fight him from down below. Nothing, nothing, no fighting
00:23:21.620 | whatsoever. But remember, that is not normal. A much more normal incident, much more normal
00:23:31.540 | incident with a shooter is probably more like that guy who attacked the church in Antioch,
00:23:37.540 | Tennessee last week. The guy goes in, starts shooting in the church, shoots a woman in
00:23:42.580 | the parking lot, starts shooting other people in the building and then was attacked. And
00:23:45.980 | it seems to be – although we're still waiting on details from the investigation
00:23:49.460 | – it seems to be that when the guy was attacked, he wound up shooting himself.
00:23:58.060 | Now whether it was intentional or unintentional, meaning whether he intended to take his own
00:24:03.020 | life or whether it was an unintentional shot where he shot himself due to the surprise
00:24:07.680 | of being attacked is unknown. But it wouldn't surprise me if he shot himself simply because
00:24:14.020 | he was attacked. Many of these shooters have no training, no training with a firearm. And
00:24:19.820 | if you can do something to disrupt their ability to shoot, disrupt their – just their flow,
00:24:27.980 | their rhythm, you may have a chance.
00:24:31.180 | Many of these guys are cowards. They're planning to shoot themselves and as soon as
00:24:34.980 | there's a little bit of resistance and somebody able to fight back, then they shoot themselves.
00:24:41.660 | So you can't overestimate – don't underestimate the power of fighting back. Fight back. If
00:24:47.300 | you can't run, if you can't get out of there, fight back and fight like crazy with
00:24:50.540 | anything that you can.
00:24:52.500 | If you need to throw a chair or throw – what was it? Beer steins like the guy in London
00:24:59.420 | when the terrorists attacked there recently. If you need to throw beer glasses at a guy,
00:25:03.300 | throw beer glasses. Hopefully have a gun. Shoot back if you can. Figure out a way to
00:25:09.460 | fight back. Whatever tools you have, use them.
00:25:13.500 | So these are just a few ideas that occurred to me, some changes that I've made in past
00:25:17.340 | years. Every time there's been an event, I've tried to look at it, think about it
00:25:21.740 | practically, not overreact. Not overreact to a small incident. Again, remember not to
00:25:28.060 | diminish the value of the people who are dead. But statistically speaking, very, very unlikely
00:25:35.780 | that you'll be involved in a scenario like this.
00:25:37.820 | Even if you're one of the 22,000 people, statistically you have a very high chance
00:25:42.460 | of survival. So don't overreact. But do consider how you can respond. If there's
00:25:50.380 | anything in what I have shared with you that sparked something for you, just wearing decent
00:25:55.900 | footwear, paying attention when you're out and about, these things are simple. It's
00:26:01.940 | not as sexy as talking about, "Listen, here's the latest, greatest way that you
00:26:08.540 | can carry a firearm into a concert." In this round, all that stuff rings hollow in
00:26:14.100 | this particular event because none of it would have helped. But perhaps these other things
00:26:18.540 | would have. I don't know. I'm guessing just as you are. But think it through and
00:26:23.860 | do your best to learn from the event.
00:26:26.060 | I guess my closing comments on this would be simple. Use the reminder to make sure that
00:26:33.540 | you are buying up the time that you have today. None of us knows our last day on earth. None
00:26:40.620 | of us know. Personally, as this particular event was horrific, I'm thankful it wasn't
00:26:47.260 | worse. When I look at the pictures of the situation, I'm thankful it wasn't worse.
00:26:53.460 | And it's not the worst that we'll see in the future. I've thought through some
00:27:00.500 | of the different – if I were a terrorist and I wanted to inflict terror upon the US
00:27:05.700 | American people, I've thought through some of the different things that could be done.
00:27:10.100 | And it's the kind of thing that I'll never say any of those things out loud. You don't
00:27:14.220 | want to give people ideas. But when smart people want to inflict terror on other people,
00:27:23.940 | there are – there is an incredible number of ways in which we individually are vulnerable,
00:27:29.620 | in which we collectively as a society are vulnerable. And a mass shooting is just the
00:27:35.300 | tip of the iceberg. Who knows what the future holds? I'm thankful the police were able
00:27:41.780 | to respond as quickly as they did. I think in the final analysis, the Las Vegas SWAT
00:27:46.980 | teams are going to really be worthy of strong commendation for their response. Considering
00:27:53.980 | the situation, I think it's remarkable that more people weren't killed. I think we can
00:28:00.380 | all be thankful for that. We've been praying for the families of those who were killed
00:28:04.700 | here in my family, which is heartbreaking. When you come face to face with pure evil,
00:28:11.980 | it makes me very thankful that God is a God of justice and that he has promised to take
00:28:19.020 | vengeance on all evil. And I shudder to think of the circumstances that this particular
00:28:27.960 | killer is facing. Jesus said in preaching to the people in the book of Matthew, Jesus
00:28:33.100 | said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him
00:28:38.860 | who can destroy both soul and body in hell." I think much of the time we shrink from wanting
00:28:47.340 | to think or talk about hell and the many people who will spend eternity in hell. But I think
00:28:55.020 | it touches our emotions where when we look at pure evil and pure horror on a mass scale,
00:29:01.780 | I think those times we're thankful that there's a God of justice who is the final
00:29:06.580 | arbiter of right and wrong. And I think in those circumstances, I'm always thankful
00:29:11.860 | that I don't have to be the one to sentence someone to eternal damnation, but that God
00:29:16.540 | does. Hope these thoughts are useful for you and we're back with more regular personal
00:29:22.780 | finance content soon.
00:29:25.500 | This show is part of the Radical Life Media network of podcasts and resources. Find out
00:29:31.300 | more at RadicalLifeMedia.com.
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