Coming to a hotel near you: NSA inspections

     The Mandalay hotel in Las Vegas has been ordered by the court to pay $800 Million to the victims of the mass shooting at the nearby music festival.  The shooter, Stephen Paddock, fired his weapons out of the hotel's windows on the 32nd floor.  58 people were killed, and hundreds wounded, making it the deadliest mast shooting in American history.  The lawsuit claims that the hotel was "negligent" because it allowed the shooter to stockpile weapons in his hotel room.
     All of us grieve for the victims of this horrible event.  We all want justice served, and we want to do something to prevent these kinds of atrocities.  But this court decision is wrong, wrong, wrong, and terrifying in many ways. 

      "Negligent"?  What in the world do the plaintiffs want?  Hotels do not inspect customers nor their luggage.  The only possible way to do this would be to set up security checkpoints such as those in airports run by the NSA.  Every person entering the hotel would be required to remove their shoes and belts and jewelry and empty their pockets and walk through full-body scanners.  All of their hand-carried possessions would be scanned via X-ray machines.  Anyone with anything suspicious would be pulled aside for further questions, and their luggage opened and searched thoroughly.  

      That, my friends, is the only realistic way for hotels could ensure that its guests do not commit mass murder. 
      And it's not just hotels, by the way.  We are talking about ANY large building, including apartment buildings, hospitals, office buildings, shopping malls, churches, you name it.  Oh and let's also include public ground or water transportation like taxis, buses, subways, trains, ships, etc.  You will be required to be searched, NSA-style, before you can board, say, a bus, because you might be packing heat.
      As bad and ineffective and obtrusive as airport NSA inspections are, at least they are, in theory, supposed to protect airline passengers.  But the victims of the Las Vegas shooting were NOT EVEN HOTEL GUESTS!  They weren't even INSIDE the hotel.  They were merely in the general vicinity.  The lawsuit might have had SOME merit if it was about the hotel not protecting its paying guests - but it had nothing whatsoever to do with that.
      This lawsuit, and any ensuing heavy-handed security procedures will not, in any way, shape, or form, make our formerly great nation safer or more secure.  Understandably, the victims and their families are hurt and angry.  But let's get one thing clear:  the Mandalay Hotel did not pull the trigger.  And it is NOT their responsibility to know what is in their guests' suitcases.

deep pockets

      The only reason that this lawsuit got anywhere was because our courts and judicial system is run by leftist liberal "progressives" who believe that all profit-making business are always automatically guilty.  And the deeper their pockets, the deeper their guilt.  MGM hotels make a lot of money, and hire an awful lot of employees; thus, there was no way they could win this lawsuit.

      So if not via lawsuits and heavy-handed legislation, how do we halt the epidemic of violence and mass murder?  This is not an easy question.  Remember that it's not just guns; people have committed mass murder with VEHICLES and all sorts of things.   I will address some things that governments can do (or actually NOT do) in a future article.