I'll bet you're a lot of fun at parties.

to grandly declare that they will certainly never visit Florida, then Thank You! We don't need visits from people who make sweeping judgments based on street addresses.

they can cite Florida.

(Florida resident here who is tired of the predictable bashing when a thread involves our state - just another form of bigotry imo)

Frankly, I don't have a problem with the tag. I've been here since the late seventies and things just keep devolving. I do, however, acknowledge that we have a lot of transplants that come to Florida so I wouldn't call the "Florida Man or Woman" phenomenon a native-born issue.

as "Florida" man or woman. Maybe I don't get invited to the secret meetings.

I keep getting victimized by the secret meetings.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]If not Alzheimer's, some other form of dementia, despite being functional enough to walk around. At 90 years of age, the odds of that are pretty good and the damage to executive functions - judgment, emotional control, impulse control, etc - can be profound.

in the early to middle stages of dementia. A terrible combination with firearms available.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I just hope he's treated accordingly - and very glad he didn't actually fire that gun.

His family should remove weapons from the home.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I think the authorities have taken care of that part of it now, anyway.

In our glorious country, if this fellow needs medical attention for a degenerative gerontological disease, he is still in a better spot to get his hands on a gun than to get treatment? I'm glad no one was injured this time around.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Dementia can be insidious, though, and onset can go unnoticed - especially if the patient has always been independent, and has no very close family or friends to pick up on symptoms.

It's not at all hard to understand how such a person may have been a responsible, sane gun owner without incident for years prior.

For the record, I loathe guns and am not defending their proliferation, just exploring possibilities for this scenario. I rather doubt this 90-year-old man just recently went out and bought his gun (although knowing the nutty laws in Florida, that likely wouldn't be impossible).

(Groan)

from the Wapo article, the Boca Raton/Palm Beach Sherriffs' did not escalate this into a 'justified homicide' against a 90 yr old. (How low is the bar in this time).