I asked him why and he said someone yelled at him in the Wal-Mart parking lot last time he was there.
I knew he owned guns, but he never carried before.
He started listening to Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder. He freaks out about Captain Marvel and SJWs. He rants about transgenders in the military.
He's gone from a guy who thought Trump was an asshole in 2017 to telling me he's going to vote for him next year.
He's a white guy in his late 30s with a history of anger and depression issues.
I connected with him during our deployment bc he wasn't the typical infantry type the same way I wasn't the typical infantry type. We both liked science fiction. We both liked cats. We both liked strategy games. We both hated PT.
And there's probably thousands of men like him all over the country. Men not happy with their life.
I'm not sure what can be done about these people. It's frightening to see the change in real time. It's frightening to wonder how deep into the abyss he'll go.
But if he did, or anybody like him did - anybody with anger and rage and depression, who has access to firearms - I can't say I'd be surprised.
But as much as I hate guns, I think the guns themselves are just one component of the overall problem.