Deatils are still coming in but this from eye-witnesses on the scene:

At about 3:00pm in Atlanta today a man walking into a trading office on Peidmont Avenue after the stock market took a nose-dive and began shooting everyone he could. Including the trading manager of the company, whom was killed by the man who was wielding a 9mm and a .45 caliber automatic. The man is not in custody now at 4:40pm and it could possibly be that he escaped as there were two shooting incidents about two blocks from each other, and it is obvious that he is on the move.

From an eye witness, the shooter (before firing upon the workers) said "I hope this doesn't ruin your trading day".

There are as few as five and as many as ten dead and maybe seven wounded as of right now. Deatals are obviously sketchy at this time but it would appear that this is the reaction from a disturbed individual who lost on today's market volatility.

-- (anon@anon.com), July 29, 1999

Answers

hope this is a joke....

and if it's not, this is the result of somebody with a sick mind and a gun, not a 180 point drop of the stock market....

-- Superlurker (Slfsl@yahoo.com), July 29, 1999.

There is a blurb on abcnews.com about this.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), July 29, 1999.

There has definae been a shooting at the Fidelity building, I live in Atlanta and passed the scene on the way home.

The news does not have any deatails, I'm most curiou to see if this ends up being accurate.

-- John Beck (eurisko111@aol.com), July 29, 1999.

yeah, according to abcnews-- some are in critical condition, doesn't say any deaths at this time...

sad... nothing to do with the market i don't think though-- it only went down 180 points-- it could go up again tomorrow. it didn't crash, heck it's not even below 10,000

just another looney, with nothing better to do than to kill somebody's children....

-- superlurker (Slfsl@yahoo.com), July 29, 1999.

Given that the Dow has been around 11,000 lately, a 180 point drop is not a "nose dive". The most likely result of this tragedy will be more calls for unconstitutional gun laws. Last I heard no one was killed and I hope and pray it stays that way. I'll bet you that when we find out about the perpetrator, we'll hear things like, "His neighbors and coworkers always said he was a time bomb, but no one ever did anything....."

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), July 29, 1999.

Latest update: 9 dead, 12 wounded, gunman still at large.

Get ready to kiss your guns goodbye...

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), July 29, 1999.

Forrest, often they are portrayed as "such a quiet, polite man," like the killer at Yosemite. You never know.

It's only going to get worse, even without Y2K. Over crowding by increased population increases stress on people, and tempers begin to flare. Air rage and road rage are another sign of too many people.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), July 29, 1999.

In 1929 they killed themselves!! Thats the big difference now in our society. Our society is ill. This was just one man, one place. Multiply that by thousands in a thousand places. Its not pretty.

-- Hannah (Hannah@Colonial America.com), July 29, 1999.

I'm listening to KFBK, The Tom Sullivan Show, out of Sacto, CA. Tom is an investor and he's guessing that the man may have been the victim of trading in commodities and may have lost all of his money and then some. It's a trajedy and something that will probably happen more and more as people lose their livelihoods and everything they have worked for. I've heard stories of people committing suicide when the depression hit in 1929. No one is safe anywhere any more.

-- Sadbuttrue (Sadbuttrue@sadbuttrue.com), July 29, 1999.

Time to look for other things in life, other than the material. There is so much that is great that we overlook it - the study of plants and animals, outdoor sports, quiet card games at home. Each person might try imagining downsizing... there is actually a group in Canada which has as its purpose supporting the idea of simpllified living, and they have lots of members! It's one way of coping with being poor, and if everyone is doing it, it doesn't seem hard at all.

-- Elizabeth Abbott (abbottliz@tallships.ca), July 29, 1999.

Turns out Mark Barton, the Atlanta shooting suspect, was also a suspect in the murders of his wife and his mother in law some years ago but was never charged. I knew it, I just knew it. Will the public blame lax law enforcement for not putting this guy away the first time? Will they blame Mark Barton? No, they will blame a .45 and a 9mm. I feel sick.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), July 29, 1999.

This is scary. As someone else said, in 1929 they just killed themselves. Now, people are likely to go on a rampage and kill other people first. And imagine what happens when LOTS of people lose their wealth?

Leo

-- Leo (lchampion@ozemail.com.au), July 29, 1999.

And everybody slams Gary North?

-- rw (cwiowa@uiowa.edu), July 29, 1999.

Hannah said: In 1929 they killed themselves

EXACTLY MY POINT! Thanks Hannah. Mr. Decker, are you tuned in?

-- a (a@a.a), July 30, 1999.