I've always felt that the law should state that if parking lots can't let you OUT within 60 seconds of when you want to leave, they should have to just open the gates and let people leave until they can process traffic in a timely manner.

If they want to make customers wait in line for 20 minutes to get IN the parking lot, that's their business.

having to scan OUT is absolutely asinine.

This is my point though. It shouldn't have come to that. This guy aside, I feel like a normal functioning person wouldn't do this. A normal functioning person who has mental health issues (And I'm not talking crazy seriously mentally ill person, I'm talking going through a rough patch) can call up a doctor and get help/treatment. Pro pilots don't do that. They bury their emotions deep down, and then drink them away until something either gives and they get caught (maybe like this guy and we all make fun of him), or he goes years and years living with an issue that could potentially be easily solved by a visit with a therapist, but for fear of losing their career, they don't.

Years ago I flew with a guy who was on "the list", who turned out to be a nice guy, but he definitely had emotional issues. When we flew he was finalizing a divorce, and some of the stuff he was talking about was just straight up sad. Losing his home, not seeing his kids, losing things he worked hard for. We get to the hotel, asks if I'd like to meet him for a drink, and when I got to the bar he was already a few whiskeys deep and spilling his guts about his ex again. The dude needed help, but once again, the "toughen up" crowd and the FAA puts the fear into you to not say anything.

I’m not a mental health provider… so I don’t participate in conversations on the flight deck with a stranger (someone you’ve never flown with) that starts spewing their personal issues when you barely know their name! Last thing I want is a pilot thinking about their F’d up life before we land or during my pee break inflight… Thanks but no thanks.

Big serious question; after all this… Why in the world would you meet up at the bar with the pilot who just spent hours telling you their deepest/darkest personal problems?

Is talking to a therapist to work out relational issues even an FAA reportable thing though? I'm sure talking to an actual psychiatrist might be (especially if prescribed medication), but just going to a therapist is reportable?

Yes.
Filler.

I'm all for mental health reform and being sensitive to people's internal struggles, but the minute someone expresses themselves with violence (even against inanimate objects), that's a hard limit in my opinion. Especially when it's premeditated like this; it's not like the guy accidentally punched a hole in the wall... he went into his car for a weapon, knowing full well that he was in uniform, being recorded in a highly visible space.

Besides, the better 'Robin Hood' move would have been to just walk up and lift the gate himself... aren't those things pretty easy to manipulate?

Glad that happened to him……good riddance.

YOU met him for a drink ?! WTF 🤬

No need to play cloak and dagger, either. “The list” means he was a SCAB.

Give the guy a break.

The parking arm was screwing his wife.