Over the top, melodramatic.
"-- a country full of hate, violence, ignorance, weapons and -- yes -- insanity"
The evidence seems to be that the shooter was a very troubled kid.
In a country with our population, it is statistically inevitable that someone who is deranged will commit these kinds of acts every so often.
I'd like to think that it is, but gun control is not the solution. Mexico might have the strictest gun control laws on the planet. This has not kept murder by gunshot down.
People will get guns and use them as they see fit regardless of laws. Unfortunately, not all owners will go quail or deer hunting.
The reason for the fact that the level of political discourse has gone down is that we feel helpless, powerless to affect an outcome in any significant way, particularly as our politicians are regularly bought and sold to the highest bidder. But to suggest that a more strident level of discussion somehow leads to murder on the part of a nutjob is a stretch. The solution, if this is correct, would tampen down free speech, not something I want to do.
This incident has probably put radical pols out of business. I cannot imagine that Palin, who is a venal and ignorant woman, has much of a future now.
These people are idiosyncratic, e.g., the guy who killed John Lennon. Having them around is simply a fact of modern life. Identifying them and somehow preventing them from doing something awful is probably a much better tactic than getting rid of guns.
The political implications of this are scary. Although the guy seems to have very oddly formed beliefs (I am not sure if his orientation was left or right, not that it matters), each side will now stupidly claim that he was a member of the opposition's base. We will simply see more of the same, times two, thanks to this guy. |
