By now, you'll have the latest news about the "spree shooter" in Kalamazoo, Michigan. From early reports, it's another loser with a curdled brain, whose crimes will be used in the attempts to restrict everyone's access to firearms.
I know, I know -- the proper course of action is to stand with heads bowed, somber and silent: real people with real families have been injured and killed. Yes, they have, and you can count on the Brady Center and Mr. Bloomberg's shills to make much of it. Me, I wish some victim or witness had had a chance to stop him but all accounts agree that he struck quickly, unexpectedly and apparently at random. Nobody is ready for that, not even people who think they are; we expect -- and nearly always find -- that those around us are not ill-inclined, or at least will give a little warning.
That's why these crimes are wrenching; it's a blow not just at the victims but at the normal functioning of society. People who will undertake such actions are dangerous with anything, not just guns.
This killer ran of of steam when confronted by police, as so many similar malefactors do. Hours had passed; unlike his victims, the police had some notion what they were up against.
It's a tragedy. It's not a blunt instrument to be wielded against the Constitution and yet-- In less than 24 hours, it will be.
Update
3 days ago
5 comments:
Also, so much for Uber's business model...
Will the anti's try to make hay out of it?
Yep. They will try.
Expect the medallion taxi-cabs to milk it for all they can. I can see it now:
"How can you know your Uber driver isn't in the middle of a spree-killing? Call Yellow Cab instead!"
As a MI dweller, this now hits much too close to home. My liberal cousin has a daughter who works near the area of this epicenter, and my cousin was visiting the pub where she works just a couple hours before the kook was caught.
We often talk politics on FB, but not today. The somber mood is just too much for anything but sorrow for the families who lost loved ones. The day will dawn, and time for those so inclined to try and profit on death will once again begin. And so nothing is new under the sun.
If I may nitpick... A flood or tsunami is a tragedy; this was an atrocity.
I don't know if it was an atrocity. We keep watering down these words. If this was an atrocity, what do we call crimes even more horrible? Isn't "killing spree" bad enough? Isn't "murder" sufficiently dreadful even for crimes as senseless as these?
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