One piece of "this gun violence sprang from the climate of hate, so conservatives should shut up now" drivel sounds pretty much like another, so let's quote former Mayor Paul Helmke of the Brady campaign just to give a nod to a hometown boy trying to make his mark:
We also are deeply concerned about the heated political rhetoric that escalates debates and controversies, and sometimes makes it seem as if violence is an acceptable response to honest disagreements.
I don't know if the shooter is indeed a paranoid schizophrenic, as this psychiatrist says, but it's pretty clear he suffers from some major mental illness, which means searching for a rational explanation for his actions is pretty pointless. There is a needed discussion or two to have, and maybe we can get to them once the political opportunists wind down: 1. How do we act on "warning signals" to try to prevent someone from acting out his violent fantasies without violating the rights of those who might have the signals but not the fantasies? 2. How do we do a better job of keeping guns out of the hands of the unbalanced without violating everyone else's rights?
