The murderer is dead:
A semi-automatic assault rifle is again being tied to a US mass shooting, this one a chaotic series of events led by a body-armor-clad man who killed four and wounded five people before being shot and killed by police in a college library in the iconic beachside city of Santa Monica, Calif.
One, there was no automatic fire.
Two, the murderer slowly fired single shots, making rapid reload or magazine size irrelevant.
So it is difficult to see how a change in gun laws regarding the guns themselves would have stopped this crime. The only actual law on guns that might have made a difference would be to keep campuses from being gun-free zones. We shall see if pre-purchase screening changes might have had an effect.
Three, the murderer is not a white, dangerous Tea Party veteran--we know that since no motive is mentioned and no race or ethnicity is mentioned despite reports from an eye witness who said the man had corn rows in his hair.
Not that the race or ethnicity of the murderer is a reason to issue a blanket condemnation of all in the shooter's race or ethnicity--or gender for that matter--as if the actions of one condemn all of that race or ethnicity--I've said the same about Moslem jihadis, after all. But we all know how motive and group guilt would play out if the situation was different.
I'll surely update the post if my early reading of this first report has led me to draw erroneous conclusions. Or if the first reports are wrong, of course.
UPDATE: Other crimes not the fault of Tea Party right wingers.
