I might have at some point in my life. I can’t swear otherwise. But I have certainly had a change of heart in the mean time, since Russian lives don’t matter to me at all these days. (apologies for the OT; carry on)
I honestly don't blame the gun control as much in this case. I'd wager this dude sat around consuming hate filled "news" from FOX pumped full of fear and paranoia. I'd honestly bet a lot of money on that being the case.
"The illegals are coming. Antifa are coming. BLM is coming. You should be prepared to defend yourself from all of these people who want to burglarize your house, assault your wife, and eat your children!" I don't watch cable news because it's outrage porn that panders to its audience.
This is a saddening and sickening story. Start to finish. Sadly, some only see a chance to score points for their political side. This isn’t gun control issue. Unless you want to admit that the only way to stop these tragedies is to confiscate all guns. All of them. This old man didn’t go out and buy a gun to murder someone. He was an old guy with far too much anger and hate. It is sad. But go ahead. Be snarky. Be sarcastic. Score your points. Yea team.
First of all, he's only 58. But, seriously, I agree. Not a gun control issue at all. But this is apparently not some psycho loner kid. Like the guy who shot someone on his front porch, or the guy who killed the girl because she was in a car that pulled into his driveway by mistake. They seems to be functional, not crazy adults who are somehow too scared, too protective and far too willing to fire a gun at someone even though they aren't sure exactly who or what is going on. Just fire bullets at someone.
If the only tool is a hammer (gun), every problem is a nail(someone to shoot). Context matters. Too many live at the intersection of fear mongering and gun worship.
There should be a heavy sin tax on ammunition like there is on cigarettes. Not so heavy that it violates anyone’s constitutional rights, but heavy none-the-less.
Without knowing the details here, what I sense generally is increasing anxiety, fear, and/or anger which are causing presumably otherwise law abiding men to shoot at unarmed people, children, or even shadows. Or join extremist groups. I get your point about partisan scoring. But people seem really on edge, and that seems to be accelerating. I’m seeing propaganda and rhetoric now on Twitter that I used to have to search for on obscure sites out of curiosity. There’s a profit motive involved as well as American partisanship. But I genuinely think Russia and probably other countries are fanning some of it online.
Beyond just the fear, these normally law-abiding (I assume) guys are now thinking they have the right to shoot anyone who might possibly threaten them. In this case, he saw them running away when he shot her. Running away and he still opened fire.
You want children to be helpless? Sounds like a predator thing. As long as we're saying stupid things...