If you're on the political right, Orlando is an issue of Islamic terrorism.
If you're on the political left, Orlando is an issue involving the 2nd Amendment, homophobia, possible Tea Party connections, and fear of a backlash against Muslims.
Occam's Razor.
Update: I definitely nailed the first two, the third was only partially a joke, and the fourth is coming any moment.
Update #2, 6/14/16: How will the reporting change if, as is now being reported in some outlets, the shooter was himself gay (you don't need to be on Jack'd or Grindr if you're going to case a nightclub)? A member of two of the left's favorite groups, will the cognitive dissonance cause heads to explode? Probably not, they'll just stick with the gun control angle.
Remember that Episcopalians, Mormons, and Catholics all have the same access to firearms in this country, and you don't hear mass murder stories about them. Just sayin'.
Yeah, my Facebook feed from the left side of my family is exactly those 2 things: "guns...boo! evil!" and "gays are victims!"
ReplyDeleteOne precious young relative of mine even went so far as to trot out the canard of "why are you so afraid of transgendered people in the bathrooms when this is the real threat?" Of course she couldn't bring herself denounce the religion of "peace" as the motivator here, because that wouldn't be "tolerant" or something.
All of the above- Islamic terrorism in the difficult to interdict
ReplyDeletesilent lone wolf style; 2nd Amendment, the killer purchased an assault rifle & Glock 17 a few days prior (and had been interviewed by the FBI 3 times he had a license to carry and probably did not
require a background check); homophobia it seems according to the killer's own father. Trump will fix it because he said he is great.
Occam's Razor, if only things weren't that simple.
And then there are those, the most useless types, whose first reaction isn't even to politicize an opportunity like this, but rather wonder at the state of our society when 50 people just died for absolutely no reason at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's not our society that has the problem, it's the Islamists who have the problem.
ReplyDeleteThe outrage at this horrible event is warranted. The reasons, not so much. I have a hard time hearing the national outrage at this while ignoring the fact that there were more deaths in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend and AR-15s were not involved there. The size and type of weapon are not the issue. I don't have the answers and the issues are not simple. But it is definite that common sense no longer exists anywhere on the planet.
ReplyDeleteHow does the guy who was arrested on his way to shoot up the LA Pride festival relate to this? He doesn't appear to be a radicalized Muslim... I am worried about oversimplifying the shooter's motivations. Human beings are messy and complicated.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any reference to the LA guy, so whom are you addressing?
ReplyDeleteBut since you brought it up, the only report I read about LA (and it was an early one, so possibly wrong) was that he was going to detonate a car. No firearm needed.