by Mark Angelides
Yesterday another mass shooting occurred; this time in California. The shooter killed four people and injured at least ten; he was shot and killed by police responding. It is unfortunate that an almost scripted response will begin on each side, neither useful, both distracting, and ultimately, both used to fuel hatred of the political opponents. Here’s how it will go down.
The leftists media will make a huge issue about the shooters race (white guy for those not following the news), and proceed to conflate this with a series of assumptions.
- “Because he is white, he won’t be called a terrorist.” While it is true that he will not likely be called a terrorist by authorities, it is not because he is white, but because he does not (based on present knowledge) fit any definition of the term terrorist. Please check out a dictionary or a lwa book.
- “Yet another mass shooting, time to ban guns.” The killer was a felon on bail, and under the law, should not have been allowed to have firearms. It was a failing of the liberal California (who happen to have incredibly strict gun laws) that allowed him on the streets with weapons.
- “Record number of mass shootings since Trump took power.” This is not because there are actually more mass shootings, but because the legal definition of what a mass shooting is has changed. It can now involve no deaths, more than one shooter, non-intended victims, and even take place over a series of crime scenes. Don’t conflate a rise in statistics as a rise in actual incidents.
- “Republican, Christian, White Supremacist.” He might well turn out to be all of these or none. But shouting your mouths off without any actual knowledge other than the color of his skin is just plain dumb.
But let’s not let the far right off the hook here. They will make a series of statement s that are equally useless.
- “Another False flag operation.” While it is certainly true that false flag operations have taken place, calling every single shooting event a false flag does not make people “wake up.” In fact, if you call every killing a false flag, no one will believe a real one when it happens.
- “Leftist, Antifa, Hillary supporter.” Please reread my response to point 4 above. Same answer.
- “If more people had guns, this wouldn’t have happened.” This is not a fact, don’t push it as one. It is a supposition.
These are just a few of the arguments that will come out today in the wake of this tragedy. And that’s what it is, a tragedy. Let’s try not to make political hay out of this.