Of Guns, Bullets and Bloodshed

It is, in my opinion, impossible to make sense out of the totally senseless madness of James Holmes.  The crazies among us will always find a means to strike terror in the hearts of innocents, as their insane way to exorcise the demons making them so miserable that they seek to make every other person on the planet suffer pain, fear and grief.  That said, can a Constitutional Republic, consistent with its values of individual freedom, including a personal right to bear arms, adopt sensible policies that might deter, or at least diminish the capacity of, lunatics from being able in less than two minutes to inflict hundreds of casualties?  Is that national conversation worth having?  I say yes, but fear that it will not be possible in a Presidential election year.  Some sad irony there, indeed.

A few random reaction to how this national conversation commenced - ABC's Brian Ross was roundly criticized for failing to confirm the identity of Mr. Holmes before reporting that an individual of that same name was listed as a Colorado Tea Party member. So much so, that ABC News issued a formal apology for its unprofessional failure to gets its facts straight before going public.  The far more egregious professional journalistic failure here was the belief that had Mr. Holmes been a Tea Partier, that voluntary association would in anyway have been relevant to his decision to engage in mass murder.

By way of analogy, ABC could have accurately told us that Holmes is a California born, unmarried male, college graduate and Ph.D candidate in neuroscience - thereby making all unmarried, studious adult men from California appropriate candidates to be interviewed by the FBI to determine whether they are likewise incipient homicidal maniacs.  The worst kind of guilt by association by Brian Ross, who should be ashamed, but no one should call for his firing by ABC News, as these reminders of the depths to which the MSM will go to libel conservative Americans is useful knowledge, even if no one watches these channels anymore for that same reason.

So, no more sadness for one Post, life does go on, and tomorrow will be time enough to re-gather in this market place of ideas.  Today, I'm with President Obama, Mitt Romney and all fair minded Americans -give your loved ones, as I will, a tighter hug.