About fifteen minutes after the news broke of the tragic on-air shooting of two local CBS reporters in Roanoke, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President took to Twitter and started campaigning off the tragedy:
Heartbroken and angry. We must act to stop gun violence, and we cannot wait any longer. Praying for the victims’ families in Virginia. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 26, 2015
Not to be outdone, Virginia governor and Clinton lapdog Terry McAuliffe immediately followed suit:
Terry McAuliffe calls for stricter gun laws after Virginia shooting http://t.co/EAUVvFFiSh | AP photo pic.twitter.com/C829XziMkr
— POLITICO (@politico) August 26, 2015
Here’s the thing. We don’t, at this point, know anything about how the shooter got the gun, or what measures at all would have prevented him from getting a gun, if any. So it seems kind of ludicrous to suggest laws to fix a problem when you don’t even know what the problem is.
But what we do know is that there are two families who are dealing with the tragedy of losing two loved ones who have been cut down in the prime of their lives. Compounding their grief and misery, this particular tableau is being played out in the harsh glare of the public eye, and they are sure to be descended upon by heartless members of a ratings-starved media eager for a juicy quote. Nancy Grace might well literally explode from ecstasy tonight. Maybe, as a nod to decency, we could at least let the dust settle from this tragedy before we start the fundraising pitches, whaddya say?
After all, while we don’t know the particulars of how the shooter got the gun he used in this incident, the one thing we definitely know about the shooter is that the chain of events that led to his termination and subsequent violent rampage began with the fact that he started coming into work with the mindset of constantly looking for racially motivated grievance material, and acting upon those perceived grievances in a violent manner. Where, do you suppose, that he learned this behavior?
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