[molson]

There were posters here who blamed the Jared Lee Loughner shootings on the conservative media. That was a fun thread. I think motive, if we know it, it always worth mentioning, but I don't think you can take it literally. These people aren't processing the world the same way normal people are. The shootings yesterday do not represent some broader theme about violent atheists rising up and attacking Christians. (I'm sure you could find that narrative being pushed somewhere on the internet).

I'm starting to think these things aren't about guns or mental illness. There's not a lot of countries which have completely banned guns or who have cured mental illness in the general population. There's many countries where you can acquire weapons if you don't have a criminal record. The reality is, if someone wants to kill you, they probably can, almost anywhere. They can't kill as many as the weirdo did at Sandy Hook if they don't have access to that kind of weapons stash, but they could certainly kill one or two people. And they don't even do that at the same rate, especially against random strangers.