Let's all keep our focus on the real problem (i.e. A highly charged, hyper-partisan social & political environment against a backdrop of a culture that values the right of private individuals to be armed & 'stand their ground').

Leave to another day the issue of what political factions have most fostered the general state of affairs that this incident exemplifies.  The more basic issue is that given the social and political environment just described, (a) unstable individuals will act out in the manner of today's incident, (b) such individuals will emerge from across the political spectrum, and (c) while thankfully few in number given the size of the US population, such incidents will have a marked impact (including copy-cat recurrences).

The society's general challenge is to tone down the rancor & demonization of opponents, develop a more mature ethic for weapons use & foster the capacity to conduct passionate debate on important issues in a civil & intelligent manner.

Labels: moderation: safe