Words Don’t Pull Triggers

On Wednesday morning of this week, a malcontented volunteer from an LGBT community center in Washington, D.C., walked into the lobby of the socially conservative Family Research Council. Along with a handgun and a box of ammunition, he was carrying a backpack that contained 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches — an obvious if peculiar reference to last month’s flap. Having cleared the doors, the Associated Press reported, the gunman shouted “I don’t like your politics!” and then opened fire, hitting a security guard in the arm. Mercifully, before he could do any more damage, he was subdued. The same could be said of the media coverage.

When a lunatic goes on a shooting rampage, we are quick to blame everything and everyone except the shooter himself. Among myriad other things, we blame the law, access to guns, political rhetoric, Hollywood, spending cuts, and talk radio; all while the person who actually fired the gun and planned the crime is relegated to being a helpless agent of whichever external forces seem most to vex the author. So often, more column inches are spent fretting over those with a cameo role than over the star of the show. This is rather grotesque.

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