Rules Of Engagement

 You know me and massacres. I try not to miss an opportunity to ring the "guns are bad" bell. 

There was a shooting last Friday that left at least one hundred thirty-three dead and scores more wounded. This was not the act of a lone gunman. The motive in this particular case was clear, a departure from the standard. And this one didn't occur in a mall or a church or a school in the heartland of America. 

It didn't happen in America. 

It happened in suburban Russia. At a concert hall, packed with people. A number of gunmen, as yet undetermined, burst in and sprayed the crowd with automatic gunfire. On the way out, the assailants set fire to the place, hampering rescue efforts and creating even more chaos. 

Firearms are allowed for private citizens over eighteen with a registered permit in Russia. Of course if the bad guys with guns are from Isis, originating in Afghanistan, those rules don't matter as much. Contrary to many of the U.S. shootings, officials were quick to make the link between the massacre and terrorism. The war in Ukraine is now in its third year, so government types in both Moscow and Kyiv were quick to point fingers at one another in spite of the Isis statement on Saturday in which they said the attack had come in the “the natural framework” of the ongoing war between the extremist group and countries they accuse of fighting Islam. 

You may remember Isis as the bad guys in the United States' decade-long slog through Iraq. U.S. intelligence types had been monitoring potential retaliation by the group after a series of airstrikes by Russia. These were not considered terrorist attacks. These were attacks on terrorists. These are the justifications made for killing during wartime. 

Meanwhile, over here in the relative calm of these United States, we continue to average a hundred men, women, and children dying from gun violence each day. Sometimes the motives are known. Sometimes the assailants are terrorists, or act like them. Russia doesn't tend to keep score the same way we do, but the last time data was extracted, they came in at about one tenth the number here in America. 

So we mourn the dead and wait for the day when the killing stops.

Everywhere.

 For any reason.