Why Does It Matter?

 Police continue to search for a motive...

The cause has really become entirely secondary. One person was killed by gunfire. Another twenty-plus were wounded. Twelve children ranging in age between six and fifteen were admitted to local hospitals for gunshot wounds. 

Because someone really didn't like Taylor Swift? 

Because someone really wanted the San Francisco Forty-Niners to win the Super Bowl?

Because the sun came up in the east?

People attending a celebration of a Super Bowl victory don't expect to be shot. Killed. Maimed. Wounded. They were going to a parade, not to a war zone. Of course this may be the problem. If you go somewhere that has that many Americans in one place, maybe you should expect some sort of mass casualty event. The chuckleheads who insist on parading about with their guns to rub everyone else's nose in their Second Amendment rights are indistinguishable in those situations from the ones who show up with intent to kill. 

The victory we could all be celebrating would be the week without a mass shooting. Authorities have so far "ruled out terrorism." Once again, I feel compelled to point you in the direction of any of the pictures or videos of the event in Kansas City last Wednesday. That look on the faces of people scrambling for cover is terror. 

America has a terrorist problem. It starts with the rabid insistence that we need any more guns. If you have an ax to grind, good luck making your point with it. If you have an AR-15, any numbskull with an itchy trigger finger can wreak havoc in seconds. 

Take the guns out of this equation, and the motive doesn't really matter. That's where the mental health system steps in. Time to start putting our priorities on stemming the tide of madness instead of handing them killing machines.