“the price of freedom”?
“For years now, after one massacre or another,” writes Heather Cox Richardson this mourning, “I have written some version of the same article, explaining that the nation’s current gun free-for-all is not traditional but, rather, is a symptom of the takeover of our nation by a radical extremist minority.” A minority that, like Bill O’Reilly, considers daily slaughter “the price of freedom.”
None of that was normal until about the time Ronald Reagan and Movement Conservatism arrived in full. Fueled by National Rifle Association money, the right twisted the Second Amendment into an “unfettered right to own and carry weapons.” They’ve turned America into a place Old West residents of Tombstone and Dodge City would not recognize.
At least eight dead and nine injured at a suburban Dallas, Texas outlet mall (Washington Post):
Six of the eight people killed were found dead at the scene. At least nine people injured in the shootingwere taken to hospitals by the local fire department, Allen Fire Chief Jon Boyd said. Two of them died, and as of late Saturday, three others remained critically injured. More people could have been injured and transported in personal vehicles, Boyd said.
Children were also among those injured. The victims being treated at Medical City Healthcare trauma facilities ranged from 5 to 61 years old, said Kathleen Beathard, a spokeswoman for the hospital system.
The shooter was killed at the scene by a police officer at the mall on an unrelated call. The Post has reviewed video believed to show the body of the gunman “wearing tactical gear with several magazines of ammunition on his chest” beside what appears to be “an AR-style semiautomatic rifle.”
Film and culture writer, Sara Stewart, opines for CNN:
The entirety of our culture now seems increasingly like the Wild West, where the answer to “could you please stop doing that?” or even just “could you help me?” might turn out to be a bullet.
It’s all a blur anymore.