obfuscations in the news: and they say guns don't kill people...?

though this may not really count as an obfuscation, the news that the gunman who killed three policemen in Pittburgh said it's because of his fear that the Obama government was going to take away his right of owning guns. huh?

Poplawski's [the shooter] friends at the scene described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns.

One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."

Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."

KDKA (CBS Affiliate), Pittsburg

and Crooks and Liars connects his thinking to the vitriol of the likes of Glenn Beck. well, it's not really much of a leap.

He feared an Obama gun grab? Gee, I wonder where he could have heard that.

Indeed, a story replete with NRA-style fearmongering about the looming "grab" -- which has been fueling a run on guns at local shops -- ran just three days ago in the Pittsburgh Tribune.

We've been reporting for awhile on the surge in gun sales, and how the paranoia around guns is making the more unstable elements of the right particularly edgy. Inevitably, that edginess is going to break out into actual violence -- as it appears to have done today.

Richard Poplawski: Was Pittsburgh shooter driven by right-wing gun paranoia about Obama?,
Crooks and Liars

i have no problem with people having guns for recreational purposes, though i would never have one. but no one in the NRA or any other organization has successfully convinced me how an automatic, rapid fire gun is in any way recreational. it is purely for one thing - taking human life!