How do you fight this?

And it's a serious question:

As police worked to unravel what caused Thornton to snap and randomly shoot co-workers as they fled out a back door into nearby woods or sought refuge under desks and other furniture, Hartford Distributors workers consoled each other as they learned who had made it out safely and who had not.

An employee working at a northeastern beer distributor goes crazy when he's confronted with evidence of his stealing product.

Ah, but since he's the only black man working amongst all of those white folk, it has to be Teh Racists.

Even though his union reps say that he's never filed a racial complaint, reports are that he endured years of racial discrimination.

But that's not my question. Nor is it 'Why can't the media get their heads and asses wired together (one report mentions Thornton had a handgun permit, others mention he was carrying a rifle ... wtf?)'.

The question is 'How do you explain an event like this so that everyone isn't blaming the tool, but placing blame where it belongs?'

I've wrestled with this for a long time; I've even entertained the idea of left-wing conspiracies, given the number of senseless murders just before big gun votes.

And it's harder given the fact that guns were invented to kill things (might as well admit it ... that we also use them in ways that don't involve killing seems to be irrelevant). I don't keep a pistol close to scare an intruder, I keep a pistol close so that I can shoot (and perhaps kill) him if necessary. But the killing is incidental to what I want ..... for the bad guy to stop doing bad things to me or mine.

But when someone goes crazy with a gun, it's like a collective match is applied to everyone's head.

And rational thought goes out the window.

pm