Earlier today I was urging caution in ascribing racial motives to the Virginia shooting. While there’s certainly evidence the shooter was deeply disturbed, the evidence is now overwhelming that this shooting was in large part about race. The shooter wanted vengeance for Charleston, he wanted a “race war,” and he was known for angry, unfounded accusations of racial persecution:

’Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15. The Church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15…’ ’What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims’ initials on them.’ ’As for Dylann Roof? You [redacted]! You want a race war [redacted]? BRING IT THEN YOU WHITE …[redacted]!!!” . . . He goes on to say that he has faced both racial and sexual discrimination as a black, gay man and that he was just waiting to explode. ’Yes, it will sound like I am angry…I am. And I have every right to be. But when I leave this Earth, the only emotion I want to feel is peace…’ ’The church shooting was the tipping point…but my anger has been building steadily…I’ve been a human powder keg for a while…just waiting to go BOOM!!!!’


So, how does the President of the United States respond? It’s the guns of course, and the guns are worse than terrorists. No, I’m not making this up:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dos42IF2ghY

His quote: “It breaks my heart every time you read about or hear about these kinds of incidents,” Obama said. “What we know, is that the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism.”

So now we’re using domestic racial violence to not just bolster the case for gun control but also to diminish the threat of international terrorism? This statement is almost beyond belief — even for Obama. Look for the shooting to trigger another round of gun control proposals, none of which would have stopped this crime. As for terrorism? The hundreds of thousands of victims of jihadist violence since 2009 could not be reached for comment. Nor could the recently-gassed Kurds. Nor could the young Yazidi sex slaves. Nor could Iranian nuclear scientists. They’re too busy trying to engineer the apocalypse.