This was one of those mornings on which a fairly passive approach to social media was a good thing. (Being blocked by, say, Michelle Malkin is a true blessing.) The shooting at the ballfield in Alexandria was a terrible event that could have become an absolute horror. The Capitol Police are being rightly praised for stepping in the way they did but, still, some accounts have the guy getting off 50 shots in over 10 minutes before being incapacitated. It's a damn miracle the casualty count wasn't higher anyway. My guess is that suppressing fire from the police accounts for a lot of that.

The Hot Take Industrial Complex sprang into action and, before nine o'clock in the morning, it had begun melting comets beyond the orbit of Pluto. Early reports were sketchy at best; the media filler was as fundamentally revolting as has become customary when crimes like this hit affluent white suburbs. How can this happen here? Because this is the United States of America in 2017, kids. It Can Happen anywhere. The suburbs are not sanctuaries. The ballfields are not sanctuaries. There is no big beautiful wall with big beautiful doors that will keep this kind of thing out, and keep all the Right People safe. There are no Right People who get shot. There are no Wrong People who get shot. Stop trying to convince us that there are. There are just victims and potential victims. And there are guns, too damn many guns too easily obtained.

AP

It's not as hard to depoliticize the events of Wednesday morning as you'd think it might be. Step one is to be very careful about early reports, especially from eyewitnesses. For example, Congressmen Jeff Duncan and Ron DeSantis were out early with a report that a guy had come up to them and asked if it were Republicans or Democrats out on the field. Duncan and DeSantis later tentatively identified the man as James Hodgkinson of Illinois, who has been identified as the now-deceased suspect in the incident. This got a lot of run in the elite political media; Brian Williams of MSNBC was particularly taken with this detail.

The problem is that Senator Jeff Flake's description of the shooter differs greatly from the description provided by Duncan and DeSantis of the man who'd approached them in the parking lot. From CNBC:

Duncan and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., decided to leave the congressional baseball practice early to make a meeting, he explained. As they were walking through the parking lot, they were approached by a man who asked if the team on the field was Republican or Democrat, he said. "We said it was a Republican team," Duncan said on "Squawk on the Street." "He said, 'OK, thanks.' There was nothing earth-shattering about it." According to other media reports, Duncan said the man he spoke with was wearing running clothes. However, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, speaking to reporters, said the shooter was wearing a blue shirt and jeans.

Obviously, this is a potentially explosive anecdote that, if it gets set in stony memory, will transform the tragic events of Tuesday into a potent political weapon. Equally obviously, though, if the guy who talked to the two congressmen is a different person, then he would be someone with whom law enforcement would be interested in talking. According to The Belleville News-Democrat, however, Hodgkinson's political leanings were not in any way subtle. There will be a lot of rhetoric about rhetoric. Ignore it all. None of it is truly honest.

AP

Step Two is to lose your illusions. Violence doesn't "intrude" on everyday life in America. Violence is a part of everyday life in America. A little more than a week ago, five people were shot to death in warehouse in Orlando. Is a warehouse in Orlando less innocent than a Virginia ballfield? Is a disgruntled worker taking his mad vengeance less of a demonstration of a country unhinged than a home-inspection specialist who fried his brain over politics? Is somebody who wounds over politics a worse murderer than someone who kills because he got fired? I admire the ability of anyone who can make that measured a moral choice.

On the whole, people shouldn't get shot. They shouldn't get shot in the streets. They shouldn't get shot in school. They shouldn't get shot in the workplace. They shouldn't get shot while carrying snack food in the "wrong" neighborhood, and they shouldn't get shot while they're trying to surrender. They shouldn't get shot while dancing in a nightclub. And they shouldn't get shot on the ballfield on a spring morning.

In the main, one victim is not more "innocent"—and, thus, of more value—than any other one. Their occupation shouldn't matter. Their politics shouldn't matter. There is a violence inherent in the country's history and there is a wildness present in its soul and, on occasion, both of these surface more clearly than is usual. Technology has made the violence more lethal and the wildness more general. The uniquely American conflation of innocence with hubris is a luxury we can no longer afford.

Update (2:43 PM): Just another day in America.

Is a UPS office in California less innocent than a ballfield in Virginia? Is it?

How?

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io