The NRA and its allies use that kind of rhetoric to try to intimidate people out of discussing the issue while it's relevant. If we wait for some unspecified "decent interval", the issue is no longer timely and nobody is interested in discussing it. They win. Lather rinse repeat--we keep falling for it.

My first thought when I saw the headline about the shooting was that some yahoo mistook their turbans as signifying that they're Muslims...again, and that's the shameful thing. Stupidity and ignorance piled atop bigotry, the whole steaming pile enabled by the "Rocky Racoon gun culture". I reserved judgment, bearing in mind that the Sikhs are known for taking honor to extreme ends, but the only reports I've seen so far do label it "domestic terrorism". I fear the worst.

"Rocky Racoon gun culture" is apt. For another musical take on it, check out Robert Earl Keen's Whenever Kindness Fails.