My god. Behind every tragedy is a poor excuse for a human ready to exploit it. These things are next to useless. What terrible terrible opportunists.

I had to have a talk with my nieces and nephews today. They had heard about the shooting. We practiced running out the door if someone had a gun.

Run and don't stop until you find a cop. That's the new 'if you see a gun' rule.

(... and if the cop has a gun, run away from the cop, too. I'm serious.)

Anyway, you left the 's' off of 'nightmares' Jack.

HuffingtonPost.com has started a daily gun sheet. They bet they can't see just one.
Today's list is the shortest of the week:

THE VIOLENCE NEVER STOPS: 4 Dead In Horrific Murder-Suicide... Man Shot To Death In New Orleans... 2 Killed In Penn. City... Man Shot Dead In Truck... Another Gunned Down In Street... Nightclub Shooting Kills Man

What? No report from Chi-town?

Besides violence with guns, The Oregonian also prints blurbs about stabbings, beatings with fists, bats, rocks, suicides or homicides by hanging, cutting, pills. Domestic violence, stranger on stranger violence, parental abuse, elder abuse, gang violence, school bullying, abuse of animals. There is a common denominator amongst all these crimes. Despite the desire to pin the behavior solely on mental illness, or evil, or developmental disorders, there can be a much simpler phenomena at work. Loneliness, displacement, rejection, not fitting in, being cast out, having no future - no place to fit in and no real identity.

I'm no psychiatrist, but beyond food, clothing and shelter, man needs to belong to a group of other human beings. Without this, without hope for a way to belong and a future to look forward to, disparity and anger can take over. Some people turn their anger inward, some outward. I may be off base here, but I don't think so. But this situation is "treatable" if the entire community took steps to make a place for everyone, somewhere. It's not a panacea, but things can be a lot better.