It never f******ng stops! (Gun violence USA) (apologies to rgray)

Dylann Roof, suspected gunman, caught after 9 churchgoers fatally shot in Charleston

A tip from a childhood friend helped police identify the suspected gunman in a shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., that left nine people dead, police say.

The suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, of Lexington, S.C., was arrested during a traffic stop late Thursday morning in Shelby, N.C., and will be taken back to South Carolina.

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The pastor of the church, state Senator Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed.

(CBC)


Charleston church shooting: Hate crime, gun crime? Does it matter?

Earlier today, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch declared that acts such as the mass murder of worshippers in a black church in Charleston, allegedly by a man fond of white supremacist symbols, "have no place in a civilized society."

She's right, of course. But a reasonable case can be made that South Carolina is less a civilized society than a predator's paradise.

In a civilized society, people have some assurance that laws, and the agents who enforce those laws, will shield them from predators, protecting the weak being the essence of civilization.

But even leaving aside its ugly history of race relations — the Confederate flag still flies in front of the state capital in Columbia — South Carolina, like many other U.S. states, is a place where the love of guns trumps the protection of innocents.

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Dylann Storm Roof, the prime suspect in Wednesday's slaughter.

There he stands in his Facebook picture, posing in a bog somewhere, the flags of apartheid South Africa and the white-ruled former Rhodesia stitched ostentatiously onto his jacket.

News photo of the month, that one.

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One of the first news organizations to report Roof's birthday present was the Charleston Post and Courier, a newspaper that has a Pulitzer Prize to its credit.

On the front page today, just over the headline CHURCH ATTACK KILLS 9, it featured a peel-off advertisement for "Ladies Night" at the ATP Gun Shop and Range: "$30 gets you everything!" Gun, ammo, even a souvenir T-shirt.

The newspaper at least had the grace to apologize for that.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the White House, the president was raising his civilized voice, once again.

"I've had to make comments like this too many times," Barack Obama told reporters, rather plaintively. He has spoken after mass murders at least six times during his presidency.

"At some point as a country, we have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."

* * *

Obama went on to say that "it is in our power to do something about it."

But it's actually not in his power to do anything about it. He tried, after the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

The country was outraged. Most Americans agreed with him. Then the National Rifle Association started making some calls and Congress punked out.

Why would anyone think it'll be any different this time?

(CBC)

And of course, you can always count on the NRA to make a calming, thoughtful comment when incidents such as these occur...

NRA board member blames deceased pastor for the deaths in the Charleston shooting

A National Rifle Association board member has blamed the political position of South Carolina State Senator — and pastor — Clementa Pinckney for the church massacre in Charleston that left nine people dead.

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NRA board member Charles Cotton has said that if Senator Pinckney had not voted to oppose legislation that would have allowed guns in South Carolina churches, “eight of his church members…might be alive,” Politico reported.

(Independent UK)

via ehMac.ca http://ift.tt/1ITm2dE