Mass Murdering While Imperfectly Sane

THIS TIME the guy wasn't crazy, at least no crazier than most of us are or would be were we confronted with the circumstances of his life. Back surgery, always risky tricky, left him in post op agony, as do back problems and correctives for many. Perhaps the surgeon was a racist, and did sloppy work. It happens, with surprising and tragic frequency. Perhaps the doctor was reluctant to prescribe sufficient pain meds; that happens too, for reasons we all know well. Systemic racism of the medicinal sort is under study in Critical Race Theory, (which is actually simply sociology-psychology- history), which conservatives, always challenged empathically, prefer to pretend does not exist. Dude went to WAl Mart, or Dollar General, or where in the hell ever, ("Guns Galore" possibly?), snagged an over-counter-assault rifle, some ammo, snacks and toilet paper, and an hour later, four dead in Oklahoma, as Neil Young might croon. Quicker, easier access to assault rifles than to cigarettes, or Sudafed. But whence came the idea of a retaliatory shooting spree? From somebody, correct? There are plenty of role models; hundreds of fellow mass murderers, fifty semi-sentient Senators who refuse to "punish good people" by taking their AR15s away. Imagine, disallowing the American people to own assault weapons..as punishment? One can think of far more severe forms of punishment. Homie hurt so bad in the back that he could no longer stand it, ran out of pain pills and patience, and, in his tortured mind, body, and soul, ran out of options. Temmporary insanity by pain and anger. We've all been there, but without assault weapons to use as facilitators. Who among us hasn't upon occasion wanted to throw a recalcitrant computer out the window, or take a hammer and smash the place up....A good friend of mine used to playfully threaten to go on a "four state shooting spree". He never did it, because he knew better, wasn't quite driven to distraction, and, had not the means. Hell, I'm a highly intelligent well educated passifist and can remember fantisizing aobut guns and retribution. I've seen folks pound bedroom walls because Auburn beat Alabama. Truth be told, who hasn't? Buddha sad: "Mind foreruns all conditions". Hell yes. Damned straight.