March 22, 2005

Oh, and by the way. . .

There was a school shooting here in Minnesota. My grandmother lives in Northome, which isn't all that far away from the shootings. As far as remote locations go, Northern Minnesota is tough to beat, so it didn't surprise me all that much that the reporting out of the area was slow to begin with. Hell, it's a four hour drive to get there from Twin Cities. To say nothing of the fact that reservations enjoy some sovereign status, so access may be difficult. I'm sure we'll hear more as the story unfolds.

I'm curious to see how this story will play out politically as a soccer ball for gun control and gun rights activists.

UPDATE: So, I dropped by good old reliable Atrios, and some of the comments seriously almost made me ill. Some examples:

The Republicans just don't want to draw attewntion to the fact that they'll be losing a voter in the midterm elections in a swing state. Of course, now they might start pushing for felon voting rights.
Ben Grimm | Email | Homepage | 03.22.05 - 11:13 am | #

I've never explicitly stated it but I will now, we have just as many assholes on our side that we're embarrassed by as you fellas on the other side.

The people making those ugly statements don't speak for me or for my beliefs in any way shape or form.

This was a terrible event and should be treated as such. There are no politics involved, this was a messed up kid with some serious anger management issues. I'd say he needs help but since he's dead, I don't think anything can be done for him now.

I visit Atrios every day, David, to see what hot button issues some on the Left are talking about. Atrios' actual post was free of snarkiness and bile. It wasn't until I ventured into the comment thread that things got ugly. As shown, I updated the post after reading some of it. Hardly an attempt on my part to politicize the issue. Just pointing out that some people were, and that they were being particularly vile about it. I didn't see anything like those comments on more Right-leaning sites. Did you?