A gunman attacked the pro-life Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. at 10:45 Eastern time on Wednesday. According to a Fox News report, he ???expressed disagreement with the conservative group???s policy positions,??? then opened fire after he was challenged by a security guard. There have been reports that he was trying to make his way into the office to commit greater carnage, possibly by posing as an intern.
According to reporter Mike Levine of Fox News, a source said the suspect, after being disarmed, said to the security guard, ???Don???t shoot me. It was not about you. It was what this place stands for.??? There have been as-yet unconfirmed reports that the shooter was carrying a Chick-fil-A bag. The Family Research Council supports the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, as does Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy.
The guard, who has been identified as Leo Johnson in other media reports, was hit in the arm while struggling to subdue the gunman. He is said to be in stable condition. Johnson ???is a hero, as far as I???m concerned,??? said D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier. ???He did his job. The person never made it past the front.???
FRC president Tony Perkins issued a statement saying, ???The police are investigating the incident. Our first concern is with the colleague who was shot today. Our concern is for him and his family.???
As of 4:00 PM Eastern time, there has not been an official statement from President Obama on the shooting, but Mitt Romney swiftly released a statement: "I am appalled by the shooting today at the offices of the Family Research Council in our nation???s capital. There is no place for such violence in our society. My prayers go out to the wounded security guard and his family, as well as all the people at the Family Research Council whose sense of security has been shattered by today's horrific events."
The shooter, who has not yet been officially identified, is reportedly in FBI custody. No official word as of yet on whether the incident will be formally classified as an act of domestic terrorism or a ???hate crime.???
We???re also still waiting for the media to spring into action and treat this incident the way they???ve attempted to politicize the Tucson and Colorado shootings ??? especially since, unlike those incidents, the FRC attacker actually did express some political motivations.
Liberals routinely refer to the FRC as a ???hate group??? ??? the Southern Poverty Law Center officially describes it that way ??? so we should quickly receive a hyperventilating column from Paul Krugman of the New York Times, denouncing the ???climate of hate??? that led this individual to perpetrate a violent attack on his demonized ideological enemies. Hateful liberal talk-show hosts should be duly indicted for their role in creating this ???climate of hate.???
Once the name of the shooter is released, ABC News should promptly Google it, and inform viewers whether any member of a liberal group anywhere in the District of Columbia has a similar name. That???s how they handled the Colorado killer, after a 30-second web search revealed a member of a local Tea Party group had a similar name.
And of course, we???ll need some tortured explanations for how a lack of gun control laws somehow led to this attack, even though Washington, D.C. already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.
Or??? maybe we could hold this one individual wholly responsible for his actions, and refuse to grant him a ???psychopath???s veto??? over people of good faith who happen to take the same side of a major social debate. Maybe we could respectfully disagree with competing arguments, and reserve condemnations of ???hatred??? for the people who are actually pointing weapons at the people they hate.
