The Silence of the Law: The Charleston Church Gunman
Arguments about guns in the United States resemble forays into
intense religious debate. They are doctrinal issues (the “right” to
bear arms; the entitlement to protection) that chatter through the
various lobbies. There are purely quibbling legal issues (what
regulations are appropriate in terms of controlling access to guns).
There are the broader ethical issues (should people even have guns as a
principle to begin with?)
Those left behind in such debates tend to be the silent corpses,
littered collateral damage in a rights culture that hyperventilates with
each urban massacre. Fascinatingly, none of these mass killings ever
qualifies as a terrorist onslaught, even if inflicted by a person with a
dog-breakfast ideology.
A theme that has recently emerged about whether Dylann Roof’s conduct
prior to the deeds he is charged