On Saturday former president Donald Trump was nearly assassinated. One of my first thoughts when I saw the breaking news was, "OMG, I hope whoever shot him doesn't strongly identify with Democratic politics." The last thing we need right now- other than a political assassination- is for the false narrative Trumpists have been telling for years now ( Read more... )

On Saturday, July 13, a shooter allegedly attempted to assassinate former president Donald Trump. He was struck by a bullet and suffered only superficial injury ( Read more... )

After 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley brought a gun to school and murdered 4 classmates and injured 6 other students and 1 teacher at his Michigan high school in November, 2021 prosecutors charged not only him but his parents. The theory of the case against the parents was that they ignored abundant signs their minor child was making violent threats, ( Read more... )

Sometimes the tragedy of the week keeps on tragedy...-ing. That happened today when school principal Dan Marburger died from wounds he incurred in a shooting at his Des Moines, IA area school on Jan. 4. Marburger died from a week and half later from multiple gunshot wounds he suffered trying to intervene to stop the shooter. Example news coverage: ( Read more... )

Oops, it happened again. Another week, another mass shooting. (Actually these happen more than once a day in the US; it's just they only make the news once a week or so because we're sadly so accustomed to them.) It was another school shooting, too. On Thursday a troubled student at Perry High School north of Des Moines, Iowa, walked in with a gun ( Read more... )

Oops, it happened again. Another nut with easy access to military style weapons walked into a business, school, or house of worship and shot people indiscriminately. A shooter in Lewiston, Maine entered a bowling alley and a bar and killed 18 people and wounded at least 13 more on Wednesday night. Police quickly identified a local man as the ( Read more... )

Yesterday was 9/11. It was the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

As the tragedy of that day recedes farther into the rear view mirror of history it seems like a gradually less important anniversary. And that's a good thing ( Read more... )

On Wednesday a jury in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania sentenced Robert Bowers to death. Bowers was the gunman who, on October 27, 2018, entered the Tree of Life Jewish synagogue and opened fire on congregants attending sabbath worship services there. Armed with an AR-15 style assault rifle and other firearms he killed 11 people and wounded 7 others, ( Read more... )

Yet-another mass shooting with several people dead has occurred in the US. On Saturday a gunman opened fire at a shopping mall in Allen, TX, a suburb of Dallas. Eight victims were killed and at least seven others wounded. The gunman used an AR-15 military-style rifle. Example coverage: CBS News article, 6 May 2023In the few days it's taken me to ( Read more... )

My blog has been fairly full the past few weeks with writing and photographs about outdoors trips I've enjoyed. While I've now (almost) cleared the backlog on those fun things, I've accumulated a backlog of sad and infuriating things I need to acknowledge. Among these is the Tragedy of the Week. ...Or, since it's been a few weeks, the Tragedies of ( Read more... )