Today, in Pittsburgh:
Three Pittsburgh police officers were killed and two others were wounded after a heavily armed man began firing at them as they responded to a domestic call this morning at a home in Stanton Heights.
Today, from a New York Times column by Charles Blow:
At the same time, the unrelenting meme being pushed by the right that Obama will mount an assault on the Second Amendment has helped fuel the panic buying of firearms. According to the F.B.I., there have been 1.2 million more requests for background checks of potential gun buyers from November to February than there were in the same four months last year. That’s 5.5 million requests altogether over that period; more than the number of people living in Bachmann’s Minnesota.
Coincidence? Maybe. Just posturing? Hopefully. But it all gives me a really bad feeling.
According to a friend of the shooter:
"He always said that if someone tried to take his weapons away he would do what his forefathers told him to do and defend himself."
... Mr. Poplawski was opposed to Mr. Obama's election, which he thought would result in the loss of his rights, Mr. Vire said. [...]
Mr. Poplawski told him he bought his guns "because he felt the quality of life was being diminished," Mr. Vire said.