Has America matured enough to differentiate good vs bad gun owners? Latest shooting.

[Decoligny]

If there is terrorism, that was it.

Terrorism is indiscriminate violence designed to create fear.

That idiot was so indiscriminate that he couldn't tell the difference between Sikh and Muslim. That level of stupidity is scary.

While it is impossible to find anything positive from a shooting, the Sikhs truly appreciate our RKBA and this might encourage California sheriffs to grant firearm licenses to Sikhs.

You assumption that he was targeting Muslims is based on what exactly?

He was a WHITE supremacist. His aim was to kill NON-WHITES.

From the article: "The music often includes lyrics that discuss genocide against Jews and other minorities."

Nowhere in the article did it mention that he was targeting Muslims.

I find it amazing that in a congregation of over 500 Sikhs, whose religion is based around a warrior tradition, that nobody rushed the shooter. Every Sikh carries a kirpan. I would think that ~500 Sikhs with drawn daggers would be more than a match for a lone shooter.

[wash]

It is an assumption but I feel it's a pretty safe one.

I know a handful of Sikhs and there is nothing about their culture that should anger anyone.

Since it was an indiscriminate act rather than targeted individuals, my guess is that the attack was driven by blind ignorance and hate.

As misguided as attacking innocent American Muslims would be, certain groups of Muslims have attacked the USA and rightly angered all Americans.

I can understand why a hate filled idiot would attack Muslims, it just doesn't make sense with Sikhs.

[707electrician]

Another dupe?

[Decoligny]

It is an assumption but I feel it's a pretty safe one.

I know a handful of Sikhs and there is nothing about their culture that should anger anyone.

Since it was an indiscriminate act rather than targeted individuals, my guess is that the attack was driven by blind ignorance and hate.

As misguided as attacking innocent American Muslims would be, certain groups of Muslims have attacked the USA and rightly angered all Americans.

I can understand why a hate filled idiot would attack Muslims, it just doesn't make sense with Sikhs.

POST # 7,000

How about because they aren't white? This guy was a Neo-Nazi white supremist.

It is highly unlikely that this was a political attack.
It is highly unlikely that this was a religious attack.
It is highly unlikely that this was a revenge attack for 9/11.

This was most likely a 100% racially motivated attack. This guy was killing them because they were not WHITE.

This could have just as easily been a large Jewish Synagogue, a large Black Episcopalian Church, a Catholic Church full of Latinos, or even a Mosque.

Based on this guys history of involvement with white supremists it is pretty clear that anyone not lily white would have done in a pinch.

[Agent Orange]

^ This. Target of opportunity.

[wash]

There are many other minorities he could have attacked that would have been much easier targets.

Observant Sikhs carry their Kirpan at all times and many of them carry other arms.

You would have to be really stupid, suicidal or have a major hatred of Sikhs to choose them as a target.

I'm guessing really stupid.

[Nick Justice]

I appreciate the part about the man who defended himself with the butter knife. He didn't just lay down and let evil win. Good for him!

[corrosively_armed]

This very thing was depicted in the sit coms of the 1980s. Every series had the 'gun' episode where one of the main characters either injures themselves merely by picking up a gun or nearly kills a member of their own family when they thought they were an intruder. It was propaganda and it was effective and it's effects continue to this day.

Per what some other people have said, I don't think the American people see guns and people as one. The see people in one bundle and guns in the other. They don't realize that these psychos would have gone out and killed regardless of whether they had guns, it was just their chosen method. They simply see the tool being the problem.

My biggest argument for this is find someone who is completely ignorant of guns and would consider them an Anti, then present them with an unloaded firearm and explain it as such. When I have done so when I have "Friends" at my place, you can see them cringe and freeze up. A gun, just sitting on the table, unloaded...scares them. It can't do anything on its own without being used by someone but they have been taught that GUNS ARE EVIL and they see this object as the epitome of what they've been told.