Emergence of a New Plea

One might think of it as the NRA Insanity Plea. Almost out of the box, someone suggested that the teachers in that unfortunate Newtown elementary “have blood on their hands.” They didn’t have a gun handy to defeat the attacker—blasting him to kingdom come from behind the desk where the apple sits. Okay. That was just a reflex. But as the second, third day dragged on, the new plea began emerging—with a weak and a strong thrust. The weak thrust is that we must now ban assault weapons—as if a person with a loaded six-shooter couldn’t, with some care, kill five people before terminating himself with prejudice. The strong thrust is that, looking for culprits, we must immediately point fingers at the Mental Health Community for its failure to identify the nuts among us.