Today my dad and I were leaving the Mall in DC after a day at the museums to drive to my brother's place in Alexandria, and just before we turned off Independence towards the 9th St. tunnel a whole stack of emergency vehicles set up a blockade a few blocks down, I guessed around 14th St. at the time. Didn't know what it was until my sister-in-law came home from work.

There are fringe loonies, and then there are elderly men with arsenals, and when they combine, it's a bad day for everyone. That these assholes presume to speak for my "race" or my German last name is atrocious, and that they would kill anyone, anywhere, in the name of human evil, well, I just don't know what to say. Death is no punishment for a dotard with a martyr complex and nothing to lose. The only real punishment is remorse, which is unlikely; the world will be better only when his beliefs are gone, which is a pipe dream.

One can only hope the angel of death comes for him and all who think like him, but that shit doesn't happen outside of novels and bibles.

I feel terrible for the family and friends of the guard who died, and for the visitors who were there today, and for the museum itself, none of whom should have had to feel or see this stupid act. It is painful to see anyone killed by an asshole for any reason, especially such a stupid and obviously evil one.

Now what was that shit conservative members of congress were saying about easing gun controls in the district? They're part of the same problem, if you ask me.

Sorry to go on and on, this is upsetting.

I saw the thread on MeFi a bit ago, and knew instinctively not to open it tonight. This is dreadful, and for me, that means I need to learn about it privately, not in a no-doubt-messy MeFi thread.

I did not know that the guard died from his injuries. How awful.

Every time something like this happens, my conservative coworkers read it as an assault on their right to bear arms.

Go figure.

I'm sure your conservative coworkers may also feel this way because the shooter was -- of course -- a liberal.