PowerLine"I agree with Hugh Hewitt that it is a mistake to pay attention to “manifestos” left behind by insane killers. It only encourages them. But if we are going to take seriously the ideology of lunatics, it must be a two-way street. Dylann Roof’s racist ideology was taken very seriously, to the point where Confederate flags came down across the South. In Flanagan’s case, the focus is on gun control rather than his equally racist ideology.
"Flanagan was consumed with race hatred, and was disciplined by the television station for which he worked at the time for, among other things, wearing a Barack Obama button while he stood in line to vote. So why do we not retroactively conclude that images of Barack Obama are hateful, like the Confederate flag, and must be banned? Glenn Reynolds asks, “Will Obama apologize for the behavior of one of his followers?” Of course not. But imagine if a racist white killer who worked for a television station had been similarly disciplined for wearing, say, a Ted Cruz button. Do you not think that fact would be deemed highly relevant, and highly embarrassing to Senator Cruz?
"The Dylann Roof case was actually interesting from the standpoint of firearms regulation. The FBI said that Roof should not have been allowed to purchase a gun because he had a misdemeanor arrest for possession of Suboxone. The FBI said that an error was made in running the background check when Roof bought his gun. Whether this conclusion is correct or not is debatable, but the case could have been used to shed light on the biggest problem with firearms regulation: the list of prohibited persons is inadequate, and insane people like Dylann Roof and Vester Flanagan keep passing background checks. This is why liberals’ endless cry for “universal background checks” is futile. But the Left had no interest in gun regulation after the Roof murders. It was after bigger game." . . .
