Five Things to Keep in Mind when the Left Goes Crazy over the Planned Parenthood Shooting

For those who want to blame last Friday’s Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooter on the pro-life movement:

First, the movement that’s entirely about opposition to murder obviously does not support murder.  All the pro-life leaders condemn the Planned Parenthood shooting.

Second, this guy had nothing to do with the local pro-life movement.  The Washington Times reports,

A Roman Catholic priest who has held weekly Mass in front of the clinic for 20 years said Dear wasn’t part of his group.

“I don’t know him from Adam,” said Rev. Bill Carmody. “I don’t recognize him at all.”

The National Catholic Reporter adds,

Others who regularly pray outside the clinic also said they did not recall seeing Dear at any pro-life events.

Third, Jim Geraghty notices the left’s double standard about blaming political speech for the actions of such shooters, and concisely reviews a number of examples, with plenty of links.

The On-Again, Off-Again Arguments About ‘Dangerous Rhetoric’ Leading to Violence

Let me get this straight. In the eyes of the Left…

….criticism of Planned Parenthood means something like the shooting in Colorado “was bound to happen”…

…but chants where people describe police as ‘pigs’ and call for them to be ‘fried like bacon’ doesn’t lead to attacks on police…

. . .

… a shooting by a diagnosed schizophrenic, who believed that grammar was part of a vast, government-directed mind control effort, is characterized by the Southern Poverty law Center as having views that are the “hallmark of the far right and the militia movement” …

… while the shooter who opened fire in the lobby of the Family Research Council in downtown Washington in 2012, who planned to target the Traditional Values Coalition next, does not spur any need for a broader discussion or societal lessons about the demonization of political opponents…

(Go to NRO for the whole list.)

Fourth, the shooter sounds like a total weirdo.  As often turns out to be the case after a mass shooting like this, it appears that he was not political so much as actually mentally ill.  Life Site News collects “Everything we know about the Planned Parenthood shooter”, including links to several sources.  He stood trial for animal cruelty.  “ABC reports . . . Neighbors say he was a quiet man who seemed ‘off.’ They said that when he did speak, he tended to ramble on a disconnected series of topics.”  “Another neighbor told the Washington Post that Dear ‘. . . had a weird look in his eye most of the time.’”  It goes on.  He sounds like a real weirdo.

Fifth, Charles Cooke points out that violent crime and gun crime in the United States are actually declining—have been for more than twenty years—and reminds us to have a dose of Sowellian epistemological humility, and to think twice before demanding any supposed quick fixes.