Shootings and law: Three brief observations after San Bernardino

1)      The shootings that have recently occurred in Colorado, California, and elsewhere are tragic. But they are not tragedies in the way that a natural disaster is a tragedy. They are crimes. They involved inherently culpable, criminal acts. Unless the shooters were insane and not possessed of the ability to know what they were doing, the shooters in these cases chose to perform an action that was inherently evil and contrary to law. And they chose to perform an action that has been illegal as

1)      The shootings that have recently occurred in Colorado, California, and elsewhere are tragic. But they are not tragedies in the way that a natural disaster is a tragedy. They are crimes. They involved inherently culpable, criminal acts. Unless the shooters were insane and not possessed of the ability to know what they were doing, the shooters in these cases chose to perform an action that was inherently evil and contrary to law. And they chose to perform an action that has been illegal as…