Belated Thoughts on The Mass Shooting at The Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia

As you are probably aware, a night supervisor at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia shot and killed six employees on November 23rd before turning the gun on himself. 

Now details have emerged that the assailant purchased the gun the morning of the shooting. The assailant was known to have a temper and was paranoid claiming the government was watching him, a classic sign of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder which may never have been diagnosed. Whatever the assailant's mental health, he had no criminal record and thus passed the state's background check. 

Virginia does have a red flag law but the victims had no way of knowing the assailant had purchased a weapon much less knew he intended to use it. Of course, some counties refuse to enforce red flag laws as was the case in El Paso County where the Club Q mass shooting took place in Colorado Springs on Saturday night. 

Now it's true that most people who purchase guns would never set out to kill innocent civilians. Nevertheless guns are far too easily accessible in this country. So long as policymakers and law enforcement place the right to own a gun over the right to life then we can expect these kinds of incidents for the foreseeable future - perhaps within a matter of hours.