Church shooting

Several people lost their lives last night at a Church in Charleston, South Carolina when a gunman opened fire killing about 9 people including the Pastor of the Church, who also happened to be a State Senator, from what I have heard. The gunman was a 21 year old and has been captured.

Condolences and prayers to all the families of the victims and to all the members of the Church Family.

From all I have heard, this was a largely black church, and many reasons to think this was a racially motivated event.

Not going into gun issues, but it is disgraceful that in the 21st century racism continues to survive.

I'm not discounting that it isn't racially motivated, but to shoot up a church would be motivated by more than race. Still a hate-crime is a hate-crime. I will have to try and read up more about the assailant who carried out this atrocity to get a better idea, if possible.
It's sad that still thousands of years into the human condition, that we are the worst inter-species predators and prone to violent acts on eachother despite our human progress. Whether we attack people in our own environment and country, or do so to any human 4000 miles away, is just incredibly sad.

From all I have heard so far, it appears that it may have been racially motivated, but I suppose that remains to be seen in what information comes out next.

I heard something the other day, though, that put it all more in perspective to me, and that was the statement that "It wasn't a matter of race, it was a matter of the heart!". To me that is true because what is in one's heart is what comes out eventually. How someone's heart gets hardened like this and full of hate enough to hurt others is hard to understand, but it seems to be happening more and more which can be seen if you just watch the news every day. It is sad.

And, not to stir up another can of worms, so to speak, but recently we were talking about the death penalty related to the Boston Bomber trial, etc. in another thread here at the Fringes, and now there is this case also. I was watching the news a day or so after these events happened in Charleston, South Carolina and I happened to see the Govenor of that State, I think it was, on TV speaking about the death penalty, which as I understand it, is legal in South Carolina.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/us/ch ... .html?_r=0

I was also very, very impressed with the families of the shooting victims as they faced the shooter in court and told him how much he had taken from them by his actions and mostly that they forgave him and hoped he turned his life around. To me, that may have more of an impact on this young man than anything else could have. If nothing else, he will have much to think on as he sits in jail (probably for the rest of his life).

I have to disagree about violence going up. Crime, including violent crime, has actually been going down over time and we have the stats that show it. What you hear on TV and in many news outlets is going to be a horribly biased sample, because they will tell you whatever will get you to watch or click or whatever. They show what gets attention, and what gets attention is violence. What doesn't get attention is human kindness, or the people who are just going about living their lives like normal. You generally don't hear about the people who are working for Habitat for Humanity in local communities, or helping the poor and destitute or cleaning up the local environment, because that stuff doesn't get you to click on a link or watch TV news. For every mass murderer, there's probably 10 people doing good things every day you don't hear about. Our violent crime rate has gone down, not up, and you won't hear that on a lot of mass media. It seems violence is the order of the day, but the numbers just don't bear that out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/upsho ... 0002&abg=1

I also have no doubts anymore about race being a motivating factor in this particular incident. The evidence of the shooter doing what he did with hatred for non-whites as a factor is, unfortunately, piling up.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/know-far ... tivations/

I really think as a country, the US really needs to take a deep introspective look at itself in regards to race and ethnicity, and as you alluded to Silver, try to understand what caused this particular individual to not just hate, but act on it violently. Because as it turns out, there's still a fair number of people out there who hold racist views of some sort or another. This individual just acted on it.