Random Observations on the Day After Another Mass Shooting in America:
1. The other day the Rude Pundit was on the Trash floor of the East Village store Trash and Vaudeville, and he saw a man of about fifty or older, fully decked out in punk gear, spiked leather collar and wristbands, leather pants that only came up to the pubic hair that poked out on top, leather vest wide open. If he had been 20, it might have been so cool it'd be ridiculous. But he wasn't. He was over 50. It wasn't a costume. And he looked like a fucking idiot. Skinny, saggy flesh. And the face tattoo - a spider's web over his whole stupid face. It might as well have said, "I give up."

The Rude Pundit felt the same amount of disgust when he heard that Sikh gurdwara (or temple) shooter Wade Michael Page was a 40 year-old skinhead who played white supremacist music with bands that had other middle-aged skinheads. Really? How pathetic. Next thing you'll find out is that he collected action figures but left them in the packages. Grow the fuck up, you tools.

2. Of course the gun was purchased legally. For years, the mantra of the NRA and its lackeys in government and the media has been "enforce the laws we have." Maybe we need to say that the laws we have are so weak that enforcing them doesn't really help the problem.

3. There is no reasoning with the NRA. It exists solely to advocate for reckless policies that are demonstrably harmful to the nation. If it was run by Muslims, calling for more firepower and ease with which to buy and carry guns and ammo, it would have been designated a terrorist organization. Their power needs to be stripped and they need to be crushed politically. President Obama should state, flat out, that he believes the NRA hurts America and that, while he supports the right to bear arms (because you have to say that), he won't negotiate with terrorists. (Note: He won't say this.)

4. Don't believe it? This is from an article in the latest issue of the NRA magazine My Big Gun Makes Up for My Small Penis advocating for "campus carry," where guns are allowed on college campuses: "What has made the public more receptive to allowing guns on campus five years after the worst mass shooting in American history? Maybe it’s because the public sees the violence continuing and no longer accepts status quo solutions. Maybe it’s that Virginia Tech taught us we’re living in a new world where text alerts, video cameras and stickers on the doors are absurdly insufficient means of securing the lives of our sons and daughters. Or maybe it can be attributed to that peculiar kind of novelty that only liberty can bring." You got that? Guns equal liberty. Otherwise, we are slaves. That's fucked up. That's psychotic.

5. Is it okay now to talk about right-wing violence in this country? Is it okay to label these white people "terrorists"? Is it okay to monitor them without being accused of wanting to put conservatives in concentration camps? They've been on the rise since we elected the first black president, which only confirmed for them that the race war is coming because they're goddamned fucktards with guns who jack off to Glenn Beck while shitty grindcore music roars in their ears, telling them destroy and revolt and most of them are too dumb to actually realize that it's the rich white people who have made them broke and dumb and redneck and hateful and disempowered in any way except cowardly shooting up unarmed people.

6. Here's how the Times of India described the incident: "[T]he gun-rich, trigger-happy country cringed in embarrassment at a what appeared to be a white supremacist hate crime against Sikhs." Although, you know, we're American. We tend to embrace our ignorance, not get embarrassed by it.

7. Jasjit Singh Kang, the head of the Punjabi American Heritage Society in Yuba City, California, where one of the largest Sikh communities in the U.S. exists, said about the shootings, "Although we have relative safety here in our town, we recognize that these are troubling times where violence and death are present everywhere...All Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) are open to everyone without reservation or discrimination and they exist to serve as a sanctuary of peace and meditation for those of the Sikh faith and for anyone else who chooses to enter and attend."

The webpage for the organization celebrates an exhibit, "Becoming American: The Story of Pioneering Punjabis and South Asians." Now, more than ever, with their gun victims still warm, they are indeed Americans.