Another politically-motivated shooting

WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) - A Virginia man has been charged in federal court in the shooting of a security guard at the headquarters of a conservative Christian lobbying group.

Federal authorities say Floyd Lee Corkins II told a guard at the downtown Washington DC headquarters of the Family Research Council, "I don't like your politics" before shooting him in the arm. The guard and others helped subdue Corkins, who was taken into custody. He's been charged with assault with intent to kill and with bringing a firearm across state lines.

Read the whole story here.

In the last month, this country has experienced a bewildering orgy of random gun violence.  The thing in Aurora.  The thing in Wisconsin.  The thing at Texas A&M.

And now this.

Thankfully, the security guard at the scene showed acuity and courage and prevented the incident from becoming much worse.  

Corkins appears to have been motivated by politics.  The Family Research Council is a well-funded anti-gay organization (you can get a dose of its ugly rhetoric here) that has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.  But hateful words do not justify violence.  Nor can the wounded security guard or the potential victims in the office building be blamed.  Except, of course, in the mind of a deranged lunatic.

This incident is another demonstration that, in today's society, there is nothing to be done about lunatics with guns going on killing sprees. 

As I asked in my open letter to Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice-President of the National Rifle Association, since reasonable gun control laws are unacceptable, what is the solution?  Must we accept these incidents as an inherent part of our lives?  Are they part of the so-called "price of freedom?"