Dear God, Wolfgang.

1. Many jurisdictions present the sidearm(s) they carried to cops when they retire. The State of Idaho recently voted to do the same for Conservation Officers (game wardens), as they too are sworn and trained police officers.

2. I don't have enough data on this to determine carelessness -- but to take two handguns and a shotgun to a school with the intent of doing harm is neither careless nor accidental. It's the action of someone who is mentally ill -- and why wasn't this discovered and treated?

3. Because, in answer to #2, the people involved are dirt poor, rural, and non-white. And many are without hope. Visit any Indian reservation; visit the Inuit and the Yupiq. Study the incidence of crime and drug use, and then tell me how well we treat a culture with 40% unemployment (as the Shoshone-Bannocks have here).

4. I just wonder how long before the poor in the United States will continue before they see the pie in the sky they are fed for what it is.