A bumper crop of religious fanaticism

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:35 pm by Svend White

A bumper crop of religious fanaticism 2013-05-07T18:35:09-05:00 Svend White

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First, an anti-abortion fanatic gunned down an abortion doctor (and in the latter's own church, where he served as an usher). Yesterday, a spectacularly moronic and disgusting young convert to Islam shoots a man he didn't know outside a military recruiting center and then declares his conscience clean because of American military involvement in the Middle East and the allegedly concomitant need for retaliation. And today an unusually vigorous and hate-filled octogenarian White Supremacist barged into the Holocaust Museum in DC, his gun blazing, fatally wounding one guard before himself being gunned down.

Whew, what's next?

Consider the details of this last case. An 88 year-old man burst into a well guarded museum dedicated to commemorating genocide and tried to shoot random people, knowing full well that he'd almost certainly die. That kind of rage and aggression (whether at Jews or anybody else) aren't generally associated with people of such advanced age. I doubt seniors are going to start getting gunned down by trigger-happy cops any time soon, but an event like this has to affect how people in the security business profile people and calculate risk.

Elderly gunman kills guard at Holocaust Museum – Yahoo! News

An 88-year-old gunman with a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot himself by other officers, authorities said.

The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement and expressions of shock from the Israeli government and a prominent Muslim organization.

Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the gunman was "engaged by security guards immediately after entering the door" with a rifle. "The second he stepped into the building he began firing."

Man pleads not guilty in deadly recruiting center shootings – CNN.com

An Arkansas man suspected in a shooting that killed one soldier and wounded another at a Little Rock military recruiting center was angry over the treatment of Muslims, authorities said Tuesday.

Abdulhakim Bledsoe, 23, of Little Rock, also told police he recently watched a video "pertaining to subversive activities which spurred him to commit this act," according to court documents.

Bledsoe pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday and was ordered held without bail.

He faces one count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act, said Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas. The terrorist counts stem from the shots fired at an occupied building. Video Watch scenes from Tuesday in court »

Before the not guilty plea, authorities said Bledsoe waived his Miranda rights after the shooting Monday and gave a video statement indicating that "political and religious" motives were involved.

He "stated that he was a practicing Muslim … that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past," homicide detective Tommy Hudson said in a police report.

Bledsoe told police "he fired several rounds at the soldiers with the intent of killing them," according to Hudson's report.

Scott Roeder, charged with abortion doctor George Tiller's murder, says more violence is coming

The Kansas City man charged with assassinating abortion doctor George Tiller in his church a week ago warned Sunday that more violence is coming.

"I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal," Scott Roeder said in one of two phone calls to the Associated Press from prison.

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