Read the Huffington post here
The article will tell you that Benjamin Colton was a troubled Iraq war veteran. It will tell you,in the usual disjointed way that many of the articles from the Huffington Post, that he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and had previous and numerous run ins on the wrong end of the law. He would be remarkably sad if he had not shot a park ranger to death and probably, before killing the park ranger, had something to do with shooting some other people on New Years at a party.
But where this article becomes problematic is the obvious insertion of “gun talk” which is a useless political ploy or an attention grabber:
The shooting renewed debate about a federal law that made it legal for people to take loaded weapons into national parks. The 2010 law made possession of firearms subject to state gun laws.
Bill Wade, the outgoing chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said Congress should be regretting its decision.
“The many congressmen and senators that voted for the legislation that allowed loaded weapons to be brought into the parks ought to be feeling pretty bad right now,” Wade said.
This is so inane I cannot believe I am even commenting on it but while reading over the article I could not let this one pass.
From its surface, and mind you I do not know all the angles, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that this guy was not concerned with “gun laws” or lack there of before he fled a former shooting incident to hide out from the law at the Mount Ranier National Park. Get over yourself!
To draw that paltry issue into this is a dishonor to the death of the park ranger. Tell me how great of a person the park ranger was but do not expect me to believe that this guy was going to stop short of killing someone because there was a small sign posted somewhere along the roadside telling him that he should not bring a gun into the park!
I am on the fence about some gun restrictions and sometimes there are situations where we need more oversight in how easy it is for people to acquire guns. This guy should never have had a gun but a law banning their possession in National Parks was not stopping him.
That is like saying someone fleeing a bank robbery, in a car, observes every traffic law to make sure that they do not break any law, besides the fact that they just robbed a friggin Bank!
Do not insult my intelligence and those reading this by making that implication. Stop inserting politically charged angles in stories. Just tell the damn story.
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