The Real Navy Yard Scandal

From Charles Krauthammer, at the Washington Post.

It's not one scandal. It's two, which in fact addresses. The primary scandal is how society allows the mentally ill fall through the cracks. They fall through, and in the case of Aaron Alexis, they ultimately take down 12 people with them.

The the second scandal, also a psychiatric disorder, is the radical left's sick propensity to turn any gun tragedy into a moment of politicized gun control:

In the liberal remake of “Casablanca,” the police captain comes upon the scene of the shooting and orders his men to “round up the usual weapons.”

It’s always the weapon and never the shooter. Twelve people are murdered in a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, and before sundown Sen. Dianne Feinstein has called for yet another debate on gun violence. Major opprobrium is heaped on the AR-15, the semiautomatic used in the Newtown massacre.

Turns out no AR-15 was used at the Navy Yard. And the shotgun that was used was obtained legally in Virginia after the buyer, Aaron Alexis, had passed both a state and federal background check.

As was the case in the Tucson shooting — instantly politicized into a gun-control and (fabricated) tea-party-climate-of-violence issue — the origin of this crime lies not in any politically expedient externality but in the nature of the shooter.

Keep reading.

This is one of those rare essays in which Krauthammer draws on his medical expertise as a previously practicing psychiatrist.

Outstanding.

Via Memeorandum.