Indeed. Rick Scott and Trump can go get crammed on this. What exactly are the FBI supposed to do? Put EVERYONE who is a violence-celebrating ass online, or associates with supremacist militia groups, or is known around their social circle being an obnoxious asshat under direct constant surveillance? (OK, I could see association with supremacist militia groups being a reason to take you downtown and let you know we’re watching, but that would just encourage the putzes) People seem to expect the authorities to go full on Minority Report on Bad People, and that’s not how reality works, they have to triage the tips they get. I wonder what’s the ratio of people reported to the FBI for being Internet F*ckwads vs. those who do take concrete steps to act criminally. Or do we make expulsion from school for disciplinary causes a reason to place a marker on you background check against owning firearms for 5, 10 years, permanently?
This is an incredibly complicated issue and it makes the population very nervous in that it seems the violent loon element in America has taken a disturbing turn in how they regard the “soft target” scenario. The serial killer of the 20th century, clandestinely picking off one or two at a time over a few months or years, has been replaced with the binge killer slaying by the dozens at once as the looming menace out there. And they are not even doing conventional Domestic Terrorism with an identifiable policy goal like the old KKK or Macheteros. There is a certain nihilism to it, like they just want to prove society can’t protect you and *“sure, I’m a loser; but those concertgoers/worshippers/schoolkids are now all dead, ha ha, fat lotta good did living right do them!!”. * I strongly suspect many of these fellows ***want ***society to degenerate into the Hobbesian war of all upon all, with “at all times the fear of violent death” hanging over everyone’s head – if they have no peace, let no one have it.