Naval Yard Shooting

The big news of the day is, of course, the tragic shooting deaths of 12 workers at the Washington Navy Yard by 34 year-old Aaron Alexis.  Sometime early in the morning, Alexis, a former Navy reservist,  discharged in 2011, and apparently armed with multiple weapons, including semi-automatic rifle and a sawed off shotgun, used a stolen ID to get through the gate and shot his way into the highly secure facility, killing 12 and wounding many more before being killed himself.  None of the victims have been publicly identified as of yet, but probably consist of a mixture of military members and civilian employees of the

Aaron Alexis

Defense Department.

There may be a second suspect, but at this point, only Alexis has been identified.  Over the course of the day, a number of points of confusion arose concerning the number and identity of the shooters.  At least one other "suspect" was sought and cleared, while NBC and CBS were forced to retract statements that a man named Rollie Chance was the shooter. Layers of fact checkers and all

Alexis is reportedly from Fort Worth, Texas, although I have also heard he was originally from New York.  The source of the weapons, obviously illegal in Washington, D.C. with it's strict gun laws, is unknown. People who know Alexis report he recently traveled to Thailand and converted to Buddhism. Did Obama declare war on Buddhism while no one was looking?

If there's a lesson to be learned here, I don't see it yet.