Holocaust Museum shooting must not be exploited to erode liberty

June 11,

David Codrea

Bullet strikes are seen in one of the doors to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum after a shooting left a security officer dead and the gunman wounded in Washington Thursday, June 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Predictably, it's begun: Blaming "conservatives" and gun owners for the act of a deranged hatemonger.

"Does Holocaust Shooting Validate Homeland Security Report?" asks Ed O'Keefe in The Washington Post.

We talked about that report here. Now, with an almost "I told you so" glee, outlets like Politico are propagating a meme:

“I think this latest round of killing once again shows how ridiculous the criticism from the right of the Department of Homeland Security report was. That whole brouhaha was absurd,” said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center...

“We felt the DHS report was pretty right on,” said Deborah Lauter of the Anti-Defamation League.

There's a word for blaming a group for actions of an individual: it's called "prejudice." Let's put things in perspective.