The Narrative Is Nothing If Not Predictable

The California mass killing at a dance hall that left ten dead has followed the by now rather predictable narrative:

1.  First, the claim is made before the facts are out that it was a race-based attack and blame is placed on white supremacy or "hate".

2,  When the facts then show it was an Asian man attacking other Asians, the narrative shifts immediately, without missing a beat, to "gun violence".

The shift from blaming the attacker to blaming a tool is as rapid as it is predictable.

The New York Times: Good morning. Once again, America is confronting the aftermath of a gun massacre.

. . .


The gunman, whom the authorities identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, is believed to have then gone to a dance hall in the neighboring city of Alhambra. But he fled, according to the authorities. Officers later found him in a parked van after he reportedly shot himself to death.

The gunman used “a magazine-fed semiautomatic assault pistol” that is probably not legal in California, Luna said. His motives remain under investigation.

“Gun violence needs to stop,” Luna said. “There’s too much of it.”

This kind of mass shooting has become tragically common in the U.S.; what would be a rare horror in any other developed country is typical here. Yet the cause is no mystery. America has an enormous amount of guns, making it easier for someone to carry out a deadly shooting.

. . .

If anything, the chart, which uses data from 2017 and 2018, understates America’s problem. The U.S. rate of gun homicides has increased in recent years, according to the Small Arms Survey.

And just like that, right on cue, the narrative jumped from  the bugbear of a race-based attack (and one should note that in the US, the vast majority of attacks on Asians from non-Asians are committed by African-Americans, not whites) to "gun violence". 

Funny how the NYT notes gun violence has "increased in recent years"  but doesn't look at all into the reasons for that like the Ferguson effect, the Defund the Police Movement, the End Cash Bail Movement, and the fact that the majority of violence is confined to a small but active criminal subset of the population that gets the revolving door treatment from the justice system.