June 23, 2015

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None of us who read those emails expected this guy to set the world record for gun-toting killing sprees. Seventy-seven dead bodies later, were our faces red. As attuned as I am to warning signs, I missed this one. And that’s my point. The next spree killer might be the guy so obvious that (as in the case of Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho) everybody says, “€œOh yeah, we all knew he was gonna pop off.”€ Or it might be the polite young man with good manners and a calm demeanor. You just never know.

Over the past month, I”€™ve been inundated with emails regarding a 28-year-old man named David Lenio, who’s being prosecuted in Montana for “€œgroup defamation,”€ defined by the Montana statute as “€œanything that exposes a person or a group, class, or association to hatred, contempt, ridicule, degradation, or disgrace in society.”€ People have been emailing me about this because back in March I”€™d written about the origin of the modern U.S. “€œgroup defamation”€ law, and I predicted that it would eventually be put into practice.

But my concern here isn”€™t group defamation, but rather the accused, Lenio. Here are a few of his Twitter postings:

USA needs a Hitler to rise to power and fix our #economy and i”€™m about ready to give my life to the cause or just shoot a bunch of #kikes…. I think every jew on the planet deserves to be killed for what kikes have done to our #dollar and cost of living Killing jews > wage #slave…. Best way to counter the harm #jewish #politics is causing is #ChapelHillShooting styling killing of #jews til they get the hint & leave…. Seriously working 4 poverty wages that cant even afford housing, food & keeping a running vehicle makes me want to shoot up a school or jews

Another Jonathan Haynes? Possibly, yes. But his “€œcrime”€ is, as of now, merely words. At the same time, I”€™ll admit that David Lenio scares the living hell out of me. This is a man with a very sick mind. But those who suggest that the answer to this kind of dilemma is to lock people up until they start “€œthinking right”€ might want to consider the fact that Norway’s anti”€“”€œhate speech”€ law did absolutely nothing to prevent Breivik’s massacre.

So what are we left with? We”€™re left with an uncertainty that we, as a society, can”€™t seem to comprehend or accept. We can”€™t predict the next mass shooter. We can”€™t be certain that the guy spouting ugly, violent rhetoric will ever cause real physical harm, and we can”€™t be certain that the pleasant and cultivated guy won”€™t. Some people, like the prosecutors in Montana, or like Bill Maher (who half-jokingly suggested that drone-bombing Fox News might prevent future spree killers), will argue that we can overcome this uncertainty by weakening the First Amendment, but I humbly suggest that we have no choice but to live with it. I call it a suggestion, but in truth I know better than that. It’s a reality, and one that no law, government program, or self-righteous pundit can disturb.

You don”€™t have to like the uncertainty in order to accept it. Reality never asks for your acquiescence. It doesn”€™t have to ask; it”€™ll receive it, whether you like it or not.

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