Donald Trump and maga Republicans offer "thoughts and prayers" to gun violence victims but horrific tragedies continue!

When ‘thoughts and prayers’ come crashing down to earth

Three echo opinion letters published in the Boston Globe:

Thoughts and prayer memorial wall memorial for victims of
The Covenant School, a parochial elementary school, in Nashville in 2023.

1)  Dear Editor:  With our leaders, it’s always ‘too soon’ to take action against gun violence. “When tragedy strikes, our first instinct should be to remember what we have in common, not to rally support for any political program.

Our initial response should be seeking to build bridges,” writes Brandon Ambrosino in his Sept. 7 Ideas piece, “In defense of ‘thoughts and prayers.’ ” So, when can we try to rally support for political programs that can bring actual change❓ Should we wait a week or a month after the next tragedy❓

But, Ambrosino’s argument is disingenuous. Yes, those of us who feel helpless to change the problem of mass shootings can offer thoughts and prayers, and we can try to take some comfort from the outpouring of support. Nevertheless, our leaders, including politicians, clergy, and academics, hide behind thoughts, and prayers, again and again. It’s always “too soon” to discuss what we as a society could do to end these preventable school shootings.

From Dana Buske in Arlington, Massachusetts (Middlesex County)

2) Not everybody prays, but everybody feels the impact of a bullet:  When the response of “thoughts and prayers” is disparaged, it is not because thoughts and prayers are unnecessary but, rather, because of how the phrase is a cop-out for the right and for Second Amendment zealots. Of course pray, but then act — “do something❗” is what people are saying.

What’s more, Brandon Ambrosino writes as if everyone in this country prays like he does. Of course we don’t. That’s the whole point of this country’s First Amendment. We are different. Our beliefs are different. What isn’t different is that we all bleed. We all can die when bullets smash into our bodies.

From Brenda Sheridan in Swampscott, Massachusets

Lewiston Maine mass shooting victim shrine slaughter occured on October 25, 2023 

‘Thoughts and prayers’ are offered as a distraction

3) Brandon Ambrosino wrote to the Globe, to complain about the people who deride expressions of “thoughts and prayers”, after mass shootings. He defends this smokescreen statement as somehow missing something crucial. But, it’s Ambrosino who appears to be oblivious to the fact that many people offer these comments to intentionally prevent others from taking meaningful action to address gun violence.

He writes that prayers must be followed by action and that there is “no place in Christianity” for “those who pray while twiddling their thumbs.” Yet, for many public figures who give thoughts and prayers, the goal is to stymie legislation, not to “remind us of our shared humanity.” Politicians send their thoughts and prayers while receiving significant contributions from the National Rifle Association, which fights to stop laws that could prevent future shootings.

Ambrosino maddeningly echoes their empty rhetoric, writing, “Even if we end mass shootings tomorrow, we’ll still have to grapple with unexpected tragedy.” This is true, but irrelevant. That there will be tragedies is no reason not to work to decrease the number of mass shootings.

People sending their thoughts and prayers after shootings are really saying, “I don’t care.”

From Bret Seferian in Salem, Massachusetts

Model for welcoming the stranger: Care for homeless and immigrants described in Scripture

Echo essay published in The New York Times opinion page by David French:  

I won’t forget the first time I volunteered for a Nashville homeless ministry called Room in the Inn. It was decades ago, in 1990, on a cold night in the dead of winter. I drove to my church, walked into the kitchen and immediately started cooking more food than I’d ever made in my life. We were making lasagna for roughly 20 men who were due to arrive at the church at any moment.

The model for the ministry was simple. In the late afternoon, homeless and vulnerable people would arrive at a central location in downtown Nashville, and dozens of church buses, vans and other vehicles would take them in small groups to a participating church in the city. Once our guests arrived, we’d make them a good meal, and we’d hang out while they washed their clothes or showered or just relaxed.

My first night at Room in the Inn, I played basketball with a small group of Guatemalan migrants. Another night, I listened while a young Mexican immigrant gave a practice sermon in English. He wanted to be a pastor, and he was trying to work his way off the streets. On still another night, I ached for a trucker who described a life of indescribable loss.

We’d sleep in cots next to our guests, rise before the sun came up, fix a hot breakfast, provide a snack lunch — and then our guests would head back into the world, rested and nourished.

No one claimed in those days that Room in the Inn was fixing homelessness. It was, however, doing more than meeting immediate needs. Night after night, over meal after meal, those of us who volunteered also learned. The model for the ministry created relationships, and those relationships meant that we had a better and deeper understanding of the men and women we served.

Room in the Inn began with a simple act of kindness. In 1985, the Rev. Charles Strobel, a Catholic priest, began serving food to homeless individuals who were seeking help outside his church. From this small beginning, the ministry grew until more than 200 congregations participated. They shelter around 1,500 people every winter in the greater Nashville area. 

Shelter is important, but our most vulnerable neighbors need more than temporary relief. In 2010, the ministry opened a 45,000-square-foot facility that provides comprehensive services for the homeless, and now Room in the Inn provides transitional housing for men and women who are rebuilding their lives.

We live in an age of declining religious affiliation and terrible religious scandal. But there is much good still in the church, and in Nashville every winter, more than 7,000 volunteers, in churches from every corner of American Christianity, provide both food and hope for people in desperate need of both.

Decades have passed since those first cold nights in my church, but Room in the Inn has remained. Father Strobel died last year, leaving a legacy of service to the city and people he loved.

But Room in the Inn isn’t just Father Strobel’s legacy, it’s a vision of what the church can be — a place that answers the call of Christ in Matthew 25: “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in, I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”

That’s what Room in the Inn does. That’s what faith looks like at its best, and that’s why I can think of few better places to give to than to an organization that declares by word and deed that no person should be left behind.

This column is part of The New York Times Opinion’s Giving Guide 2024. 

Tennessee Three defy the super Republican majority in the state legislature

• On March 27, 2023, a mass school shooting occurred at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian Church in America parochial elementary school in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, left six people, including three children dead.
• Two dead in shooting, including the DJ, at South Nashville lounge on April 23, 2023.

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden attended  memorial for the victims of the Tennessee Covenant Christian School shootings.

Echo opinion letter to the editor of Tuscon.com in Arizona:

It is bad enough that the Republican super majority of the Tennessee Legislature intended to expel members for voicing their opinion that the Legislature should do something about gun violence in the wake of the horrible, but sadly routine, Nashville shooting where . How could the Republican Legislature make that position any worse? Yet they found a way - only expelling the two young black males members while sparing the one white female member. 

Now, the three are proudly labeled "The Tennessee Three!"

(From Left) Rep. Justin Pearson, Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Gloria Johnson "The Tennessee Three"

Ideological differences were not enough for the Republican majority. They had to stoop to overt racism. Is uppityness a word?

From Rick Jones in Downtown Tucson, AZ

Gun violence in America terror haunts the victims and their survivors

The photo of the little girl’s face in terror on the bus after the recent mass shooting in Nashville should haunt every American. That visual scar will never be healed.

Echo opinion letter published in the Connecticut Post:

We must act against gun violence❗

Why and how this gun madness continues is the question that both plagues and infuriates. During the media coverage of these slaughters I weep for these families. I also believe that if Sandy Hook couldn’t change the policy views of the NRA and Congress, nothing will.

We hear all these things about polls, but 80 percent of America is for background checks, banning assault weapons, closing gun show loopholes and red flag laws. That’s eight out of every 10 of us and we actually have elected officials with AR-15 pins on their lapels. I mean, forget compromise. “It’s a mental health problem” “It’s the person not the weapon” “This is not the time for politics” “I am for the Second Amendment” and my favorite, “Banning assault weapons and background checks will not change anything.” I so wish one of these reporters would then ask “If you really believe these restrictions won’t change anything than why not support them to make your point.” Today the reality is, this lack of citizenship is on us, this is our responsibility and history will show not enough of us have the determination to bring change partly because this crisis hasn’t directly impacted us. Empathy is not enough.
Change today is harder than ever for some. What brings change? how can we bring change with this madding NRA minority this Filibuster Rule that refutes logic. My suggestion is public humiliation. At the beginning of every newscast, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, PBS MSNBC should start their program with the photo of our elected legislators that have voted against gun reform. 

Start with the AR-15 lapels legislator’s then work your way down to legislators with upcoming elections. Then with the permission of the parents show the photo’s of all the victims of mass shootings. 

Let America see the hundred or so congressmen and senators that will not listen to the 240 million of us who only want common sense gun reform. These cowards have no problem with hypocrisy. Watch how fast they would change their position if every day three times a day they were televised / streamed as a supporters of mass shootings. Clearly the media can impact change, 90 seconds three times a day. This is not political this is the truth. 

We have to do more, because one day, one of these assailants is going to show us all how we failed our children. 

Reacting has not worked. Instead, it is time for urgent action.

From John Skerritt in Hamden Connecticut

Tennessean anger about how the state legislature responded to free speech Tennessee Three

'Ashamed to be a Tennessean': Nashville area readers against 'Tennessee Three' expulsion | Letters to the editor published in The Tennessean newspaper:

After the March 2023, mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Representatives Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson and Justin J. Pearson called for gun control reforms in a way that briefly disrupted the House proceedings at the state capitol. Jones, Johnson and Pearson became known as "The Tennessee Three".

Editor’s note: Hundreds of readers weighed in on the expulsion hearings of the “Tennessee Three” – the state House lawmakers who were accused of “disorderly behavior” for encouraging gun law reform protesters from the chamber’s floor. The vast majority of letter writers have condemned the Tennessee General Assembly’s action, including readers from throughout the world and across the United States. 

Absolute power corrupts absolutely

More than 135 years ago, the British politician and writer Lord Acton famously wrote that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The truth of that maxim was on vivid display last Friday in the Tennessee House of Representatives in a shameful display of political cruelty and cowardice, which is to say political bullying. The State of Tennessee and that state of democracy across our great country deserve better.

Matthew Kenney, Clarksville (zip code 37040)

Ashamed to be a Tennessean

After 25 days of being away from Nashville, and catching up with the news of Tennessee, I am ashamed to live here. We have legislators that kick out elected legislators, take over an elected Metro council, legally carry guns to their offices, flip collective fingers to creed, gender, and persuasion. This isn’t America, this is what Tennessee has become right now.

Bill Tyler, Nashville (zip code 37221)

Sinking to a new moral low- Tennessee's Republican legislature blocked free speech for three elected legislators.

The Tennessee legislature has sunk to a new moral low. Following a deadly elementary school shooting, they offer up cheap and easy "thoughts and prayers" as opposed to real concrete solutions to keeping guns away from the mentally ill. Most egregiously, when three members stood with citizens to demand action, they elected to expel the two Black men involved. Their actions seriously call into question their fitness to hold office.

Michael Hinson, Antioch (zip code 37013)

Expulsion was over the top

The punishment is not proportional. Some of the Tennessee lawmakers are out of touch with what the people want. When Gloria runs again I will donate the maximum amount allowed to her campaign.

Chip Rayman, Knoxville TN

Result will be revival for state’s Democrats

Those two young men were voted out of the legislative body at the intersection of Hubris and Ignorance Avenues yesterday. I believe that this moronic act will very much help to revive a moribund TN Democratic party that has suffered from ineffective and uninspiring leadership for far too long. This may not create a tidal wave of resistance, but it will absolutely help the Democrats turn a corner and finally gain momentum and head in the right direction.

Tracy Edwards, Nashville (zip code 37146)

Disagree with the Speaker and you will be punished

I’m appalled at the conduct of the Tennessee House Speaker and his band of ultra-conservative followers. Are they just trying to make themselves look more ridiculous and authoritarian than usual?Cameron Sexton had a temper tantrum because someone wasn’t agreeing with him. We, who don’t agree with him on important issues (gun regulation, the right to make decisions about your own body, and free and fair elections for example) are tired of being silenced and left out of the conversation. The supermajority, who hold the views of a minority of Tennesseans on these issues, have been doing that for too long. They have bent the rules and the law to serve their own purposes, and those have little to do with protecting the people of Tennessee.

Ann White, Franklin Tennessee

Republicans worship guns over the lives of innocents including children and Christians

Vote all Republican gun idolatry worshippers out of Congress!

"Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, dismissed President Biden’s calls for an assault weapons ban as 'tired talking points'.”

Nashville citizens shrine mourns the massacre of three innocent children and three adults in the Covenant Christian School mass shooting.  But Senator Cornyn says nothing can be done? #IDTS

.

Shooting Prompts a Shrug in Washington, as G.O.P. rejects pleas to act.  President Biden said he had reached the limit of his powers to act alone on gun violence, and needed Congress to respond. Republicans said they had already done all they were willing to do.

Reported in The New York Times another massacre where children were slaughtered in their Nashville classrooms by Anni Karni.  

WASHINGTON, DC — The mass shooting at a Christian Covenant elementary school in Nashville this week generated a broad shrugging of the shoulders in Washington, from President Biden to Republicans in Congress, who seemed to agree on little other than that there was nothing left for them to do to counter the continuing death toll of gun violence across the country.

But while President Biden’s stark admission on Tuesday that he could do no more on his own to tackle the issue was a statement of fact that aimed to put the burden on Congress to send him legislation, like the ban on assault weapons he has repeatedly championed, Republicans’ expressions of helplessness reflected an unwillingness, rather than an inability, to act.

Their answer to Mr. Biden’s plea was as blunt as it was swift, as lawmaker after Republican lawmaker made it clear that they had no intention of considering any additional gun safety measures.

“We’re not going to fix it,” Representative Tim Burchett, Republican of Tennessee, told reporters on the steps of the Capitol just hours after the shooting that massacred three children and three adults in his home state. “Criminals are going to be criminals.”

Shrine for Nashville Tennessee victims of a mass shooting massacre at the Covenant Christian School.

(In other words- "evil is as evil does". I don't think Scripture has  supported such apologist and enabling nonaction!)

The right wing extremist Burchett said he saw no “real role” for Congress to play in reducing gun violence, and volunteered that his solution to the issue of protecting his family was to home-school his children.

Likewise, Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, said Congress had done enough.

“When we start talking about bans or challenging the Second Amendment, the things that have already been done have gone about as far as we’re going with gun control,” Mr. Rounds told CNN.

Last year, Congress passed a narrow, bipartisan compromise that enhanced background checks to give authorities time to examine the juvenile and mental health records of any prospective gun buyer under the age of 21, and a provision that for the first time extended a prohibition on domestic abusers having guns to dating partners.

The bill was the first major gun control legislation that Congress had passed in decades, but it addressed only a small set of issues designed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

At the time, Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, noted that supporting the measure was necessary to win back suburban voters, who broadly support some changes to the nation’s gun laws. But even then, proponents conceded that the bill did not signify a political shift on gun restrictions; rather, it was a measure that went precisely as far as Republicans were willing to go in strengthening gun laws, and one pushed through only by a fleeting political coalition that would soon dissipate.

Several of those Republican supporters have since retired, and the House is now in the hands of G.O.P. leaders who have no intention of allowing gun safety legislation to reach the floor.

“Gun violence is uniquely an American problem because of lawmakers who refuse to act proactively to prevent it,” said Christian Heyne, the vice president for policy at the Brady: United Against Gun Violence organization, who noted that House Republicans this week had originally scheduled a committee vote to weaken the government’s authority to keep short-barreled rifles off the streets. “Our lawmakers should be working to strengthen our gun laws, not weaken them,” he said.

But even the Republicans who championed the law enacted last summer showed no desire to take any further action.
Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, who served as the lead Republican negotiator on that bill, dismissed Mr. Biden’s calls for banning assault weapons as a set of “tired talking points.”

What common sense gun reform looks like.

“I want to see the bill we just passed get implemented,” he said. One of the provisions of that bill provided funding for states to enact so-called red-flag laws that allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed to be dangerous. But Tennessee does not have a red flag law, and would not benefit from federal funds to implement a law that Republican state lawmakers are not willing to consider.

Safety in the Tennessee legislature

This echo blog published in The Week, defies the common sense law of gravity:

Only In America

NASHVILLE, TN-  Critics of the new policy say it's designed to curb the free speech rights of Tennesseans in the wake of angry protests held last year about immigration, Medicaid expansion and other issues.  Tennessee legislators said they banned "hand-carried signs and signs on hand-sticks because they "...represent a serious safety hazard."

Guns "yes" but hand held signs "no" in Tennessee legislature.

NASHVILLE — As Tennessee lawmakers get cozy in their new digs in a recently renovated state office building (MaineWriter~ who paid for the new "digs"?), they and their visitors will be allowed to bring their guns but must leave any hand-held signs behind.

The policy, which Lt. Gov. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and House Speaker Beth Harwell of Nashville approved Dec. 14, expressly prohibits “hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks” because they “represent a serious safety hazard.” 

Both lawmakers are Republicans.

The Tennessean newspaper echo- "Trump owes Boy Scouts an apology"

Trump flubs Scouts address: Letters to the editor, July 29

Representative Diane Black alert!

Boy Scout Oath:

"On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight."

President owes Boy Scouts an apology

President Trump owes an apology to the Boy Scouts of America.

Donald Trump committed the cardinal sin of offending his hosts at the national jamboree, on Monday.

Every U.S. president is the honorary president of the Boy Scouts, which is an apolitical organization that always invites whoever is president to its quadrennial jamborees.

I am volunteering at the jamboree, and I was hopeful that President Trump would rise to the occasion and offer the Scouts a message about living by the Scout oath and Scout law, serving their communities and working for the common good.

President Trump squandered the opportunity (indeed, obligation) by addressing the approximately 40,000 Scouts, leaders and volunteers as if we had come to a campaign rally.

He bragged about his election, criticized the media, mocked his predecessor, basically threatened a Cabinet member to accomplish a task or get fired, and rambled about other off-topic subjects.

It was an embarrassing display of self-centeredness, and the few uplifting and encouraging comments were just that — few.

As he spoke, I recited the points of the Scout law (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent) to myself and could apply none of them to President Trump.

(MaineWriter: What I'd like is for the media to ask is how Rex Tillerson, former leader of the Boy Scouts, felt about the Donald Trump failed jamboree speech?)

Disappointment doesn’t come close to expressing how I feel. President Trump trampled an American institution and should be ashamed. I hope his behavior does not diminish anyone’s interest in Scouting.

Tom Adkinson is a freelance writer and retired public relations practitioner in Nashville.

Trump flubs Scouts address

I was shocked to hear some Boy Scouts at their national jamboree in West Virginia cheer while our POTUS slammed his former opponent for the presidency, our former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I thought, “How unlike Boy Scout behavior.”

I also felt it would be one more bad behavior event of his and disregarded, if noted at all. The next day I was pleased to see that former and current Scouts, parents and the Boy Scouts organization itself spoke out. The Boy Scouts of America stated it is wholly nonpartisan and does not promote any political position, candidate or philosophy. Yet at this event young men played along with his rant on Clinton, and as usual, he also insulted Barack Obama. Within this fallout have been requests that the Boy Scouts formerly instruct troop leaders to denounce this behavior and explain why it is wrong to these young men.

Ita Hardesty-Mason, Kingston Springs, Tennessee

Alert to the two "zeros" in 100 days- from The Tennessean

Enjoyed reading these "letters to the editor" published in April editions of The Tennessean, newspaper. Gotta' love the editorial freedoms enjoyed by the writers of these two letters, below. Thank you.

Trump earns low marks

What has Trump done?

Both travel executive orders have been struck down as unconstitutional, the Senate had to change the rules in order to get a judge on the Supreme Court, Trumpcare was/is a fiasco. Michael Flynn was fired for lying, and it is becoming more and more likely that several Trump associates will be indicted for colluding with Russians during the election.

Will Trump be involved? Who knows, but the FBI has three separate investigations going on.

What happened to "Obama had my wires tapped"? No evidence of anything of the sort. It was made up. No legislation has been passed through Congress. Don Geddes, Nashville

The Tennessean:

Fox News hypocritical

Fox News- complicit in supporting "Fake News"

LTE- Cane Ridge TN: Most of us remember the George Bush era when the FOX network became the "moral alternative" for many who had found other news channels too liberal or too biased.

FOX thus became a favorite for Christian viewers and others who preferred a more "conservative" approach to politics and reporting.

How interesting! Now, within a matter of months, the FOX halo has become more than tarnished.

It has completely disappeared under the muck and mire of sexual harassment.  (It's horrible to realize how FOXNews has never chastised Donald Trump for his low life serial sexual comments!)

What other network or channel (among the "liberal" choices) has had both a CEO and a top on-air personality forced to leave in the wake of repeated allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace? This behavior has elevated FOX to the heights of embarrassment.

But even more damaging is the flagrant hypocrisy it represents.

Rosann Smothers, Cane Ridge, TN

Numerology is a pseudo-science of which I have no understanding, except to know, without a doubt, that the actual number "one hundred", as in "100 days", of Trump's failed leadership, contains two digits with the absolute value of "zero".  In other words, the number 100 has "two zeros" and Donald Trump equals the sum total.

Trump lifestyle debated in Tennessee

Republicans act like they have a right to create alternative facts. It amazes me that anybody can defend the wasteful lifeltyle charged off to American taxpayers, we who are picking up the tab for three homes and lavish vacations. Naomi Goodin, of Nashville, wrote a reality check to a Trump defender, who incredulously supported excesses like presidential golf and family ski vacations paid by taxpayers.  Unfortunately, the need to write such  a letter is evidence of how deaf Republicans have become to hearing truth.

"Trump leads lavish lifestyle"- letter to the editor in a debate (can you believe it?) about whether or not Donald Trump is living an extravagant lifestyle?  In the Tennessean news: 

A saying that shows insensitivity to or incomprehension of the realities of life for the unfortunate

Re: “Trump travel costs insignificant," by Jane Bryan, April 1.(MaineWriter- this sounds like, but isn't, an April Fools letter)

Our 45th president is not who the writer thinks he is.
First, his promise to not collect his salary is already broken. He is indeed collecting it, and the latest story is that he’ll donate it to some charity by the end of the year. It will be interesting to see if that happens and if we get proof.

In (MaineWriter: wrong minded) defense of Mr. Trump’s golfing, the writer mentions President Obama’s golfing. She apparently doesn’t remember that Trump said he wouldn’t take any vacations or go golfing at all.

Breaking that promise too, he’s already on a pace to golf twice as much as President Obama did.

The writer also states that the current president has a vacation place that doesn’t cost taxpayers anything. That is mistaken. The cost to the Secret Service is over $3 million per weekend (which we federal taxpayers pay). In addition, each visit costs Palm Beach County $60,000 per day in overtime pay, and they’ve had over $1 million in other costs to support the visits.

Then there’s the New York residence. We will have paid at least $36 million for Melania Trump to continue to live there until the end of the school year, and if she decides not to move to D.C. we’ll pay about $100 million for 2017. That’s in addition to New York City’s expenses, all unnecessary if she moved to the White House.

We’re footin’ the bill for their lavish lifestyle.

Naomi Goodin, Nashville 37205

Gun violence continues to consume American news

Oh my God! 

Every week, there's horrible news about another gun violence incident, with deaths, someplace in the United States. 

Today August 5th, was the occasion of yet another theater shooting. This time, the shooting was in Memphis Tennessee, an obvious copy cat incident, following a chain of other murder rampages.

Although right wing extremists point fingers about the conspiratorial causes of these deadly incidents, the fact is, easy access to weapons are like germs in a nurturing host environment.

We know this: Guns cause deaths. There are no other causes of deaths when guns are the sources of the moralities. Murderers intent on causing rampages can easily obtain a gun with ammunition to inflict carnage, wherever they want to create lethal pandemonium.  

Now, Americans are exposed to guns in the hands of terrorists and the mentally  ill. In fact, if terrorists and the mentally ill did not have access to guns, the number of deaths caused by these delusional criminals would obviously be far fewer than an unbelievable deadly rampage per week. 

A Nashville, TN incident comes a day after Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula released an online video calling for "lone wolf" attacks and praising Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old gunman who killed four Marines at a pair of military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn

Here's the latest: a murderer who was killed by police, in Nashville, Tennessee:

Memphis Tennessee shooter killed

The suspect behind yet another movie theater shooting was declared dead after opening fire on a police officer early Wednesday afternoon in a Nashville, Tennessee, suburb.

Officers from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department responded to reports of a man with a gun and a hatchet inside a showing of "Mad Max: Fury Road" at the Carmike 8 Cinemas on Bell Road at 1:15 p.m. in Antioch, authorities said.

Don Aaron, a public information officer, said the gunman shot at a police office, prompting him to return fire. A SWAT team moved in and exchanged fire. Ultimately, he said, the suspect exited out the back door of the theater where he was confronted by more police officers who shot and killed him.

"The actions of that first officer who went in the theater to engage this individual may well have saved multiple individuals inside that theater," Aaron said during a presser on site.

The suspect, a 51-year-old local man, was wearing a surgical mask and doused two women's faces with pepper spray, authorities said.

“The gunman apparently unleashed this pepper spray throughout the theater,” Aaron said. 

“As the SWAT team entered that theater, it was very thick with chemical spray, with irritant. 

Gas masks were brought in to those officers as they attempted to get this person into custody.”

Brian Hass, a Nashville Fire Department spokesman, confirmed that two people were injured with pepper spray and one person was injured by the hatchet. The injuries were minor and no one was hospitalized.

"This could have been a lot worse" Hass said.

Aaron explained that the first two officers were able to respond quickly because they were working a crash on Bell Road just beyond the cinema's property. Moviegoers ran to the cops and alerted them of the armed man's presence.

Two backpacks were left inside the theater and bomb squad were called to the scene to clear the bags, Aaron said. The suspect was wearing one of the bags when he opened fire on the officer.

"We want to make sure that there is no danger with those backbacks," Aaron added.

Jeremy Cardoza, who works at the nearby Ford Ice Center, told The Tennessean that the business was placed on lockdown with roughly 25 people, mostly children, inside.

"We're waiting on instructions from police, we have not been contacted yet," he said to the local paper. "We had a parent come in and they kind of just told us that there were a bunch of cops posted outside."

The incident comes less than two weeks after a gunman opened fire inside a movie theater in Lafayette, La., killing two people and injuring nine others before committing suicide.

It also comes a day after Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula released an online video calling for "lone wolf" attacks and praising Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old gunman who killed four Marines at a pair of military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., and injured two others before he was killed by police. A Naval officer who was injured in the attack died two days later.

The FBI said it is investigating that attack as an instance of "homegrown violent extremism," but would not officially label it an act of domestic terrorism.

It's impossible to understand how right wing gun advocates can justify the proliferation of gun violence, by denial and projection. These zealots claim murders aren't caused by guns, but by criminals, as though there's no cause and effect.

Meanwhile, gun violence continues to consume American news media, like a rampant cancer, attacking a growing number of innocent people. America is now a nation in perpetual mourning, with no end in sight.