A Tragic Shooting in D.C.

"This afternoon, blocks from the White House, a man sneaked up on two West Virginia National Guardsmen and shot them in the head with a handgun. Both soldiers are reportedly in critical condition. A motive has not been determined, but a recent Afghan immigrant named Rahmanullah Lakanwal is in custody, according to CBS News. Early photos of the suspect show a burly, bearded man being wheeled almost naked into an ambulance."

"The desire to speculate about motive is only human, but speculators beware: Why shoot a stranger in the head? is a trick question, and often reveals more about the thoughts of the one who answers it than of the one about whom it is asked. There is, of course, no reason to shoot a stranger. But some people, when they hear a gunshot, instinctively project their own view of the situation onto the mind of the apparent assailant."

"After today's shooting, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer called the Trump administration's deployment of National Guardsmen to the streets of Washington a "political show" and asked "at what cost" this deployment was taking place. The White House social-media team called Mayer a "sick, disgusting ghoul" (oh, for the days when "Jane, you ignorant slut" was a joke rather than a plausible script for actual government press releases),"

This afternoon two West Virginia National Guardsmen were shot in the head blocks from the White House and remain in critical condition. A recent Afghan immigrant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is in custody; early photos show him being wheeled almost naked into an ambulance. No motive has been determined. Speculation about motive is cautioned against, since asking 'Why shoot a stranger?' can reveal the questioner's own assumptions rather than the assailant's reasons. Public reactions included a New Yorker writer calling the deployment of National Guardsmen to Washington a 'political show' and a White House social-media response that insulted her.

Read at The Atlantic