Leo Johnson, hero!

While there have been entirely too many of them this summer, I’m especially horrified by the latest shooting incident because of what appear to be quite blatant political motivations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and wounding a security guard at the headquarters of a Christian lobbying group on Wednesday made a negative reference about the organization’s work before opening fire, a law enforcement official said.

Police said the man entered the front lobby of the Family Research Council in Washington around 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, began arguing with a security guard and then shot him in the arm. The gunman was subdued by the guard and others and taken into custody but had not been charged as of Wednesday evening.

Another law enforcement official identified the suspect as Floyd Corkins II, and authorities were interviewing Corkins’ neighbors in Herndon, Va., near Washington. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Corkins, 28, had been volunteering recently at a community center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Just as I would not condemn the Family Research Council (much less its supporters) for the conduct of one of its volunteers if he went berserk and shot up a gay rights organization, I cannot condemn anyone but the accused criminal.

For many years, I have been saying that whoever did it is the one who did it. To go further than that, whether to blame “leaders” or “followers” or a “climate” does little more than hide the guilt of the perpetrator. The problem is that it is emotionally unsatisfying to blame an individual for his evil, and emotionally rewarding to blame a group.

In that regard, I couldn’t agree more with NRO’s Gina R. Dalfonzo:

When early eyewitness reports — not yet confirmed by the police or the FBI — suggested that the shooter had said disparaging things about FRC’s views, the rhetoric got even crazier. The narrative that has emerged among certain members of the Left goes something like this: When a right-winger shoots a left-winger, the right wing is at fault. And when a left-winger shoots a right-winger, the right wing is also at fault, because people with their views are just asking for it.

Have we really gotten to the point in this country where some of us are willing to legitimize violence this way?

We have to be honest when talking about the motives of any given criminal. There’s no point in trying to hide or ignore them. But can’t we also be honest about the fact that on both sides of the aisle, violence tends to come only from the marginalized and deranged? Pinning the blame for a crime on an entire mainstream movement or belief system is a highly dangerous exercise. It means that when a crime is committed by someone who agrees with you — as will inevitably happen, since criminals come from all backgrounds and belief systems — you then have to quickly twist things around and protect yourself from any possible guilt by association. And if that means blaming the victim, well, so be it.

Except that the victims are real people with real worth, real feelings, and real families.

This is awful, and I hope we have not reached the point in this country where some of us are willing to legitimize violence this way. I am certainly not. My thoughts and prayers are with the injured man, Leo Johnson, and his family. I am glad he tackled that son of a bitch to the ground, and I hope he makes a speedy recovery.

As I said earlier, things are getting uglier and uglier.

MORE: Whether I agree with the FRC is so utterly irrelevant that it sickens me to bring it up. I only mention this because unfortunately, there are people who think politics is relevant — even to shootings. For the sake of the country, such thinking needs to stop.