I keep wondering why people who seem so interested in killing Jews also deny that they were killed in the Holocaust. The latest example is this 88-year-old white supremacist who killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. The Associated Press' Brett Zongker and Calvin Woodward had a thorough story with information about the crime:
Guard Stephen T. Johns was shot to death Wednesday by Holocaust denier James von Brunn, who left his car outside an entrance to the museum and walked in holding a rifle at his side, District Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news conference.
Von Brunn started shooting immediately, exchanging fire with two other guards who shot and critically injured him, Lanier said.
In his car, officers found a notebook with a handwritten note that read, "You want my weapons -- this is how you'll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews," according to a court affidavit.
Von Brunn's rants ranged far and wide but hatred of Jews seemed to be the focus. The AP story mentions his failed 1981 attempt to kidnap Federal Reserve board members, for which he served time in prison.
The reader who submitted the story highlighted the end, which related the shooting to the other recent shootings in the news:
The attack was the third unsettling shooting that appeared to have political underpinnings.
A 23-year-old Army private, William Andrew Long, was shot and killed outside a recruiting office this month in Arkansas and a fellow soldier wounded. The suspect, a Muslim convert, has said he considers the killing justified because of the U.S. military presence in the Middle East.
Late last month, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot to death in his church. The man accused of killing him is a longtime vocal opponent of abortion.
The reader thought it interesting that each of the shootings has a religious angle but that they're summed up as having "political underpinnings." While it's obviously true that each of these killings is political, we should make sure the religious components aren't downplayed. Of course, politics and religion aren't as easily separated as we make them out to be sometimes.