Murder rampage in Alabama

SAMSON, Ala. (AP) - A gunman on a terrifying rampage across two southern Alabama counties killed at least nine people Tuesday, including members of his own family and apparent strangers, and burned down his mother's home before shooting himself at a metals plant, authorities said.

Police were investigating shootings in at least four different locations in several communities, all of which were believed to be the work of a single gunman who had not yet been identified by investigators.

The afternoon of bloodshed began in Kinston, near the Alabama-Florida border, where the shooter burned down his mother's house, according to the Coffee County coroner, Robert Preachers. Officials located the woman's body inside the house, but they had not been able to get inside the still-burning house to determine if he shot her first.

The gunman then headed east, into Geneva County, where he shot and killed five people—four adults and a child—at a home in the nearby town of Samson. Then he killed one person each in two other homes. The identities of all the victims were unknown, but Preachers said they included other members of the shooter's family.

"He started in his mother's house," Preachers said. "Then he went to Samson and he killed his granny and granddaddy and aunt and uncle."

"We don't know what triggered it," Preachers added.

The gunman also shot at a state trooper's car, striking the vehicle seven times and wounding the trooper with broken glass.

He then killed someone at a Samson supply store, and another person at a service station.

My opinion: The guy had lost his job and saw his whole life going down the drain. He wanted to end it all but couldn't stand the idea of his family living on after him and thinking that he was a loser so he took them all with him.

And anyone else who got in his way or just happened to catch his eye.

Given that this was Alabama and not Illinois I'm surprised that there wasn't someone with a gun somewhere along his path to take him out.

Two things go without saying. One is that he was mentally ill and the other is that if Bush were still president and the economy were tanking as badly as it is under Obama the left would be screaming that this man was the first victim of the "Bush Recession".

Two more things go without saying. One is that the usual suspectes will try to use this tragedy to call for more gun control and the other is that the House Democrat leadership will not want any part of it. They're all too afraid that the Obama recession is turning into the Obama depression and the prospect of being voted out of office in 2010 is beginning to be eclipsed by the fear of being lynched (literally, congressman, rope, tree - some assembly required). They will not want to pour gasoline on the fires of voter discontent by enacting something as deeply unpopular as a gun control law.