But, guns, hey -- what difference could that make!?

is not Muslim? How many were actually directly terrorized by this man's insanity, but the word has lost all meaning it seems in the attempt to slap the label only on Muslims.

To me, another case of hidden insanity, the insanity fuelled by an inherent mental instability, a love of firearms and made more possible and frequent by the easy as pie availability and societal worship of guns to make it all right.

Rinse and repeat in America several times a month, just do not call school shootings terrorism....unless, of course, the shooter is Muslim, the it MUST be terrorism.

As you say, more on topic, guns are powerful weapons capable of great and instant carnage, WTF is so hard to wrap even a moronic brain around that?

Terrorism has a defining characteristic of being committed in the name of an ideology or set of beliefs, typically in an effort to perpetuate,garner support for, or draw attention to those beliefs.

This was murder, plain and simple.

If you're going to cheapen the term, you might as well label all robberies, riots, uses of harsh language, and murders as terrorism.

the definition? Just because they are Muslim and were "influenced" by other insane folks?

Because the definition is being changed to fit the narrative.

Not that I agree with your definition, seems to leave out the part about making people afraid, masses of people, as a primary goal for the purposes of control and manipulation.

However I'm still inclined to disagree.

The radicalization of certain killers, combined with their voicing of sympathies, admiration, and the influence of these beliefs onto their crimes is what makes the acts "terrorism", as the acts are committed in the name of and for the furtherance of the agendas to which the perpetrators subscribe. The simple fact is that there aren't any membership rolls, monthly meetings, or potluck dinners for radical Islamist groups such as ISIS or AL-queda. When someone supports the agenda of radical Islamists, voices that support, and starts cutting off heads while screaming "allah akbar" it puts these type of killers into association with the groups.

Association and acts in line with radical belief are enough for one to be considered part and parcel with those groups. It is similar to the inclusive declarations of other extremist groups, such as ALF. These groups extend invitations if you will through the declaration that "anyone who believes this, does this, and supports this are members of x". These people hear this as a clarion call to join in the struggle. From that point on, they are members of the group, for all intents and purposes. If a white man began listening to the ramblings of supremacist podcast calling for a race war, then tatted himself up and started killing folks as suggested by the propaganda he ingested, nobody in their right mind would argue that he wasn't committing terrorist acts in the name of the ideology he subscribed to.

Could you lay out for me your criteria for what would be required for a murder/set of murders to be considered terrorist acts? I feel like we're talking semantics here (and neither of us is going to convince the other of his position) but I'd like to know what you feel would constitute an act of terrorism.

to anything more, in any context.

Terrorism involves being part of and attached to a larger group, one guy influenced by social media is a lone wolf, not part of the group, merely a tool being used by the group that are the terrorists. Which I would add as an attachment to my other stab at it without consulting a dictionary.

So the school shooter is not a terrorist, he is not part of the larger group, although the NRA would fit in as an enabler and the shooter their tool...to spread terror and then manipulate the fear.

In your eyes, is the NRA a terrorist organization?

gun-toting men who follow orders protect them (even when they don't realize who they're protecting).

Obama is coming for your guns, gun manufacturers will make massive profit after a tragedy, another tragedy will occur due to more guns. Rinse. Repeat.

that always involves more powerful weapons in more quantities.

You just described the cycle I talked about in my book "This God, I," where a gun manufacturer funds a homegrown terrorist group to perpetuate the cycle.

Sorry for the shameless plug.

propaganda endlessly repeated....big shout out to the media for the endless repetition on behalf of both.

"Registration always results in confiscation," or something to that same paranoid effec.

I know someone who immediately buys guns stocks after something like this. He's rarely disappointed. I guess I would do it too if it wasn't for that moral compass that makes me want to vomit just thinking about profiting from this shit.