Today's U.S. gun violence roundup

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - At least some of the seven people arrested in a fatal shootout with Louisiana deputies have been linked to violent anarchists on the FBI's domestic terrorism watch lists, a sheriff said Saturday.

Detectives had been monitoring the group before Thursday's shootout in Laplace in which two deputies were killed and two more wounded, said DeSoto Parish Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle. His detectives and other law enforcement discovered the suspects were heavily armed adherents to an ideology known as the "sovereign citizens" movement.

The FBI has classified "sovereign citizens" as people who believe they are free from all duties of a U.S. citizen, like paying taxes. The FBI considers the group's members a danger for making threats to judges and law enforcement, using fake currency and impersonating police officers.

I know some conservative media critics have complained -- justifiably, this time -- that the Family Research Council shooting in D.C. didn't receive enough attention, but's it's really shocking how little publicity this wanton assault on Louisiana lawmen has received. The local sheriff says the killers had "some pretty good firepower." What a surprise.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Philadelphia, an Aurora's worth of victims is gunned down every couple of weeks. Each murder is tragic in its own way, but the stalking and assassination of just-off-duty Police Officer Moses Walker is particularly heart-wrenching:

OFFICER Moses Walker Jr. was the kind of cop you'd recall fondly - even if he's the one who snapped your mug shot and closed the holding-cell door behind you.

Thomas Henry Massaro, a former Philadelphia housing director who attended Sunday's candlelight vigil for the slain officer, said two young men at a block party on Cecil B. Moore Avenue immediately recognized Walker when news broke that he'd been gunned down in their neighborhood.

The pair recalled a night in the past when they'd run afoul of the law.

"They put their heads down and said it was the worst night of their lives. They'd been arrested. But they said he was so kind to them and treated them with respect," Massaro said. "I just thought it was incredibly touching, from the boys who met him through an arrest. He was the one [who] put them in the jailhouse. They said it reverently."

Exactly where -- if anywhere -- these cold-blooded murders of law-enforcement officers fit into the any broader debate about guns won't be known until we learn more about the weapons that were used. It does seem that the death of Officer Walker -- himself armed and well-trained -- is more proof thar the NRA-flavored argument of arming even more citizens isn't particularly serious.

One of the better local writers these days, Joel Mathis, had a good piece out this morning on Philadelphia's latest cop-killing and the "gun debate," such as it is. Here's an excerpt:

Theory: Guns are needed and useful for self-defense.

Reality: The cases of guns being used to successfully defend against assaults in America are few and far between—one study suggested that guns are used by victims to defend themselves in less than 1 percent of all violent crimes. “Firearm self-defense,” the study’s authors noted drily, “is rare compared with gun crimes.” And there’s little evidence that the crime rate has changed in states that adopt “concealed carry” laws.

One reason that stories go viral when old geezers get the drop on criminals is because those cases are so rare. But ask yourself this: What story do you hear more often? The one about the gun being fired legitimately in self-defense? Or the story about a young children getting hit by stray bullets?

It’s not really close, is it?

Read the whole thing -- it makes some good points.

They'll all be forgotten tomorrow.