I've been thinking about this for the last couple of hours. It's hard for me to square how I'm feeling about it all. Obviously, I loathe and condemn any and all violence or killing in all forms, political or apolitical. And I absolutely detest any human being who extinguishes the life of another with hatred, malice, or intent.
That said, I find myself not really feeling sorry for Charlie himself, aside from feeling sad for him that he'll never hug his wife or kiss his children ever again. As a husband and father of two very young children in my mid-30's, that is the part that tugs my heartstrings the most. But I don't really feel sorry for Charlie, because I believe that his use of his enormous visibility to platform hatred and sow division, for profit, for has caused harm to a lot of people in our country. Does that mean he deserved to die for his views and beliefs? Absolutely, positively, unequivocally NOT. I hate that he's dead, and I hate even more the reason that he's dead. But it's hard to feel sorry for someone who proudly boasted that people dying as a result of gun violence is a necessary sacrifice for the Second Amendment. I'm a gun owner and a believer in the right to own guns, and I find his notion that human lives are necessary sacrifices for other humans to be able to own firearms.
I do feel deep, heartfelt sadness and sympathy for his wife, his children, and his parents. None of them should have to bury a 31-year-old husband, father, and son because of (probable) politically-motivated violence. I feel sadness for all of them and sincerely pray that they find some semblance of peace, comfort, and strength in the hours and days ahead. I hope they have all of the support and help they need.
It's so disheartening and dismaying that we live in a society today where children being massacred in their classrooms, politicians being massacred in their homes, and political commentators being murdered at speaking events has become so commonplace, so *NOT* unusual, and so frequent, that so many people's immediate reaction is to figure out how to best utilize the senseless loss of other human lives to score political points.