Is it terrorism?
It takes a teenager to tell us adults what should be obvious:
I'm a high school student at a private school in Baltimore and am following the Montgomery County shootings closely. . . What I've seen all over the news is newscasters and commentators hypothesize a possible "terrorist connection" with the shooter. They are missing a basic point.
The shooting spree is terrorism, with or without an associated political manifesto or "swarthy-looking" male. In Baltimore, entire conferences have cancelled their games, all off-campus privilieges have been repealed, and schools are on a state of "lockdown." Remember, this is in Baltimore, 50 miles away. The only time they locked down the schools like that was last September 11, and sometime during the anthrax attacks (when they hysterically closed all the windows, thinking it would do any good), both which were most definitely terrorist attacks.
So, even if we don't have an Al Qaeda or Separatist Militia, we should still call the calculated, paramilitary, random shootings outside D.C. as we feel them: actions that terrorize the community, make people feel uncomfortable about going outside, and senseless, scary violence. Which, as it happens, is also known as terrorism.
(Thanks to Glenn Reynolds, who also points us to this concordant note from Letter from Gotham.)
The question "Is it terrorism?", as asked by news reporters and commentators, has as its subtext "Is this being done by Muslims?" It is terrorism, no matter who is doing it.
And see The DC Sniper Nest: None Dare Call it Terrorism, by J.J. Johnson of the Sierra Times, who prefers to directly say that we are simply at war at home.
To put it bluntly, we've have a region of the country on the verge of societal shut down. The pundits prefer calling this a lone nut than dealing with the obvious.
This person is not a 'right-wing' lunatic. This person is not a terrorist. This is a solider - waging war on our own soil.
5:04:29 PM 
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