Russell Houser, the person behind the latest mass shooting that took place in a Louisiana theater, has so far been described as a mentally ill, violent, estranged drifter (and most of those descriptions came from his family). He was armed with a semi-automatic handgun.

+ A few hours before the shooting took place, President Obama described the wide availability of guns as his greatest frustration. “If you ask me where has been the one area that I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws. If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands.”

+ Adam Weinstein: It’s really hard to be a good guy with a gun.