The Huntsville Tragedy

This summary from Associated Press provides the facts as they are known now.

A biology professor at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus was charged with murder late Friday in the shooting deaths of three fellow biology professors at the campus.
 

Authorities say Amy Bishop, an instructor and researcher at the university, opened fire during an afternoon faculty meeting, killing the three colleagues and injuring three other school employees. Bishop has been charged with one count of capital murder, which means she could face the death penalty if convicted.

The immediate provoking factor seems to have been the notification that Dr. Bishop had not achieved tenure at University of Alabama at Huntsville. 

There will be a flood of images and words in the next few days, until the nation's attention is drawn somewhere else. So, at 1:25 a.m. local time, OldSouth is attempting to get a head start.

OS has friends who have been denied tenure.  It is disheartening, painful, maddening to labor for seven years and come up empty-handed. The process, at its core, is quixotic, arbitrary, and undoubtedly corrupt in some cases. But, anyone on a tenure track should have the smarts to understand that grim reality. It goes with the territory.

They all licked their wounds and moved on, and in time were grateful to not be laboring in the salt mines of that particular institution. Not one of them contemplated carrying a pistol to a faculty meeting. 

This is beyond the pale. Nothing explains, or excuses, this crime.

It will be called a tragedy, an incident, an occurrence. Amateur and professional shrinks will offer explanations. Liberals will call for gun bans, conservatives will counter that the gun ban on campus prevented nothing.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.

OS hopes a simple fact will remain foremost in all our minds.

What occurred was a crime. To carry a pistol to a faculty meeting, into a room of unarmed academics, for what promised to be the occasion of unpleasant news, can only indicate a decision had already been made to turn that weapon on those people. Dozens of people, if not hundreds, have had their lives irrevocably altered by this brutality.

Sympathies and prayers go out to the families and friends of the murdered and injured.