Good Morning Doc: You said it. And trolls on DR will argue there's no gun problem in the US. Uh-huh.

Lincoln was an "uncommon commoner" in touch with the working man. He maintained his principles from the get-go. As a young riverman, he visited New Orleans and saw the slave auction which appalled him. His desire in the 1850s was to stop the spread of slavery in the new Western states. Lincoln wanted to let slavery die out in the South by the federal government buying their freedom eventually. BTW: In view of Capitol Hill was a slave auction house which reminded Congressman Lincoln of New Orleans.

Dennis Burnell had a history of disputes with the victims and other neighbors; he was fined for harassing one of them. Would a sane person shoot two people then go home and set fire to his own home? Authorities can't interrogate a corpse, so they will have to collect testimony about Dennis Burnell's aggressive behavior from his neighbors.

According to one think-tank, up to 54% of Americans suffer from an undiagnosed (and therefore) untreated mental illness.

Links:

Thanks for the info, Matt. From your medical perspective and without access to his files, where do you assess Dennis Burnell fell along this expanded depression/anxiety spectrum?

Good info, Matt, this is your expertise. Like many veterans, I suffer from PTSD: loud noises turn my head immediately and I'm unsettled. I avoid all fireworks shows and I haven't been to a shooting range in decades. But I suffer no nightmares, like one of my poor friends who has been going to the VA for years.