Kickass and the POTUS assassination

Kickass, the doorstop dog, steps aside for the keeper today as he—the keeper notes that on this day 56 years ago, hundreds of thousands of (mostly) men in Wisconsin held in their hands the kind of high powered rifle that the day before had been used to kill the president of the US.  In the echoing of the opening-morning volley that swept thunderously across the state that day, there was an undercurrent of disbelief among the shooters that the type of weapon they knew and possessed had been used for such abject evil.  And perhaps, perversely, as they stood over dead or dying deer that long ago morning, they saw the image of their dead president, and they were consumed by the confusing predatory killing genes in their blood,  and maybe by the awesome responsibility of owning a death-dispensing device.  The 1963 hunt went on, thousands of deer were shot, but the usual carnival quality of the hunt was missing, and many hunters headed home early.  As sad as the current POTUS situation is considered to be by so many, it is nothing compared to that awful day in 1963 when every man, woman and child knew the horror of a misused gun.  (About 100 people in the US are killed by guns every day, more over the holidays.)