The next day

Disturbing details are emerging about the 48-year-old Scott Township man who opened fire last night at a local fitness center, killing at least three women and injuring several others. The coward, who will remain nameless on this blog, posted numerous angry and rambling messages on an online log that were only accessible to those who knew his birth date or other personal information. He clearly was a loner and talked about his problems meeting and dating women. I'll wait for investigators to make a final determination, but it's clear he hated women and likely targeted them inside the health center.

It is clear he wanted as much publicity as possible after his death, so his blog will not be linked here, unlike other local media Web sites. He even goes so far as to copyright his material and request anything that is republished be edited for grammar mistakes. I find it pathetic that some suckers in the media are linking to this blog to give this man the attention he does not deserve. I have no problem if they clip some quotes from the log, but please limit the amount of exposure this man gets.

What is most disturbing, though, is that he wrote about walking into the fitness center on Jan. 6 with a duffel bag full of guns. He was going to carry out this plan then, but lost his nerve and left. So how many other people are walking around with duffel bags full of guns or pistols strapped to their legs, just waiting to kill? That's a question all of us are left to ponder.

But that is a question we will consider later. Today, I would like to offer my condolences to the victims and their families. Sadly, I suspect even those who made it out of the gym without gunshot wounds will hold internal scars for years. In fact, all of us feel a little different this morning.