A BOOK THAT SHOULD BE GETTING MORE ATTENTION AMID TODAY’S MEDIA FUSILLADE: The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow’s Headlines. (Bumped).

UPDATE: And here come the copycats. “Four volunteer firefighters responding to a pre-dawn house fire were shot Monday morning, two fatally, leading to a shootout in suburban Rochester, N.Y. with the alleged gunman found dead the scene, police said.” It was apparently set up as an ambush.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Chuck Simmins has much more. Including this: “Chief says Spengler, as a convicted felon, not allowed to possess weapons.”

MORE: Professor Stephen Clark writes:

Spengler is perfect example of Correia’s point that government will not be the last line of defense against the bad guys. Bad guys don’t care about law, they break it; it’s what they do. As for the copy-cat effect, so noted. But…and I keep hammering on this…characters like Spengler are not the only ones watching.

Correia mentions Mumbai. Might the people who produced Mumbai be watching us; watching how our society reacts? What lessons are they drawing? If you are a terrorist organization and want to provoke an overreaction by the state and federal authorities that might, just might, provoke a backlash apropos the last part of Correia’s post, what would you do?

Just another thing to worry about.