US temple plot, school shooting: Gun epidemic spares no one as debate goes off target

TOI correspondent from Washington: A 19-year-old neo-Nazi teen’s reported use of cross-sex hormones has added a contentious dimension to an attempted mass shooting at a Hindu temple in Illinois, while in a separate incident, a 16-year-old with access to guns murdered three children and a teacher in a school in Oregon as America’s epidemic of gun violence continues unabated.US politicians and public officials issued familiar mealy-mouthed platitudes invoking “thoughts and prayers” for victims and their families as the core issue of easy access to guns was sidelined by fervent debates over parenting, mental illness, gender transition, etc.Reports that Alexandro Paporakis, the Illinois gunman whose jammed rifle thwarted a carnage at a Hindu temple near Chicago and who was receiving cross-sex hormone therapy and that a judge had ordered treatment to continue in custody was the digression US gun enthusiasts leaned into to argue guns are not the problem.Court reporting also…