I'll place partial responsibility for the Pittsburgh cop killings where I feel it belongs: squarely in the lap of the right-wing echo chamber, which seems intent on whipping its base into blind rage over everything from an imagined Obama gun ban to imagined socialism.
A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said.
Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.
Three officers were killed.
Police planned to release more details at a 3 p.m. news conference Saturday.
Poplawski was arrested after a several-hour standoff.
One witness reported hearing hundreds of shots.
The shootings occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot March 21 in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.
Poplawski's friends at the scene described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns.
One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."
Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."
Perkovic, a 22-year-old who said he was Poplawski's best friend, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, "Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you."
Perkovic said: "I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot."
Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn't successful.
Vire said his friend had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.
Another friend, Joe DiMarco, said Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year.
DiMarco said he didn't know the name of the company, but knew Poplawski had been upset about losing his job.
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