It also reflects the conservative mindset and its lack of nuance. In their black and white world, the idea that they were BOTH bad men (and that the murderer, in fact, turned out to be the worse of the two) is too much for them to comprehend. First man do bad thing, got punished, therefore punisher good.
Well, that and the fact that the murderer’s crime involved a gun. Using a gun for anything (up to and including massacring children) makes you such a patriot that you’re automatically in the right.
