What a week for gun lovers.
It all began on June 29th. In Antioch, CA someone entered a house and shot seven guys. Fortunately for all of them whoever did it wasn't much of a marksman. The victim's wounds varied in severity, but the seven will survive. The shooter is still at large.
The same night down in New Orleans a gun fight exploded on Bourbon St. Police arrested 20 year old Trung T. Le on the 4th of July. They say he fired the first shot in the exchange which killed one and wounded nine others, all of them innocent bystanders. They're still looking for the other Quick Draw McGraw who was involved.
Back in Antioch, which is located in the San Francisco Bay area, an 11 year old was shot and wounded on Thursday. The police quickly arrested the would be assassin the same day. He is 14.
In Inkster, Michigan, also on Thursday, 24 year old Raymone Jackson walked up to a porch and shot a two year old child to death in order to torture her father, who might have been involved in an earlier shooting. Immediately after the despicable act, he wounded not only the father, but a 12 year old family friend who made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That's right, baby it was a tough week, but the mayhem was just getting started. Let's face it, there is nothing quite like a 4th of July weekend to ramp up the violence. Hey, if you're going to celebrate the good ol' U.S.A. nothing says it better than opening fire on crowds of people.
In Indianapolis, about 30 minutes before the bars shut down early in the morning of the 5th, seven people were shot. One is listed in critical condition while the other six victims are not in life threatening situations. The A.P. questioned the Indy police chief about a motive. He was quoted as saying, "There was no rhyme or reason..." The current theory is the whole thing began when two people bumped into each other on the street. The cops haven't found the shooter, but did manage to arrest a 23 year old convicted felon who, while not involved, was found to be carrying a loaded gun.
In Houston four kids were shot at a 4th of July dance, one of them critically. The next day a local barber shot and killed a customer after the two of them got into an argument and the patron refused to leave his shop.
In St. Louis seven people were shot, three of them fatally. In New Jersey a young girl was hit by a stray bullet as she slept in her bed across the river from Philadelphia. She'll survive her wound unlike another who was killed by an equally errant round as she rode a scooter down a sidewalk in Paterson. The Jersey cops are trying to figure out if the second shooting was tied to a prior one.
Indeed, it was deadly in several places, but absolutely nothing compared to the carnage in Chicago. Over the holiday weekend the dead and wounded piled up so fast in the Windy City no one could come up with a definitive count of the numbers. Some media outlets put the figure at 60 wounded and a dozen, or so shot to death. The Chicago Tribune reported as many as 82 wounded and 14 dead. Police Superintendent, Garry McCarthy issued a statement saying the violence was, "unacceptable" and blamed at least part of it on, "the proliferation of guns."
Oh, you think?
Yes, when your town has become a fucking war zone gun proliferation could have something to do with it.
Of course in the bizarro world of the NRA all these stunning statistics just mean the average Joe should go out and buy more guns--because, after all, if everyone is armed we'll somehow be safer.
Well tell them that in Chicago, because apparently everyone there already has a gun. How else can you explain casualty figures that look like they should be coming out of Mosul Iraq, rather than one of the great cities in America.
Now, please don't shake your head and try to lecture me about freedom and rights. Trust me, you aren't free if your kid gets shot while she is asleep in her bedroom, riding a scooter down the street, or sitting on a front porch. You certainly aren't free when you can't walk down a street without worrying that someone might start shooting if you accidentally bump into them. And, quite honestly, your rights don't really matter if you're laying dead in a park because some goof decided to go off just because he had a gun and could.
It is time to face the terrible truth. America isn't a free society. It is nothing more than a prison riot in progress.
7-7-14
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