Tag Archives: gun violence

national news

Parkland deputy faces serious neglect charge

There have been so many spasms of gun violence erupting with such regularity, one occasionally loses sight of prior incidents that shock a nation.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Fla., is one event I admit has gotten past me.

Until this week!

A former sheriff’s deputy who was on duty when the madman opened fire at the high school now faces 11 felony charges of child neglect. What’s the basis for the accusation? Scot Peterson did not enter the high school building when shots began echoing through the halls. He waited outside. He didn’t confront the shooter.

Peterson was assigned to the high school as a “resource officer” by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. He’s not the first law enforcement officer to be punished. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was elected this past November, replaced Sheriff Scott Israel over his handling of the massacre.

Now there are criminal charges pending against the deputy who was on the scene.

The Parkland tragedy that left 17 victims dead has spurred a vigorous debate in Florida and across the nation over how to stem the gun violence that seems to erupt with far too much regularity. Many of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas students have become celebrities as they have become outspoken advocates for stricter gun regulations.

Now comes this attempt at holding someone accountable for the tragedy that broke the nation’s heart.

Peterson has said he acted properly to the tragedy that exploded 16 months ago. That now remains to be seen in court, presuming this case goes to trial.

I just am struck by all the tributes that pour forth when these events occur. They are directed at the first responders, some of whom have sacrificed their lives while ensuring the safety of other victims. We praise these men and women without reservation.

Scot Peterson, according to the video many of us have seen, hunkered down away from the danger. My gut tells me he has earned the scorn of a community he swore to protect — and of the nation that had its heart broken by yet another act of senseless violence.

national news

What about ‘gun-free zones’?

We have entered a zone that requires a good bit of rational thought and a decided absence of hysteria.

A gunman opened fire Friday in a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Va., killing 12 people and injuring five or six others. He was killed in a fire fight with police.

I don’t know this yet to be fact, but I am going to presume the government building and its surroundings are deemed to be “gun-free zones.” That means you must be unarmed if you are to enter the building. You can’t be packing heat under your jacket, or in an ankle holster.

Now, here’s the question: Do we take down gun-free zones to enable heat-packing bystanders to open fire when someone starts blasting away in the manner that occurred in Virginia Beach?

For that matter, what about in church sanctuaries or in any number of schools that have been the scenes of despicable gun violence?

Dear reader, we have a serious conundrum on our hands — and in our hearts and heads — as we reignite the debate over how to deal with senseless gun violence.

I understand why governments impose gun-free zones. They want there to be an absence of dangerous weapons in what could be called “soft target” areas. You know, places such as public government buildings, or schools, houses of worship.

The debate that no doubt will ensue in the wake of the Virginia Beach massacre is clearly headed toward some further discussion of the value of gun-free zones and whether they make those zones less safe from madmen like the one who opened fire in Virginia Beach.

My first instinct is to say that gun-free zones should remain. We shouldn’t expose children, or worshipers, or government employees to more firearms in the workplace, in our church sanctuaries or in our classrooms.

I am going to implore us all to wage this debate with seriousness and caution.

So help me, this is the kind of issue that gives me serious heartburn.

national news

Chief is spot on in his refusal to ID the killer

Virginia Beach, Va., Police Chief James Cervera and I are on virtually the same page in one respect relating to the tragedy that erupted Friday in his city.

The chief will refuse to refer to a lunatic killer by name. Yes, he has vowed to do so only one time. After that initial identification, Chief Cervera said he will refer to the individual as “the suspect,” who is responsible for the deaths of 12 innocent victims and the injuring of six others.

I have followed that doctrine for some time on this blog. I refuse to identify the individuals who commit these acts of insanity against human beings. Hell, I have difficulty writing the words “fellow human beings,” because that suggests the killers have a semblance of humanity. They do not.

Yes, this blog has identified some of history’s most notorious killers by name; individuals such as Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray come to mind. Their victims were public figures known around the world.

As for other mass murderers, such as the guy who blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, he joined the ranks of infamous monsters long before I started writing this blog. So, yes, I have ID’d that individual as well over the years.

The monsters who do things such as open fire on municipal employees at a government complex in a coastal Virginia city, though, are simply seeking their 15 seconds of fame. I won’t contribute to that demented desire here.

With that, I want to salute the Virginia Beach chief of police for relegating the gun-toting moron to the world of anonymity.

As the chief said, the focus now should be on honoring the victims, helping the wounded among them heal and lend love and comfort to the loved ones of those who were lost.

national news

Another mass shooting; more inaction awaits

Let’s add Virginia Beach, Va., to the list of American communities torn asunder by the madness associated with gun violence and the multiple casualties that result from it.

Eleven people were gunned down today at a municipal building; the gunman engaged in a fire fight with police, who then shot him to death.

He reportedly was a municipal employee. The motive for killing his colleagues has yet to be determined. His name hasn’t been released by the authorities; I won’t identify this lunatic on this blog when his name becomes known.

What in the world do we do?

That is the question of the day. It’s always the question when these tragedies unfold.

I am sickened to be core at the senselessness of it all.

The deaths of those individuals is enough to break one’s heart. The inaction that likely will come from Congress — let alone from the White House — only will pulverize my heart’s broken pieces.

Meanwhile, the list of communities where citizens will shed tears in the wake of future tragedies, I am quite certain, only will grow.

national news

This near-tragedy hits where it hurts

I was a bit slow on the uptake to get the details quickly, but when some of them rolled in, I shuddered to the bone.

A security guard at Parkrose (Ore.) High School tackled an armed student and prevented a tragedy at a place I now quite well.

I attended and graduated from high school at Parkrose, which is now part of the Portland Public School District. Fifty-two years ago, when I obtained my diploma, it was a suburban community with a school system run by its own elected board.

Oh, man. This story shakes me to my core.

A heroic security guard named Keanon Lowe prevented the tragedy. He tackled the student after getting a tip from other students who reportedly had noticed some “concerning activity” involving the youngster with the gun.

Lowe is a former wide receiver for the University of Oregon who now serves as head football and track coach at Parkrose High School.

According to ESPN.com: Parkrose was evacuated and a nearby middle school was on lockdown for several hours as the investigation unfolded. The high school students were bused to a nearby parking lot where they were reunited with their parents.

Parents and students called Lowe a “hero.” Do ya think?

I didn’t walk the halls of the current Parkrose campus. The school building from which I graduated was torn down and replaced with the new campus some years back. But . . . one still remains tied forever to the school system that provided one’s education. When stories like this make news, well, you feel it just a little more deeply.

Wow! I am so happy this story has turned out the all right. So, too, are the loved ones of the students who saw it unfold in real time.

Keanon Lowe deserves a raise in pay. A big raise at that!

national news

How does the NRA defend this?

Here’s a statistic that makes me quake.

The United States of America experienced 288 school shootings since 2009. The punchline? That number is 57 times greater than six other industrialized nations combined.

The other nations measured were the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Canada.

Fifty-seven times greater!

Jaw-dropping, yes?

And yet . . .

Gun-rights groups led by the National Rifle Association continue to tell us that we cannot enact constitutional legislation that would somehow stem that terrible tide. How in the name of good government does the NRA defend this view?

I don’t have a legislative cure in mind. Congress cannot muster up the guts to enact universal background checks for every individual who purchases a firearm. Why? Well, I have concluded that the NRA has bullied members into cowering away from taking any measures that would make it harder to buy a gun.

I will not accept the notion that any legislation would violate the Second Amendment guarantee citizens’ right to “keep and bear arms.”

Yet the demagogues keep yammering about how politicians are intent on “destroying” the Second Amendment, how they are dedicated to “taking your guns away.”

They are wrong.

The statistic about the number of school shootings tells me that we have to stop the bloodbath. I mean, Donald Trump pledged during inaugural speech to stop “this American carnage.”

Yes. It needs to stop. Now!

national news

Courage shows itself in Colorado shooting

A young man stepped up and saved a lot of lives this week when he rushed one of the shooters who opened fire in his suburban Denver, Colo., school. His name was Kendrick Castillo.

Kendrick drew a statement of praise from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who posted this message on Facebook today:

Kendrick Castillo was killed yesterday when he tried to protect his fellow students during another school shooting. Castillo charged the gunman who entered his literature class, saving countless lives. He was just days away from graduating.

It is hard to imagine such bravery and selflessness from a teenager, especially when our leaders in Congress are so useless to stop the bloodshed in our schools. My heart is broken for Kendrick’s friends and family. We must recommit ourselves to making sure no more families have to live through such tragedy.

I believe Reich is being overly harsh when referencing teens. I trust he isn’t suggesting that today’s younger citizens are less brave or selfless than previous generations.

However, he is spot on when referencing the cowardice that our lawmakers exhibit by refusing to enact stronger sensible and constitutional efforts to “stop the bloodshed in our schools.”

Two suspects are in custody. One of them is a juvenile. The argument has begun about whether this individual should be tried as an adult. If I were King of the World, I would declare “Yes, by all means!”

As for Congress and whether there is a scintilla of courage in that body, I have given up hope.

State news

Texas seeks comprehensive solution to school gun violence

Texas state Sen. Larry Taylor was hurting nearly a year ago, along with many of the rest of this state, not to mention the rest of America. A gunman opened fire at Santa Fe High School in his Senate district, killing 10 people and wounding 13 others.

Taylor, a Friendswood Republican, sought to do something to at least mitigate such tragic events in the future. He has produced a bill that isn’t perfect, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to protest it here.

Senate Bill 11 — which the Senate approved 29-2 and heads for the House of Representatives — seeks to strengthen mental health initiatives in Texas. According to the Texas Tribune, it gives teachers access to telephones and other electronic communications, and establishes threat assessment teams to help identify potentially dangerous students while determining the best ways to intervene before they erupt.

The bill also “requires school districts to appoint school safety committees that meet once a semester to provide their boards of trustees with recommendations for updates to their districts’ multihazard emergency operations plans,” the Tribune reports.

Does the legislation deal with the purchase of firearms, or the access that bad folks have to obtain them? No, but to my way of thinking it seeks a comprehensive approach to seeking out and identifying those who might be prone to producing the kind of insanity that has shown itself too often.

“We cannot afford to do nothing,” Taylor said, adding that too often legislators let “perfect become the enemy of the good.” So, the bill isn’t perfect. It is, however, a good start.

“Multiple young people’s funerals back to back in a few short days is very difficult,” Taylor said. “That’s why we have to get this done.”

Indeed. We mustn’t have to endure such heartache.

national news

Bump stocks gone! May they never return!

The Donald Trump administration has banned bump stocks.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of the administration’s decision.

On that small but important score, we’ve made our society a little safer from extreme gun violence.

Bump stocks were thrust into our national conscience when a gunman opened fire in Las Vegas, Nev., killing 59 country music festival attendees. The moron used a weapon that had been turned into a fully automatic machine gun with a bump stock, a device one can attach to these weapons.

There can be only one reason to attack a bump stock on a weapon such as the one used by lunatic who opened fire in Las Vegas: it is to turn that weapon into a killing machine.

The Supreme Court had received an appeal from gun-owner rights groups that wanted the court to overturn the ban that took effect this week. The court said “no” to their appeal.

This is a good thing for Americans who are concerned about the spasm of gun violence that has become all too commonplace in our society.

Does this ban prohibit hunters, target shooters or those who just collect firearms from pursuing their right to “keep and bear arms” in accordance with the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

Not in the least.

Instead, it allows law enforcement authorities and the courts to sentence individuals to prison terms of as long as 10 years while paying fines of as much as $100,000. No one’s rights are compromised.

It goes to show you that, yes, we can impose reasonable restrictions on these weapons without endangering the Second Amendment.

International news

New Zealand PM acts swiftly, decisively and with passion

National sovereignty is a wonderful thing. It gives nations the ability to enact laws on their own without regard to how other nations handle crises.

Such is the case in New Zealand, where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has just announced a nationwide ban on all assault weapons and a stiffening of penalties for those who break the law regarding firearms possession. The country’s parliament needs to sign off.

Can you hear the grumbling now from here? From the United States of America? Where this kind of swift governmental action regarding firearms is unthinkable?

Ardern’s action is in response to the massacre of 50 people who were gunned down in two Christchurch mosques. A suspect is in custody; he purports to be a white nationalist who detests immigrants.

How does this apply to the discussion of gun violence in this country? Well, we have this Constitution here that guarantees in its Second Amendment the right of citizens to “keep and bear arms.” Our system of government precludes the kind of ultra-rapid response that Prime Minister Ardern has demonstrated.

For the record — once again! — I want to stipulate that I do not want the Second Amendment repealed in this country. I favor it in principle. I believe in the concept of firearm ownership. I have a couple of weapons myself.

That all said, I also believe there are ways to legislate improvements to the Second Amendment that protect the rights of citizens to own guns while increasing the standards for those who want to purchase them. In other words, I favor universal background checks.

I also believe we need to regulate gun shows to ensure that firearms purchased at these events are channeled into the hands of those who deserve to own them.

Our Constitution and our form of government are vastly different from much — if not most — of the rest of the world. Thus, I have no intention of seeking to foist a New Zealand-style response to this tragedy on the United States.

We just need in this country to seek some common ground on this most knotty issue of gun ownership, gun violence and the carnage that keeps erupting.

The slaughter of those worshipers in New Zealand has gotten the world’s attention. It also grabbed that country’s leaders by the throat and created a climate that seeks an immediate remedy.

If only we could get that kind of swift action in the United States of America.