Society where guns do the talking
By: By ZHANG ZHOUXIANG
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Society where guns do the talking
Protesters gather outside the Tennessee State Capitol to call for an end to gun violence and support stronger gun laws after a deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, US, March 30, 2023. [Photo/Agencies]
Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old African American in Kansas city, was shot in the head when he showed up at the wrong door on April 13. When he fell down he was shot once more, this time in the arm. Andrew D. Lester, the 84-year-old who pulled the trigger, has been arrested and is facing charges.
A terrible thing about this incident is that, according to the local prosecutor, there was no indication "any words were exchanged" before the shooting.
It is not clear since when it has become commonplace for people to pull the trigger, before any words are spoken, on anyone knocking at the door. On April 15, Kaylin Gillis was shot and killed inside a car when her friend drove it the wrong way while looking for a friend's house. Three days later, a man shot at Heather Roth and Payton Washington when they tried to open the wrong car in a Texas parking lot.
Unlike mass shootings, in the above cases the shooters might have pulled the trigger out of a sense of insecurity. It seems, people in the United States so lack a sense of security that they pull the trigger before any words are exchanged.
Indeed, US society is becoming increasingly unsafe. In 2020, Chicago reported 769 homicides, a 50 percent rise over the year before; New York reported 462, up 318 from 2019. Behind the rising crime rate are problems such as splits in society, widening wealth gaps, radicalization by political groups, the rampant gun culture and racism.
Because of the high crime rate, people rush to buy guns, prompting more people to let guns do the talking. Data show that compared to white people, the probability of African Americans getting gunned down is 10 times higher.
In the 1990s, after the Cold War ended, many compared the US to the Roman Empire. It seems this empire is beset with problems that trouble every empire when the end is nigh. Can anyone solve them?
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It appears that some members want to deflect from the quagmire of American politics and the horrors of the mass shootings and massive gun violence in the USA by means of bringing up past history of other nations and making accusations about present circumstances that they have absolutely no proof of even though little interest is paid to their efforts, so in the circumstances I will live up to my avatar and put some balance into the situation.
CAVEAT: The opinions stated in the article are not mine, but the author's. I am merely providing access to opinions that others may not have seen.
As it is approaching time for me to turn off my computer for the night, I am going to lock this seed until I am available in the morning to carry out my responsibility to moderate comments.
This seed is now unlocked for comments, in case anyone is interested.
Hmm.
And all along, we have been told that NYC and Chicago are safe and crime is down.
The last time I was in the USA was Baltimore to be at my son's wedding - 16 years ago. It's interesting that Baltimore was both the first American city I ever stayed in, and the last. My mother took me as an infant to visit relatives. However, even though my son and his family live in Wisconsin I will never again step a foot in the USA. It's sad that I have to know my grandchildren through a computer.
That is simply a choice you have made.
I am sure he did not need you to rub it in.
People make choices which deal, sometimes, with many conflicting priorities. That does not mean they lose the right to regret the downsides of their choices. Further, did it occur to you that Buzz was also lamenting the fact that he cannot travel to Canada due to his age?
It's okay, TiG. Texas1211 is not as bad as some of the NT members who are here only to hurt other members.
As it happens, you're right. Because of my age and my present physical condition and maladies I no longer travel any distances, even locally.
Of course, a few incidents in a country of over 320 million people are not definitive proof of anything nor should we condemn a society because of the bad actions of a handful.
To reply to that I will quote the late former Prime Minister of Canada when asked how many Jewish refugees he would allow to come to Canada at the end of WW2. His infamous reply was "None is too many".