Gun is the Loneliest Number
An Illinois man using a leaf blower in his yard was killed by his neighbor, local television reported.
William Martys, 59, was reportedly using his leaf blower in his yard in Antioch when his neighbor, 79-year-old Ettore Lacchei, got into an argument with him then shot him in the head.
Lacchei was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
A neighbor told WLS, Chicago’s ABC affiliate, the two men had a history, and Lacchei had pulled a gun on Martys before.
The Guardian article also made a lazy and meaningless comparison.
Martys’ death comes amid a string of shootings in which people have been harmed or killed over trivial matters.
Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old Black teenager, was shot by an 84-year-old white man in Kansas City, Missouri, earlier this month after accidentally knocking on the wrong door. The man, Andrew Lester, pleaded not guilty to two felony charges.
In New York state, a 20-year-old white woman was shot and killed when she accidentally turned into the wrong driveway. The man who shot her, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
In Texas, two high school cheerleaders were also shot after one accidentally got into the wrong car. The shooter, Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr, faces a third-degree “deadly conduct” felony charge.
Ralph Yarl was shot because he was Black. There was no ‘accidental’ about Andrew Lester’s attempt to murder him.
Kaylin Gillis wasn’t murdered accidentally. It wasn’t a trivial matter that caused her to die. She was killed because Kevin Monahan was ‘confrontational and hot-tempered’, exactly the sort of person who should not be allowed to own a gun. The guy had previously caused a big angry scene at a DMV because he was mad he had to appear in person there. His lawyer’s trying to normalize that indicating everybody gets mad at DMV employees.
Turning into a wrong driveway is trivial, sure. But when teens realize their error, turn around, start to leave and then some guy comes out and shoots at your departing vehicles, that’s not being ‘killed over trivial matters’. Kaylin was killed because Monahan wanted to kill people.
What was he hiding on his property that he didn’t want people to see? Maybe he was inebriated. There was no ‘stand your ground’ issue. People don’t randomly shoot at vehicles driving away. Monahan had a reason to shoot. We just don’t know what it was.
It definitely wasn’t to fit a media source’s lazy description of ‘trivial matters'.
Here’s part of the sheriff’s press release.
He’s married and works in construction. Nobody climbed out of the vehicles. A neighbor said he’s been pissed off at people driving up his driveway before. But pissed off people don’t open fire randomly at a distance from departing cars, then refuse to come outside to talk to the cops for an hour or more. The sheriff also noted he’s shown no remorse about killing the 20 year old girl.
What’s he hiding?
It’s lazy when reporters group random acts together like this. Have we not learned yet that people in this country shoot and kill people for multiple reasons all the time? Racism, anger, gang-based responses, drug abuse, mental illness?
If there’s a common thread it’s not about the inadvertent errors people make. It’s about too many people with less than honorable motives and history are allowed and encouraged to buy guns.
Normal people, when they get alarmed or upset, don’t pull out guns and start blazing away. Trivial matters haven’t suddenly triggered this. Killings and murders are very common in this country. Unlike most other countries where reverence for guns is viewed as a form of crazy.
Can the government discern that Mr. Lacchei should not have a gun? Yes, he’d threatened the guy with his gun before. Could they know that Monahan shouldn’t have a gun? Probably. His outburst at the DMV wasn’t the first time he’d displayed unreasonable anger before. That’s pretty much a given. But how can the government write a law to limit guys who are angry a lot? They can’t.
There should be an automatic reporting requirement though. Every time there’s a shooting, the cops should immediately identify the firearm. What weapon hit a departing 20 year old at a distance? There also should be more extreme limits on AR-15s and other semi-automatic weaponry. We had one for a decade that didn’t disturb the Second Amendment and fatalities were reduced considerably.
With those changes, we’re far less likely to see a simple error turn deadly.
We’ve had three major wars - Iraq/Afghanistan/Syria - in the past two decades. Total up the US troops killed. Add the number of active duty police officers killed.
That number is smaller than the number of kids killed by mass shooters in the past 20 years.
All the false comparatives are meaningless. The reality is the politicians claiming to protect kids from gender treatments and drag queens don’t give a single good goddamn about protecting kids. They’re protecting gunsellers and the NRA to hustle campaign money and secure votes from their dwindling base.
That’s what matters. To them.
Nearly 2 out of 3 American adults want stricter gun laws. We’re the majority. Isn’t it about time we act like it?
If we as citizens and the media as journalists don’t stop ignoring the obvious and don’t stop normalizing the aberrant behaviors of American men, and don’t start limiting access to rapid fire weapons that explode human organs, our nation will go to shit and deservedly so.
The old myth that gun ownership helps thwart government tyranny has been proven wrong. The right wing arsenals have grown and been put to use protecting government tyrants in recent years, not thwarting them.
The good guys with a gun stopping bad guys with a gun? That myth was destroyed when 19 students and two adults were murdered over a 75 minute period in Uvalde Texas. 7 cops entered the school 2 minutes after the shooter did.
Twenty one minutes after the shooter entered, a parent livestreamed video of parents begging the cops to go in after the mass murderer. At least 19 cops huddled in a hallway instead.
One student called 911 three times in 45 minutes while the cops on scene huddled. The school police, local police and SWAT team members were all on scene.
But rightwingers say the answer is to arm everybody at every school in the nation, denying the obvious. Take away the guns designed to kill an invading army during wartime. These aren’t hunting weapons. They’re weapons of mass slaughter.
Would any mental health red flags identify the Las Vegas shooter as a troublesome guy who should be denied a gun? No. FIFTY EIGHT DEAD AND OVER EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY WOUNDED by a single gunman in October 2017 in the worst mass shooting in history.
The VIP gambler- before killing himself - had fired more than 1000 rounds. He had hidden cameras rigged so he’d know when cops were approaching and had screwed at least one door shut with a metal bracket:
All the hotel staff noticed was their VIP guest was moving in a lot of luggage. No red flag restriction would have stopped that guy but an assault weapons ban would have.
There are sick and dangerous individuals in most societies but the stats suggest US citizens are among the world’s most dangerous. How can we look at how sick some are without getting answers to limit them?
Could be the racism. Could be politicians instigating and increasing divisions. But they’d all definitely be less dangerous if we limit the rapid-fire guns.
Then people could make errors without dying.