My father used to say "What the little boy shot at" to mean a zero score in some game, or when he came up empty on a fishing trip.
You don't hear the phrase anymore. We don't make light of little boys shooting.
There is a new rule of behavior across all demographics: Don't startle people. Don't scare people. Their first reaction may be to shoot.
We have seen a burst of news. A Black teenager rang a doorbell on the wrong house. The man inside saw the unexpected teen, and as he later told police, he was "scared to death." He had a gun ready, and shot the boy twice. A group of girls in a car pulled into the wrong driveway. The homeowner came out, and shot into the back window of the car as it was leaving. A passenger was killed. A family was playing basketball in the street when a ball rolled into a neighbor's yard. The neighbor shot the child's father in the back. In Texas a group of cheerleaders were using a grocery store parking lot to exchange cars for carpooling. One girl accidentally started to get into the wrong car. She realized her mistake and was apologizing when the man in that car began shooting. She was injured but survived. Her friend in a nearby car was killed.
My father's expression about what the little boy shot had a premise. A boy with a gun will be alert for situations when the gun is needed. Maybe he saw something move. He has a gun, so he shoots--at nothing. There is another expression in current use: "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
We are learning no one is immune from being a victim of a stand-your-ground, shoot-first gun carrier. It is dangerous to be a combination of male, dark-complected, physically large, and between the ages of 11 and 70. Prudent people in that demographic learn to avoid frightening people. When I was a young candidate going door-to-door meeting voters, I learned to ring the doorbell and then to step eight or ten feet back from the door.
But now I am 73. People call me "sir." I assumed I didn't scare anyone anymore. But this week I saw a short TikTok video, now circulating on YouTube. The woman says, "No male should ever approach a woman in a parking lot. Ever." Watch.
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I think she is over-reacting and unreasonable. She would disagree. Reasonableness isn't the point. People like her exist. She is a warning to accompany this week's stories about people with guns shooting on first encounter. Nearly anyone can buy and carry firearms. No permits or training are necessary and almost no one qualifies as a "red flag." Carry the gun on your hip or pocket. Have it ready.
It isn't just young Black men who need to walk on eggshells. Realize everyone is at risk. A basketball, a rolling shopping cart, turning around in a driveway--anything might trigger someone. People are arming up. Some people spook easily. Their first instinct may be to use the gun they have been carrying around just in case.
They have a hammer. You might be the nail.
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7 comments:
What’s scary is the murderers Peter describes are the “law-abiding gun owners” that Republicans feel would be too inconvenienced by rational gun laws. The GOP solution to our plague of gun violence is to make more guns more available with fewer restrictions.
We need to protect those fetuses, but once they’re out of the womb it’s open season...now that's what I call "pro-life."
I did not watch the Tik Tok, but the woman is right. (I don't click on videos, especially not on Tik Tok.)
No strange = unknown man should approach a female in a parking lot.
As usual, you have no clue what it is like to be a female, who can be over-powered in a second. And you are ignorant about crimes against females, obviously.
Just for the record, Ted Bundy, monster rapist and serial killer, approached females in parking lots and other places.
Sadly, a lot of grown men refuse or are unable to comprehend what is like to be female. A little empathy goes a long way. But most men are score much higher in arrogance than empathy.
My hope is that gun owners will see what happens to the idiots who shoot people with absolutely no justification, and it will teach them that they need to be careful about what they do with their firearms.
But then again, there are many among us who fool you by walking upright.
So, if I'm coming out of Fred Meyer, am I no longer allowed to get in my car if there's a woman near it? I'm just trying to get these new rules straight.
Is it a coincidence that we learn of these incidents all happening in the same week, or some crazy new trend?
Every statistic points to an out of control gun culture that is not making us any safer. Gun peddlers and right wing media fear monger incessantly for profit and politics. The actual chance of being a victim of gun violence is roughly the same as a fatal car wreck, but they tell us we live in a dystopian society where crime is out of control. This is a useful metric. Since 1999, the number of fatal car wrecks has been coming down, while gun deaths, which used to be significantly lower, have risen to parity and more. In short, you are less likely to have a fatal car wreck than be shot.
It seems to me the common denominator in these tragedies is fear. Republicans, most in the employ of the NRA, stoke this fear to sell guns for them and one is result we have the most gun deaths of any nation in the developed World, by far.
I agree that this is a terrifying trend in the USA. Apparently there has been a 10% increase in homicides in Stand Your Ground states. I wonder how many happened because someone jumped to the wrong conclusion about someone on their property. Apparently the man in Missouri who shot Ralph Yarl lived on a steady diet of Fox News, which would make anyone paranoid and unreasonable. But ready to kill someone on sight? That takes another level of irrationality.
Although I suppose I could be a target for pulling into the wrong driveway, in general an older white woman (or probably of any race) is not presumed dangerous. I’m not even capable of imagining how vulnerable a young black man must feel in daily, innocent encounters with strangers. So now strangers are afraid of them, and they’re afraid of strangers. Maybe the only solution is to reorganize into small towns where everyone knows one another.
Only in America: Gun manufacturers and their lobbyists have bribed Republicans into pretending they believe the 2nd Amendment entitles everyone to own guns designed to quickly kill as many people as possible. So now – what a surprise! – they’re being used for that purpose. People are slaughtering each other by the thousands, including our schoolchildren.
Obviously, Republicans don’t want to talk about it, so instead they distract us with culture wars and attempts to overthrow the government. The white-wing actually claims "wokeness" is the biggest threat we face, although they can't even define it. I suppose in 2024 we’ll see what Americans care more about – gun violence, climate change and threats to our democracy, or wokeness.
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