This would be the saddest story that I have heard of for awhile. It is of an innocent 12 year old boy who was killed Friday night (18th April 08) in front of a store in Wilkinsburg. They say he was not the intended victim but that would be a small consolation to the parents of Kholen Germany.
So once again an innocent victim falls prey to some stupid gun toting person. I know that Americans believe it is their constitutional right to carry arms but it seems a high price to pay when this right has the undesired effect on victims falling prey to intentional and unintentional flying bullets.
Perhaps someone over there should bite the bullet, face the gun lobby and do something about the proliferate ownership of guns.
Hi Sire,
Hows tricks. Read your article over at Blogger Party. Stick with your blog – can take a year or more for blogs to get regular traffic.
Cheers,
Peter
No worries Hutts, I intend to.
No, Americans do not “believe it is their constitutional right to carry arms”. That would introduce an element of doubt. It’s not a matter of belief, it’s a matter of legal right.
What seems to be the problem is that the right is actually hard to enforce, which means that criminals – who seldom bother with obtaining the needed permits first – are nearly certain that their victims will not be able to shoot back.
The 12 year old might still have been shot. But his attackers might never have left the scene if onlookers had been able to respond in kind.
Difficult to make hard & fast rules, but I notice that Brits are finding that armed crime is on the rise, too. Could it be because the mere presentation of a firearm virtually ensures success in a criminal endeavor since no one else will be able to respond?
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It’s not just the fact that criminals find it easy to get guns. The problem is that even kids can get hold of them and create mayhem. Apparently a 12 year in the States, just recently fired one off in a school. Imagine if he was a crazed lunatic bent on shooting as many kids as possible.
This is so sad. It just breaks my heart to hear these things. It seems like there is a lot of crime against children in America. I guess it goes on all over the world though. It’s heartbreaking.
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Make it as difficult as possible for ordinary people to get guns without specific reasons – this will have a spin off effect eventually.
This has been our governments policy and although there was an outburst at first things have quietened down.
Good idea.