More Shootings For Trivial Reasons

Every day in America there are numerous examples of people shooting at others for trivial reasons.  These aren't robbers, rapists, gang members, or druggies.  These are people who aren't felons.  These are people whom the NRA dubs "law abiding gun owners" worthy of owning guns with little or no regulation whatsoever.

I've blogged on other examples in the past.  Things haven't changed.  Here are just a few examples I've collected in just the last couple weeks:

• Taking too long to go to the bathroom in Connecticut:  Shawn Cummins, 22, was hanging out in a neighbor's apartment and had been drinking.  Someone else was in the bathroom when he needed to use it. Impatient, Cummins pulled out a concealed handgun, which he had a permit for, and fired it through the door of the bathroom, narrowly missing the occupant.  Cummins then left the apartment and fired another round into the side of the building.
• Dispute over feeding squirrels in Colorado:  Jon Marc Barbour, 59, of the Colorado town of Gunbarrel (no irony there, I'm sure), liked to feed neighborhood squirrels with lots and lots of peanuts, despite protests from neighbors.  When another neighbor argued with him about it, then got into a fight, Barbour pulled out his gun and shot the neighbor in the buttocks.
• Throwing eggs in Oregon:  68-year old William Dean Thomas' house had just been "egged."  He was outside his house, cleaning it up, when the egg throwers showed up again, throwing eggs at him from their car.  Angry, Thomas pulled out his handgun and opened fire on them. Luckily he missed.
• Reserved seating in a church in Pennsylvania:  Robert Braxton III, 27, was in Sunday church services and sat down in a pew spot that had been reserved for someone else. When he was told the seat was reserved, he became angry, but was cooling off after talking to an usher. That's when conceal carry permit holder Mark Storms, 46, approached Braxton and told him to leave, warning him that he had a gun. An argument ensued, and Braxton took a swing at Storms.  Storms responded by pulling out his gun and shooting Braxton twice, killing him.
• Argument over a cheeseburger in Florida:  25-year-old Benjamin Middendorf got angry with his 28-year old brother over whether or not he wanted a cheeseburger.  Benjamin then pulled out his gun and shot his brother in the chest, killing him.
• Argument over a parking spot at a school in Ohio:  Two men wanted to park in the same parking spot, in the parking lot of Medina High School, with their kids in the car with them.  That's when one of the dads pulled out a gun and threatened the other father with it.
• Daughters wouldn't leave their home in Oregon:  54-year-old Lynn Hakala decided that her two 18-year old daughters should leave the home where she lived with them. When they refused, she pulled out a gun and fired it.  Luckily, they weren't hit.
• Decided to play "hero" and shoot at unarmed shoplifter in Arizona:  25-year old John Haag witnessed a man running from a Walgreens store and realized he was a shoplifter. He then pulled out a concealed handgun, for which he had a permit, and a car chase ensued, during which Haag shot at the unarmed shoplifter, then bragged about it on Facebook.
• Pulling a gun on fighting teen on school campus in Mississippi:  38-year old Shawana Smith was at her son's high school when her son and another boy started fist-fighting. Even though guns weren't allowed on school campuses there, she pulled out her gun and threatened the other boy with it.  Luckily the act was caught on video and she was arrested.
• Road rage between truckers in Florida:  Truck driver George Guerrero had pulled out of a construction zone and changed lanes, apparently infuriating another trucker, who then tailgated Guerrero and then bumped Guerrero's truck, causing him to veer off the road.  The angry driver then shot at Guerrero, killing him.  The suspect has not been found.

These incidents are the result of allowing anyone to purchase and own a gun with no training whatsoever, including training on the appropriateness of a situation or the heavy responsibilities of gun ownership, and no regard whatsoever for the temperament of the buyer.  As a result, simple disputes over trivial reasons turn deadly.

Update (5/15/16):  A late addition from today's news:  

--> Cutting in line for the taco truck in Texas:  39-year-old Rigoberto Jose Castillo was standing in line at a taco truck at 2AM when a group of people cut in line.  A fist fight erupted.  That's when one of the group, went to his vehicle, retrieved a loaded handgun, and fired into the line, killing Castillo.  He then tried to shoot a witness, but the gun jammed.  Then he fled the scene.

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Shootings Over Trivial Reasons - Happens Every Day

The NRA and other gun lobbies have stated implicitly that gun owners are upstanding and respectable people, and greatly downplay any shootings other than those committed by violent criminals or gang members.  As Wayne LaPierre famously said, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Unfortunately, those “good guys with a gun” are responsible for a great many shootings, either out of anger, or due to accidents (like this guy who killed a child because he used his assault rifle as a “crutch”), or because they left their guns where others, like children, could get to them.  We post on these incidents with children every day over at the Kid Shootings blog.  Even people with conceal carry permits, who are raised on a pedestal by the gun lobby as supposedly well-trained and safe enough to be vigilante guards of our children in schools, are responsible for many murders.

But almost as stupid as leaving guns where kids can access them is when supposedly law-abiding gun owners get angry and shoot over trivial things. 

Consider these recent cases:

• Shot to death over urination:  48-year old Paul Dart, Jr., and his family were rafting along the Meramec River in Crawford County, Missouri, when they needed to pull over to  gravel bar to urinate and rest.  That’s when the man who owned the shoreline, 59-year old James Crocker, came running up, angry about them urinating on his property (even though he doesn’t actually own the gravel bar or water way) and yelling at them to leave.  An argument ensued.  Crocker fired a shot in the ground and another in the air, and when Dart tried to calm the situation, Crocker shot him in the face, right in front of Dart’s wife and relatives.  Dart quickly died from the wound.  "It's my property, and I was going to protect it," Crocker told the cops. 
• Shot at for turning around in a driveway:  A couple and their five children were taking a scenic drive in rural, Hawkins County, Virginia.  They got a little bit lost, hoping to find a backroads cutoff to their destination, and wound up on a narrow dirt road.  When the road ran out, they realized they had to turn around, but the road was so narrow that they had to back up into a driveway.  That’s when an elderly woman on the porch of a home there, Margie Rhea Ramey, opened fire with her .22 rifle, hitting the vehicle.  “I hadn’t even begun to turn my wheels to pull in her driveway,” the father said. “I just put my vehicle in reverse, and just as quickly as I put it in reverse I heard her hollering and my little boy said, ‘does she got a gun’. About that time she started shooting.”  Luckily, no one was injured.
• Shot to death over a cell phone:  19-year old Geovany Ponce-Reyes was waiting to play basketball at a park in Conroe, Texas, when another 19-year old, Jerome Faggin, tried to steal Geovany’s cell phone.  Geovany put up a fight, so Faggin pulled out a gun and shot him dead, then fled the scene.
• Attempted murder/ suicide of children due to denial of food stamps:  38-year old Rachelle Grimmer had recently moved to San Antonio, Texas, but had been denied food stamps. So she went to the local welfare office with her two children, a boy and a girl, 10-year old Timothy and 12-year old Ramie. She started arguing with the welfare worker, then pulled out a gun.  A standoff ensued, but then Grimmer shot her two children and then herself.  She died at the scene.  The two children are in “very critical” condition and unconscious.
• Shot to death about a fence:  71-year old Roy Sewell was mowing his lawn in Northport, Alabama, when he got into an argument with his 33-year old neighbor, about the chain-link fence that separates their properties.  Both men were armed.  The argument escalated, and the 33-year old neighbor shot Sewell to death.  Both men had fired their weapons.
• Shot to death over a fenderbender:  One hour before his 23^rd birthday, recent college graduate Aya Nakano was driving in Oakland, California, on his way home after playing basketball, when he was hit from behind.  He pulled over to the side of the road to exchange insurance information, but the driver of the other car pulled out a gun and shot Aya to death, then fled.
• Shot over a television:  17-year old Stephen Brian Raybon II and 21-year old William Christopher Dowling were at a home in Grand Cane, Louisiana, when they got into an argument over a TV.  Dowling then removed himself from the argument and went to sit on the back porch, but Raybon grabbed a .40-caliber gun from a gun cabinet in the home and shot Dowling in the chest.  Dowling is now in critical condition.

Notice that not one of these cases involved drugs, drug dealers, or, apparently, hardened criminals.  Gee, none of these were “good guys” shooting “bad guys,” either.

These are just a handful of stories I’ve heard in just the last day, without even trying to search.  There’s no shortage of such stories, of people shooting and killing each other over the stupidest of reasons.

Certainly, most gun owners are responsible people.  And yet, in nearly every gun purchase, you don’t need a shred of safety or proficiency training to purchase a gun for home use, and little if any for conceal carry, either, in most states.  And if a person is known to be mentally unstable or violent, yet hasn’t yet been adjudicated as mentally ill or arrested for a felony, then in most cases they can own as many guns as they want, no matter how much their neighbors and family fear them.

Until we change this, we can expect more and more of these murders over stupid things to continue.

Should we blame shooting victims for wearing hoodies?

Trayvon Martin's hoodie, after evidence collection

Geraldo Rivera became notorious for blaming teen shooting victim, Trayvon Martin, for wearing the wrong clothing, saying that the hoodie he was wearing was what led George Zimmerman to stalk and shoot to death the unarmed boy.  Said Rivera, "I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was"

He now repeats the accusation, saying that he was right about the shooting, and that Trayvon was shot because he wore "thug wear," according to an article:

I was right about the hoodie, wasn't I? I hate to brag, but I got criticized by every pundit in America when I said that Trayvon Martin would be alive today but for the fact that he was wearing thug wear. He was wearing the hoodie.

This came up during an interview about the recent surge in Chicago shootings, wherein Rivera also criticizes black leaders for paying too much attention to the Trayvon Martin shooting and not enough attention to the Chicago shootings.

What do you think?  Should a shooting victim be blamed for the shooting because they wore the wrong clothes?

Of course not.  This argument is analogous to blaming rape victims for wearing revealing clothing.  It doesn't matter whether the shooting victims wear hoodies or khakis, black leather and chains or choir boy robes, the clothing doesn't make the victim.  It's solely the responsibility of the shooter.  And Rivera's statements are shameful and apologetic to murderers.

(image of Trayvon's hoodie taken from HERE)