June 24-25, 2017: Stories of Gun Tragedies Are Common in America

 

6/24/17: A Pew Research Center survey finds 44% of Americans say they know someone who has been shot, accidentally or intentionally. For gun owners the figure is higher (51%), vs. non-gun owners (40%). This difference may have something to do with the fact 30% of gun owners admit they have “a gun that is both loaded and easily accessible to [children] all of the time when they’re at home.” 

According to USA Today, in one year, 141 minors are killed in accidental shootings in this country. 

Researchers find 84% of Americans support background checks on private gun sales. Three fourths of non-gun owners favor banning private ownership of assault rifles and high capacity magazines. A little less than half of gun owners agree. 

Studies repeatedly show much greater rates of gun-related deaths in the United States, compared to other advanced nations. According to researchers at the American Journal of Medicine the rate is ten times higher. Overall, results show that the U.S., which has the most firearms per capita in the world, suffers disproportionately compared with other high-income countries. 

These figures are consistent with the hypothesis that our firearms are killing us rather than protecting us. (See July 1, 2017.)

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6/25/17: According to the Gun Violence Archive, from 2014 to 2016, the number of road rage incidents in the U.S. more than doubled. During that span 354 drivers or passengers were wounded and 136 killed. 

This would mean more Americans died at the hands of other, armed drivers than at the hands of terrorists during that span. 

June finds Congress hard at work on “Kate’s Law,” named in honor of Kate Steinle, a young white woman tragically killed by an illegal immigrant in 2015. On Fox News her story gets wall-to-wall coverage. Bill O’Reilly devotes part of ten shows to the story and might have devoted more, save for the fact he got fired for sexually harassing co-workers. Ann Coulter joins the fray. So do Charles Krauthammer, Jesse Waters and Megyn Kelly (when not fending off O’Reilly).

 

All good people feel sympathy for the suffering family of Kate Steinle. But it might be nice if the talking heads at Fox cared about Philando Castile, or all the children who die from accidental gunshots annually, or drivers and passengers slaughtered during incidents of road rage.

Kate Steinle, second from left.

December 3, 2017: President Trump Describes the U.S. Judicial System as a "Laughingstock."

 

12/3/17: Speaking of courts, that pesky third branch of government, Trump is on the rampage again. 

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He wants the courts to make decisions that conform with his furies.

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A jury in San Francisco has listened to evidence in the case of Jose Ines Garcia Zarote and deliberated for six days. Zarote, an illegal immigrant, shot and killed Kate Steinle, an innocent bystander on a city pier. That made him a poster boy for Candidate/President Trump, who used the case to prove we needed a giant border wall and a moat filled with piranhas to protect ourselves from “rapists” (but not Judge Moore) and “murderers” (but not Vladimir Putin). 

The death of this young lady is a tragedy. Still, the case for murder is weak. Zarote did fire a gun, and as a felon should not have had one in his possession. The bullet hit the pavement and struck Steinle, eighty feet away, on a ricochet. This does not mean Zarote is not vile. This does not mean the Steinle family did not suffer irredeamable loss. It does mean Zarote could not be found guilty of murder, since there was no intent. 

Unfortunately, the president has no regard for the rule of law. He wants the courts to make decisions that conform with his furies. Referring to a recent terror attack in New York City, he weighed in on what must be done to protect all Americans (not including those who might hope to be protected by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments). Trump insisted our court system, as it stands, is a “laughingstock and a disaster.” What we needed, he fumed, was “punishment that’s far quicker and far greater [emphasis added] than the punishment these animals are getting right now.” 

(See: 3/27/18, for examples of how swift justice could and often does go wrong.) 

 

POSTSCRIPT: When Trump is greeted with a storm of criticism for yet another attack on the judicial system, Pinocchio Sanders has to stand in front of the press and insist the words that everyone heard coming out of President Trump’s mouth did not come out of his actual mouth. 

Apparently, a ventriloquist was involved.

Sanders is lying.