Shooting at funeral in Pittsburgh strikes near home

[Mark Walberg]

I read about the shooting at the funeral in Pittsburgh yesterday.
I was amazed to see that it occurred half a block where I lived as a child, and only 2 doors away from where my dad went to work every day for many decades.
It used to be a quiet neighborhood.

So many shootings in the US. Obviously a big problem.
We need to be taking this more seriously.
We need to work on ways to reduce the use of terror.

No, I don't have the answers. I wish I did. But, I will be thinking about it and doing what I can.

[htwoopup]

If you take crimes with guns out of the statistics, crime is way down.

Crime is only up statistically over the last several decades if you include crimes that involve a gun. And then it is up a lot. When you look at crimes with a gun only it is crazy percentages.

If you look at “red” states where gun laws have been loosened, crime is way up. Far more than in states where gun laws have NOT been relaxed.

I know I am a one trick pony who is oft times too shrill about the subject.

But then again, my best friend was killed while making a call at a payphone 31 years ago by a gun that was illegal in NYC but purchased legally in another state and transported to NYC.

[rwsaunders]

I’m halfway through the book..The Last Days of John Lennon…and according to the author, Lennon didn’t fear visiting the US when the Beatles started their US tour, but he feared being shot.

[beeatnik]

My dad was stabbed to death by two adolescent neighbors in the early 80’s. First murder in the history of a small Central California agri-business town. If those kids had chosen to target him with a gun, I think there would have a been a reasonable chance that he’d survive. What’s my point? I don’t know…

If you take crimes with guns out of the statistics, crime is way down.

Crime is only up statistically over the last several decades if you include crimes that involve a gun. And then it is up a lot. When you look at crimes with a gun only it is crazy percentages.

If you look at “red” states where gun laws have been loosened, crime is way up. Far more than in states where gun laws have NOT been relaxed.

I know I am a one trick pony who is oft times too shrill about the subject.

But then again, my best friend was killed while making a call at a payphone 31 years ago by a gun that was illegal in NYC but purchased legally in another state and transported to NYC.

[j44ke]

Work colleague of mine was shot to death at point blank range by a drug runner who wanted a particular North Face parka. If he had just taken the jacket, the store had a no chase rule because of all the gun violence associated with crack sales that were in Washington DC at the time. Instead, he walked up to the register, shot my colleague in the chest and took the jacket.

There isn't any sense in these things.

[rwsaunders]

I read about the shooting at the funeral in Pittsburgh yesterday.
I was amazed to see that it occurred half a block where I lived as a child, and only 2 doors away from where my dad went to work every day for many decades.
It used to be a quiet neighborhood.

So many shootings in the US. Obviously a big problem.
We need to be taking this more seriously.
We need to work on ways to reduce the use of terror.

No, I don't have the answers. I wish I did. But, I will be thinking about it and doing what I can.

They captured the perps and found the weapon…a 16yo and a 19yo who fired the shots during the funeral of a 20yo man, who was one of three people shot and killed over the weekend.

[mjbabcock]

“We're not the cause, we're the effect.”
~Nipsey Hussle

When you allow hundreds of thousands of youth to know nothing more than poverty, addiction, and violence…you’re going to get more of the same. We’ve seen the accumulation of inter-generational trauma spiral into desperate situations in lots of other countries, and we’re not doing much to change our trajectory.

We know what people/children need…and that investment would be needed for a generation or two. I’m guessing we go the other direction, militarize, and end up similar to Brazil or South Africa in a few generations.