I’m at once stunned and not surprised–mostly because this world is so totally fucked up.
Last night, in South Carolina, a twelve year old boy was killed, and his father and one of his three brothers injured, while trick-or-treating on their way back home after participating in a bigger Hallowe’en event downtown.
My heart goes out to this family.
This is just fucked up, period.
Edited to add: The 22 year old man who killed this innocent child is an ex-convict who, fearing his house was being robbed (after a knock on the front door–pardon me while I WTF all over the place), emptied his assault riffle through the front door and windows and walls.
Ex-convict.
Assault riffle.
Fucked the hell up.
delta dupree
November 1
9:22 pm
Absolutely horrifying. I’m speechless, but you’re right about how the world’s completely jacked.
Anon76
November 1
10:14 pm
You said it all:
“This is just fucked up, period.”
Jenn
November 2
12:46 am
I just read this article and my heart breaks for that entire family. It’s amazing to me how the innocent experiences of our youth are so easily detroyed.
I can’t imagine the motive for this crime, but I am sure it will only make this senseless death even more heinous.
It’s just so darn sad.
Anya
November 2
12:49 am
I didn’t know who had done it, but had heard the report last night not thirty minutes after taking my children out trick or treating. It made me physically sick to my stomach; that child was the same age as my youngest daughter. I wish I could be shocked, but the world is getting meaner by the day.
Lynne
November 2
2:06 am
I just couldn’t believe that. Do robbers usually knock? The guy must’ve been totally tweaked out on meth or something.
AztecLady
November 2
2:09 am
Lynne, I wonder if he thought it was the police and was trying to give the gf time to run–with some heavy duty cash bundle–out the back.
It’s just beyond WTF.
I repeat: ex-convict + assault riffle.
Huh?
kate r
November 2
2:26 am
okay that’s one fucked up guy. But here’s one fucked up society: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/01/world/main4562850.shtml
I’m all for being tolerant of other society’s norms, but the more I’ve learned about Somalia from that country’s refugees, the more I want some of those men washed off the face of the earth.
Peggy P
November 2
3:18 am
Yes, this is fucked up but here in the US of A anyone can buy a gun or assault weapon anytime and every idiot has one. I’m sitting on my deck the other day and my “neighbor” is shooting at rabbits in his garden…it sounds like a gang war is going on and I live in the suburbs. When I call the police to report all this shooting they tell me if he’s shooting at “varmints” (their words) then there is nothing I can do. Really? I live in goddamn Ohio (outside of Cleveland) not the wild West of the 1800’s. But it’s everyone’s right here to own a gun and apparently using it at just about anytime is OK, hence the shootings at malls and colleges – we’re all just target practice most days. Do you think we could charge more for ammunition at least…nah, it’s on sale at the local Walmart. It’s cheaper than most groceries to buy a gun and ammo – so what can you expect? Just more sad stories, over and over and the gun laws never change. Yeah, we would hate to trample on anyone’s rights…to kill the innocent, that is.
Teddypig
November 2
3:58 am
You know if guns cost as much to own as a car and required the proper licensing and actual proof you can use one before getting the license this would not happen.
Teddypig
November 2
4:01 am
OK OK… Well, it still might happen but probably a whole bunch less.
I worked on a nuclear powered and nuclear armed submarine in the Navy and had the right to kill anyone who attempted to come on board without proper permission. You now how much training I had to go through? Even my ammo count was checked after every watch.
We sell these fucking guns like candy to idiots everyday.
AztecLady
November 2
4:01 am
Yeah, Teddypig, and if such measures were implemented, the screams about “violating” people’s right to bear arms would be heard past Pluto.
Who cares about the potential lives saved? /sarcasm
Shiloh Walker
November 2
4:08 am
Oh, God. Now that is just sickening.
The thing about gun control, though, the people who SHOULDN’T have them would find a way.
I mean, aren’t ex-cons forbidden from owning weapons?
AztecLady
November 2
4:19 am
Shiloh, that’s exactly my point!
Shiloh Walker
November 2
4:26 am
But most of the people who claim the right to bear arms aren’t ex-cons. A decent amount of them are just decent, hardworking people who like hunting or collecting weapons.
So the loops that would be put in place to make owning a gun harder would mostly just affect those who aren’t likely to do something so dangerous and devastating.
It’s the cruel bastards in the world who need to have it harder, but since they don’t care about laws, they get them anyway. 🙁
shirley
November 2
5:17 am
Here, here, Shiloh. Criminals don’t follow the rules of the law. Law abiding citizens do. The only thing so-called gun control controls is the ability of law abiding citizens to have access to guns. It doesn’t even slow criminals down. Not for a second, not for one minute. And black market guns are much more expensive than getting one legally, so the idea that a steep price would slow criminals is ridiculous. They get the money and they get the guns.
Well, this granny has one too and I’ll give it up when it’s pried out of my cold, dead fingers.
Teddypig
November 2
12:06 pm
Criminals don’t follow the rules of the law. Law abiding citizens do. The only thing so-called gun control controls is the ability of law abiding citizens to have access to guns. It doesn’t even slow criminals down.
Totally correct, the same is obvious about prostitution and drugs. But… we as a society feel that in the case of prostitution and drugs your arguments are ignored and they remain unreasonably criminalized, so why not add guns to that list?
The point is even though I am highly trained to use guns I still keep them out of my house. Stats do show gun fatalities from suicide and domestic violence and accidental death go way up when having them close at hand.
Hell, I caught my father who is a gun nut with a loaded fully automatic gun in full view under his bed with a 5 year old wandering the house. I read him the riot act on that one. Sure he has a gun locker but he never uses it saying what would happen if someone tried to rob him in the middle of the night etc etc etc.
I told him flat out. I would rather his idiotic ass get killed than there be an accident with one of the kids and his poorly kept gun collection.
Tuscan Capo
November 2
5:49 pm
Teddypig, maybe you could try buying your dad a gun cabinet as an early Christmas gift? One with a working lock & key. If he complains, hint strongly that any cop coming into the house would then have no reason to confiscate his weapon.
About the right to own guns, I do believe in the right of citizens to bear arms if they are mentally stable. I also feel the US justice system needs an overhaul of priorities. Ex-felons convicted of violent crimes and people proved to have aggression problems or mind-altering drug addictions shouldn’t be allowed to buy guns. And people making a profit from selling weapons to these individuals should face mandatory lengthy prison terms. Children shouldn’t be dying because the laws are more sympathetic to NRA zealots than to common sense.
Issendai
November 2
7:33 pm
What sickens me the most about this incident is the family members trying to pass it off as a “tragic accident” because the shooter has PTSD from a previous burglary. An ACCIDENT? The guy ACCIDENTALLY emptied his AK-47 through the door and wall of his house because a trick-or-treater knocked? I have sympathy for people with PTSD, but there’s no earthly way the most damaged person could “accidentally” get out a gun, load it, unlock the safety, and empty it. That shows a certain amount of premeditation.
Jenns
November 2
8:00 pm
Jenn, you so beautifully verbalized what I also was thinking, I can’t hope to add anything.
Tuscan Capo, I totally agree with you.
I saw a report on the news yesterday about a child here in southern Cal being killed by a gun shot wound while trick-or-treating.
While trick-or-treating.
This is just so beyond wrong. There aren’t words sometimes.
Teddypig
November 2
9:09 pm
Teddypig, maybe you could try buying your dad a gun cabinet as an early Christmas gift? One with a working lock & key. If he complains, hint strongly that any cop coming into the house would then have no reason to confiscate his weapon.
He already has one. He just thinks common sense and gun safety is for liberals. Honestly, he really has no respect for them as deadly weapons. I tried to tell him he should put the damn guns in the cabinet and a metal baseball bat under the bed. But he won’t listen.
So I just make sure all my family knows what he has and why they need to keep an eye on their kids at all times and not leave them alone in that house.
Lleeo
November 2
11:40 pm
🙁 That is so tragic. And I agree with the people above me, it’s sad how easy it is for the bad guys to access guns in America.
shirley
November 4
9:06 pm
Boy howdy, Teddy, you aren’t gonna sway me with that, LOL *grin*! I personally think prostitution and drugs should both be legal and run by the state/federal government. Think of all the money we could bring in, and how much safer these things would be, if we legalized the erroneously declared ‘criminal’ acts. Man, we wouldn’t need taxes and I’m dead serious.