Two dead, one of them the gunman, and nine wounded at the Empire State Building. The wounded may have been hit by accident in the crossfire rather than specifically targeted and some may have been shot in that crossfire by the police rather than the gunman. The gunman used a rifle or shotgun rather than extended-clip handgun or semi-automatic assault weapon.
There’s so much about this shooting that says it wouldn’t have made the national news if it hadn’t been at such a landmark address; if it had happened in the slums behind the downtown of several big cities it might not even have made state-wide news – shootings just like this are just that common in the U.S.
That they are so common, though, shouldn’t be a reason to say “meh” and turn away. That the grind of non-headline gun murders is so huge should be an even greater spur to action, to making it gradually more difficult for people to kill other people by starting the process of decommissioning the vast American gun stockpile. Sure, knives can be used to kill people too – but it takes far more of what most people don’t have to use physical effort to kill a person up close than it does to point a bit of metal and go “bang”.
but there’s only so much emotional energy in a person, and since both political parties have made it clear that they are going to pander to the gun lobby, perhaps I should be investing what little energy is left to me in fighting the drones, the endless wars, the proposals to end Medicare, the crushing inequality, the subsidies to bankers, and other issues that are at least somewhat susceptible to my personal political action.
to mass shootings. While the perp might well have shot at the cops (or anyone trying to stop/detain him), there is no indication that he intended a mass shooting.
For those who believe an armed citizenry is a defense against others, consider that all victims except the shooter’s original target were shot by the police, who are presumably better trained than the average citizen and more likely to be ‘on the lookout’ for trouble.
Had the original victim been armed, he might or might not have been able to defend himself, but from what I read, the shooter ambushed him.
Poetry is the only way we can talk about what is beyond language.