A growing number of ‘wrong address shootings’ has Americans on edge and gun control advocates shouting “See, I told ya so!”
Current Events :
A 20-year-old woman in upstate New York, Kaylin Gillis, was shot and killed after she and her friends attempted to turn their car around in a private driveway. Two cheerleaders in Texas were shot after one got into the wrong car in a dark parking lot. Cesar Montelongo, a maintenance man in North Carolina, was shot and killed after arriving at a home to fix the damage from a leak. A teenager in Georgia was shot while looking for his girlfriend’s apartment. A Tennessee man was charged with brandishing a handgun after he fired at 2 cable-company employees who mistakenly crossed onto his land. A Virginia man shot at 3 lost teen siblings who accidentally pulled onto his property. In Kansas City, MO, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot multiple times in the head after he went to the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers.
These and other examples of recent gun violence are being referred to as ‘wrong address shootings’ and they’ve gotten out of hand. Or, to put it bluntly, innocent mistakes have prompted angry, paranoid, and sometimes racist gun owners to act as if they’re living in the Wild, Wild, West.
“It’s shoot first, ask questions later,” said Justin Diepenbrock of Polk County, FL, where a father and son opened fire on a woman they thought was a burglar but was merely parking her car after a late work shift. His words underscore a segment of Americans who are quick to reach for a gun over calm and common sense.
“The gun lobby markets firearms as something you need to defend yourself,” said Jonathan Lowy, a lawyer, and gun-violence activist who has sued gun manufacturers on behalf of the victims of mass shootings and their families.
He may have a valid point.
Klint Ludwig, the grandson of the elderly man who shot Ralph Yarl, told CNN his grandpa was frequently hyped up on Fox News conspiracies and owned multiple guns out of fear that someone was coming to get him. Additionally, white supremacists have stocked up on guns for an all-out race war they are convinced is coming.
Sadly, this new practice of wrong address shootings is bad news for girl scouts selling cookies door-to-door, school children selling candy bars for their band camp, a person seeking help due to a medical or criminal emergency, or just an average citizen who has simply lost their way or stumbled upon the wrong house.
So, where does it end? Is it no longer possible to knock on a neighbor’s door without the risk of being shot and killed? Will these “Shoot First And Ask Questions Later” nutjobs be allowed to continue to raise gun violence rates? Or, is it time for real gun control legislation and laws that prevent senseless wrong address shootings?
OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
It’s time to address wrong address shootings.
It has gotten so bad you cannot turn your car around using somebodys driveway anymore. Something has to change with all these guns. The rest of the world is disgusted by us shooting all the time.