This time the carnage is outside the Empire State Building. The shooter has been identified as Jeffrey Johnson, 53. News stories report variously that Mr. Johnson was fired or laid off from his job either last week or last year, and he stalked and killed someone who was either his former boss or some other former co-worker.
The shooting took place this morning on the streets in the 5th Avenue/34th Street area, which means hundreds of people easily were within range of the shooter’s gun, said to be a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun.
A construction worker alerted the NYPD, who seem to have arrived almost immediately. The cops and the shooter exchanged fire, and the shooter was killed. At least nine other people in the vincinity were wounded, but it sounds as if none of the wounds are life-threatening. It’s possible some of the wounds were from police bullets. It would be nearly impossible to fire a gun in that area and not hit somebody.
It’s a near certainty the shooter was carrying the gun illegally and probably bought it illegally as well. I’m interested in where he got it. I understand most of the illegal guns in New York City are bought legally in the South, usually Virginia, and then sold on the black market in NYC.
The New York Times is saying that Mr. Johnson had no criminal record, which makes him a law-abiding citizen. Well, until this morning.
I GUARANTEE this will be the NRA’s take on this:
Well, we can see from this incident how ineffective gun control laws really are.
NY state and NY City have some of the toughest gun control laws in the country – and still this happened.
If MORE people in NY City had guns, this person might have been stopped before he killed others.
And this proves once again, that gun control laws are useless, because (everyone say it with us): ‘Guns don’t kill people – people kill people!’
Amen.
_______________
May I suggest that the NRA needs an anthem.
How about, “Another One Bites the Dust”?
Also too:
When will it NOT be “too soon to talk about gun control,” if there’s never enough time from one incident to another, for people to recover “their senses?”
And I’m talking about the high profile killings!
The average city gang violence, or suburban/rural dispute between neighbors, and accidental shootings of family members/friends, including young children, no longer even get any notice on TV, and now only appear in the local papers next to the Labor Day sales ads on page A9, or B6 – unless your town is tiny, that is.
Sh*t, I hate to say this, but if this happened in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, or Staten Island, or even Jersey or Union City, far from the media people who only feel something when it might affect them or their family/friends, this would be no big deal. A local story on the local TV news, to be covered after the national news, and before the loud sports guy/gal, and the outgoing weather person who can look concerned on cue.
What?
Oh, really?
THAT’S the NRA’s plan?
Well, kudo’s – it’s working nicely. For them…
OT, On CNN, saw a headline: “Romney and Obama in statistical dead heat”, and I can’t believe it.
Have been thinking about the endless stream of lies put forth by the Romney machine. It’s extraodinary, concerted, and beyond anything I’ve experienced, even during the Bush years.
Krugman, in Professional Malpractice by GOP economists cites blatant lies made by GOP economists – they cite work by other well known economists to support their arguments, when their work does no such thing. The people whose work they cite complain about it.
Saw a Tom Tomorrow cartoon showing the ghosts of Ayn Rand and Thomas Aquinas shadowing Paul Ryan around. Aquinas is saying “You know nothing of my work”. Obviously someone told him to drop the Ayn Rand and do some Catholic name dropping.
Robert Reich writes briefly about this, in Romney’s Lying Machine, but it’s so concerted, so systematic, and so unabashed that it’s worth a minor book length treatment. They do it, because it works. Those who fact check don’t get any airtime, and the public doesn’t care anyway. Effect: Statistical dead heat between Obama and Romney.
At least it’ll soon be back to the regular NRA mass-shooting nonsense. This morning on NPR Steve Inskeep almost sounded disappointed when their man-on-the-scene suggested that it was most likely a guy angry about being fired from his job, and not terrorism.
Sorry, Steve, there’s violence in the Big Apple, even some near famous landmarks, that has absolutely nothing to do with terrorists or politics.
9 people wounded, and the guy fired exactly one shot, to kill the guy he was pissed at.
9 bystanders hit by trained professionals firing at someone who may have been waving a gun around but who was NOT firing at them (looks like “suicide by police”).
“Must Issue” (concealed carry permits) is one of the stupidest concepts I have ever heard, and I’ve watched Republicans all my life!
I had thought the shooter guy fired at the police. Well, whatever. This illustrates why people who live in cities tend to be way less enthusiastic about whatever the NRA is selling.
WAAAAAY OT – but I think we could all use some laughs. If you haven’s been to this site, it’s great -” Yiddish Curses For Republican Jews” -maybe a look you should take:
http://www.yiddishcursesforrepublicanjews.com/#
I have one of my own, but they want you to subsribe to F*cebook, and I don’t so social media. When they have misanthropic media, THAT I might do.
This, my curse would be:
May your son the Doctor, a delegate from your state to the Republican National Convention, call from Tampa and tell you that he’s finally engaged to be married – to a tranny stripper named “Push-me/Pull-you,” just as soon as the hormone treatments are finished and she changes her name to Richard, but you can call him Dick.