Well, if the murderer was a Muslim, no doubt that would be the headline in most newspapers for this story. However, since the killer is a allegedly a mild mannered Christian church goer who was apparently a wonderful human being until now, the fact that he shot 2 policeman and 3 city officials, is merely an “act of God” which no one could have predicted or prevented.
Five people were fatally shot and two others wounded on Thursday evening by a man who opened fire as a City Council meeting began in Kirkwood, Mo., a generally placid suburb of St. Louis, the authorities there said. The gunman was shot to death by police. […]
Witnesses told of chaotic scene in Kirkwood, a middle class community of about 27,000 people with a main street lined with shops and restaurants and many grand homes. As officers from departments from suburbs throughout the region swarmed into Kirkwood, many residents expressed disbelief and anger that such a thing could happen in there. […]
The authorities did not identify the gunman, but The Post-Dispatch reporter and other witnesses identified him as Charles Lee Thornton, an independent contractor known as Cookie. Mr. Thornton was said to have often come to council meetings and to have had repeated disagreements with Kirkwood officials.
“He came from the back of the room,” Janet McNichols, the correspondent, told The Post-Dispatch. “He kept saying something about, ‘Shoot the mayor,’ and he just walked around shooting anybody he could.” […]
In late January, a federal judge tossed out at a lawsuit Mr. Thornton had filed against Kirkwood and its officials. He contended that they had violated his free speech rights by prohibiting him from speaking out at meetings. […]
She said she never suspected that her son would be violent but described the events as “an act of God, just like a storm or a tornado.”
Mr. Thornton’s sister-in-law, Doreen Thornton, said he had had a 17-year-old daughter and said she could not understand what had happened.
“Cookie never got mad,” Ms. Thornton said. “He was a people person. Cookie was known through his church to be a No. 1 kind of man.”
The other day in testimony before Congress, top intelligence officials in the Bush administration continued to warn of Al Qaida terrorists coming to America to kill us all in our beds, a message the Bush administration has continually promoted over the past 6 and a half years. Yet, every year we witness on television reports of lone gunmen who kill innocent civilians at schools, malls and other public places with weapons which are easily obtainable and readily available in this country.
Yet no one, and certainly no politician, ever says a word about the risk of gun violence which we as Americans face every day of our lives. On our streets, at our schools, our shopping malls, our places of business. Over the last year we have had a number of such incidents, including, but not limited to, the following incidents:
February 2, 2008: Lone gunman murders 5 women execution style at Chicago area strip mall.
December 10, 2007: Lone gunman murders four people in two separate incidents at a Colorado mega-church and at a training center for Christian missionaries.
December 6, 2007: Lone gunman murders 8 people at Omaha, Nebraska Mall.
December 5, 2007: Lone gunman shoots woman in robbery attempt at Newport News, Va. area mall.
November 27, 2007: Lone gunman kills girlfriend and self at Houston area mall.
October 10, 2007: Student gunman shoots 4 people at Cleveland high school, then kills himself.
October 5, 2007: Lone gunman murders 2 people and wounds 3 others at Alexandria, La. law firm.
April 30, 2007: Lone gunman kills 2 people at Kansas City area mall.
April 10, 2007: Lone gunman murders 32 people at Virginia Tech University, the single deadliest school shooting in US history.
April 9, 2007: Lone gunman kills one person and wounds others in shooting at MI office building.
March 7, 2007: Gunman shoots estranged girlfriend, then kills self at Midland, MI high school.
February 12, 2007: Lone gunman murders 5 people at Salt Lake City Mall.
This is just a very small sample of the many “random” acts of gun violence in the United States over the past year. I could have spent all day tracking down stories about other shooting incidents such as these, had I the time. And I didn’t even bother looking for stories of drive-by shootings or other murders related to inner city gang violence which is endemic in most of our major cities. A catalog of all those incidents for the past year would take weeks, if not months.
Yet, no one ever talks about the violence and the deaths which are actually happening here in America because of our addiction to guns, and laws which make them easily available to just about anyone. Instead, we are consumed with stories in the national media about Islamic extremist terrorists who are coming to kill us — someday, real soon — if we don’t support our President and our troops. Well, maybe someday we will have another terrorist attack by Islamic based extremists, but everyday we live under the real threat that we could be gunned down in our own cities and towns by our fellow citizens who own guns. People you may know, or total strangers. So I have to ask you, which do you believe is the greater danger to you, your family and your friends, right now, today? Islamofascist terrorists or your fellow gun loving Americans?
Something to think about.