The Brooklyn Subway Shootings: ‘Just Another Day in America’

The shootings at a subway station in Brooklyn on Tuesday injured 29 people. We all heard about this avoidable tragedy because of where it happened and the circumstances involved. However, I believe it was “just another day in America.” With more mass shootings than days on the calendar over the last three years, this has become “normal.” They happen so frequently that many are not reported in the national newspapers or television “news.”

The assailant entered the subway platform and ignited what was reported as two improvised smoke grenades, then began shooting. The authorities later revealed that he fired 33 rounds. Miraculously, no one has died as I write this story.

“The truth lives here,” and several facts continue to be ignored by our incompetent government.

The United States is the only nation with a serious gun problem. The laws controlling gun purchases and gun sales are weak, and virtually anyone living in America can purchase any type of weapon he or she might desire.

Ten percent of the American people own 90 percent of all guns registered in our country. New Zealand and Australia have laws restricting gun ownership and sales passed after mass shootings. More than 33,000 Americans die from the discharge of a weapon of mass destruction each year: most are women and children. Although there are no exact records, it is estimated that more than 200 children die or are involved in the deaths of other children or adults each year after gaining access to a loaded gun.

Courtesy of Ed Kohler (Flickr CC0)

Domestic violence and domestic white terrorism have been confirmed as the greatest danger to the American people. Most deaths from gunshots were caused by someone familiar to the victims. A “mass shooting” is generally defined as the injury or death of four or more individuals during a single incident involving the use of a gun.

I join others who suggest that the Second Amendment be subjected to close scrutiny and alteration. It is ambiguous and appears to be focused on the establishment of a militia. It does not apply to anything involved in gun violence in the 21st century.

While right-wing politicians attempt to invalidate the First, Fourth, and 14th Amendments, the logical focus of our Supreme Court should be involved with the Second Amendment. Thousands of innocent Americans are murdered each year, and the excuses from right-wing politicians and the gun lobby, the NRA, are nothing more than bulls**t.

It is no longer safe to leave your home in the United States of America. If you attend a concert or a movie, if you go out to dinner or a bar, if you go to a shopping mall or a gymnasium, or if you attend church or send your child to school, you are in danger from an attack by a domestic terrorist.

While covering the murders of 20 small children and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, for a Las Vegas-based newspaper, I was sure that Congress would finally take action and end the current level of gun violence in America. The right-wing blocked any and all efforts to end or lessen the problem.

On Valentine’s Day, 2018, when another lone gunman murdered 17 students and educators a Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which resulted in a march on Washington, I believed that “something would be done.” I was mistaken once again.

Trump ignored two of the largest mass shootings in American history. On Oct. 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, 58 innocent people were murdered by a lone gunman using a military assault weapon, and on Nov. 5, 2017, in a small church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, 26 men, women, and children were slaughtered by another lone gunman with an assault rifle.

Although FBI Director Christopher Wray announced that domestic terrorism is the greatest danger to all Americans, I claim the greatest danger comes from today’s Republican Party in name only. They continue to allow these mass shootings and what has become unrestricted gun violence in America

Op-ed by James Turnage

Sources:

New York Post: ‘The View’ hosts slam Second Amendment after Brooklyn subway shooting; by Brandon Gillespie
CNN: Subway shooting suspect denied bail on federal terrorism-related charge; by Brynn Gingras, Mark Morales, Shimon Prokupecz, Laura Ly, Kristina Sgueglia, Eric Levenson, and Sonia Moghe

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Wayne Hsieh’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Ed Kohler’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License