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THE OTHER SIDE: Deadly mistakes

Impatience, anger, over-reaction has always been with us. So too murder. And just maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention in the 1950s, but it seems to me we’re facing an epidemic where more and more of us skip from understandable annoyance to shotgun blasts, when being pissed off or afraid somehow justifies bullets flying.

After the horrifying events of the last few weeks, I found myself looking back to one memory in particular: After playing stickball for hours on the street around the corner, dodging cars, dealing with pissed-off drivers looking for parking places, losing, then winning, then losing again, It was finally time to go home.

There was always an edge of fear when it came to my Bronx apartment building with its really long and very high ground floor vestibule, with its inset wide windows and inadequate lighting. I often took the hallway at a run, then around past the mailboxes on the left to the stairs. The stairwell was, of course, yet another place for a madman to hide. I would race up the stairs. The second floor was the floor of the strangled old man, in my mind an unsolved mystery, so I took that last flight two steps at a time. I was on automatic pilot and this time my brain, as tired as my arms and legs, was barely functioning. Somehow I kept going until the fourth floor instead of stopping at the third. (In my building, every floor looked pretty much the same.) Then to what had always been Apartment 3B in the far-left corner. But this time my key didn’t fit. I probably panicked and started banging on the door. When finally the door opened, it was to a veritable stranger. I don’t remember what I stammered, but mightily embarrassed, and without explanation, I quickly fled downstairs. Not surprisingly, I didn’t realize how lucky I was that this was the 1950s and not 2023.

I spent a good part of my youth on nearby streets. There was no justice on the street. Stickball, punch ball, skully, touch football, basketball a few blocks away in the schoolyard. The ball went surprisingly far when hit just right with the glorified mop handles we took turns stealing from our mothers. There was the neighbor in the apartment on the first floor at the end of the street, which we casually regarded as our center field, who suffered the most from our success. She understandably reached a boiling point when our Spalding broke her window. Every other time before it had just caromed off. She was without shotgun and merely called the cops.

Thankfully, the cops who came had probably played stickball not too many years before and resolved the problem by breaking yet another mop handle and tossing it down the sewer. Disagreements amongst us began with curses, then a push and a shove back, and ended with punches and wrestling on the street. Violence only escalated into the danger zone when you ventured into other neighborhoods, where gangs like the Fordham Baldies reigned. But, at worst, we’re talking switchblades and garrison belts.

Fear can loom large in children. But there’s a marked difference between what my friends and I faced, and I’m including my years at the all-male maximum security DeWitt Clinton, the toughest high school in the city, and the new universe of school shootings young people must deal with today. There’s an extraordinary difference between an angry idiot punching you in the jaw and a crazed man with an assault weapon spraying bullets everywhere.

Many factors—probably starting with my innate contrariness—has led me to a life far from the usual. Early on, my experiences as a red-diaper kid might have made traveling the normal, traditional pathways being a bit more problematic. The obligatory phone taps, FBI visits, and resulting need to keep the family secret in the America of Joe McCarthy exacted a great strain on us all. For me, long-term relationships and choices of employment, starting with New York Post paperboy at 12, often resulted in my quitting or occasionally being fired or broken up with. All of this led to the growing and ultimately liberating realization that I stood a better chance of putting up with a boss if that boss was me. And while it meant significantly less money, I had fewer headaches and much more satisfaction.

All this is a long way of saying that I have made many—so many—mistakes along my way. And I’m realizing more than ever before that I have been very lucky that these mistakes were not punished by death, because something drastic has happened in America during these years.

Now, I don’t want to pretend that my mistakes or the mistakes of many others were ever welcomed with heartfelt appreciation. Sometimes, of course, in retrospect or with some time to reconsider, those vested with authority would stop long enough to interrupt their criticisms with some tepid praise for the learning process. But in the short term, mistakes were met with, well you probably know the drill, the need for reproach, blame, and a lot of tough love. But, at the time, who could fully appreciate that we got off so easy.

It seems that a bunch of famous people who, after many years of successfully enduring life’s lessons, have opted to share their thoughts about transcending failure—to offer the rest of us some inspiration. Count me in. These days I am more than willing to be lifted up.

Let’s start with some sage advice from some of our smartest:

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” 
― Albert Einstein

“One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist … Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.” 
― Stephen Hawking

How about from some very successful writers:

“To err is human, to forgive, divine.” 
― Alexander Pope, “An Essay On Criticism”

“Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.” 
― Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

“I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being – forgive me – rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.” 
― J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

And from some other exceptional folks:

“These are the few ways we can practice humility: To pass over the mistakes of others.” ― Mother Teresa, “The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living”

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” ― 1 John 1:8

Then there are those who worked so hard to make us laugh:

“As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.” 
― Mel Brooks

“The 50-50-90 rule: anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90 percent probability you’ll get it wrong.” 
― Andy Rooney

And, of course, the most quotable of all:

“We made too many wrong mistakes.” 
― Yogi Berra

I’m with Yogi. Like me, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl went to the wrong door. Instead of 115th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, he ended up at 115th Street. Looking to pick up his younger twin brothers after their playdate. Unlike me, he just rang the doorbell. Unlike me, he’s young, gifted, and Black.

Press reports tell us that 84-year-old homeowner Andrew Lester “shot Yarl once in the head and again after he fell …”

KCUR, the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, continues: “The yellow house with green shutters has a fenced-in yard and a sign posted that says, ‘This property is protected by surveillance cameras’ … Neighbors described him as a nice elderly man who was a military veteran. James Everhart, who lives three doors down from the house where the shooting took place, said he doesn’t believe race played a role in the shooting. ‘There ain’t no race to this story,’ Everhart said. ‘The seemingly-hate activists who show up and protest only divide people. The guy was scared. The guy just shot somebody!’”

So, that seems the best-case scenario. The guy just shot somebody. And the person who rang the doorbell could have been red, white, or blue. He just happened to be black.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church Ministerial Alliance of the Midwest Conference sees the shooting of Ralph Yarl in the context of “other well-known killings of Black boys. ‘At what point do we admit that the color of fear is always black’ the group said in a statement. ‘In these moments, we remember that Emmett Till was just a little boy. Trayvon Martin was just a little boy. Tamir Rice was just a little boy.’”

According to the Associated Press:

“Legal experts believe Lester’s lawyers will claim self-defense under Missouri’s ‘stand your ground’ law, which allows for the use of deadly force if a person fears for his or her life. Missouri is one of roughly 30 states with such statutes.

“Robert Spitzer, a professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York, Cortland, whose research focuses on gun policy and politics, said the Missouri law provides ‘wide latitude for people to use lethal force.’ St. Louis defense attorney Nina McDonnell agreed. She said prosecutors have a strong case but the ‘stand your ground’ defense is a ‘huge hurdle’ to overcome.” (Emphasis added.)

Findlaw explains:

“There are laws throughout the U.S. that allow people to defend themselves when threatened, but the latitude that they have to do so varies from state to state. Many states have enacted so-called stand your ground laws that remove any duty to retreat before using force in self-defense. Florida passed the first such law in 2005 …

Stand Your Ground: No duty to retreat from the situation before resorting to deadly force; not limited to your home, place of work, etc. …

“It’s important to understand that even states that have stand your ground laws still have certain restrictions when it comes to using force in self-defense. For example, they may require that the threat of perceived harm is objectively reasonable and that the force used be proportional to the threat. Stand your ground laws may also require that the person using self-defense be at the location lawfully (no trespassing, for example) and not be the initial aggressor in the altercation.”

States that have some form of “stand your ground” laws are highlighted in dark green. Graphic courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

One thing we do know is that the wrong door mistake is a mistake made by young and old, by men and women, people of all races. The New York Times tells the story of 51-year old Byron Castillo, a handyman who arrived to fix a kitchen leak in a second-floor apartment in High Point, North Carolina: “He announced himself as the maintenance man and knocked three times. The tenant inside responded by opening the door and shooting Mr. Castillo in the stomach without a word of warning, he said. … Mr. Castillo said he later learned that the repair job had been in a first-floor apartment.”

Three years later, Castillo is still in pain and still paying off his hospital bills. However, “The High Point Police Department said prosecutors declined to bring charges. In a 2020 statement reported by local news outlets, the police said that ‘through unfortunate circumstances, Mr. Castillo attempted to gain entry mistakenly into the wrong apartment,’ and that the man who shot him thought he was a burglar. Mr. Castillo still cannot believe it. ‘I was with my brushes and rollers in my hand,’ he said. ‘How would it be a threat for you? To kill you with a brush?’ … On every new painting or repair job, he says he walks through empty houses shouting his arrival and checking each room to make sure nobody is waiting with a gun.” (Emphasis added.)

Ever since I’ve lived in the Berkshires, there have been many times when I’ve driven down the wrong driveway. Having grown up in New York City, rural life was/is a bit of a mystery. It was never easy to figure out addresses, especially searching while driving past, trying my best to decipher the numbers written on mailboxes. Early on, there were those times when my friend, John Jones, was feeling sick and needed me to take over his Berkshire Eagle paper route, driving before dawn, stuffing the papers into their green Eagle tubes or if they were gone, driving down the driveway close enough to toss the papers onto porches or onto lawns.

I was appalled to read about 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis and her friends who were driving in a small convoy of two cars and a motorcycle while looking for a friend’s house in Hebron, N.Y. They made the mistake of pulling into the long driveway of 65-year-old Kevin Monahan at 10 at night.

As The New York Times reports:

“According to Sheriff Murphy, Ms. Gillis was one of four people in the last vehicle to turn around and was sitting in the front passenger seat when Mr. Monahan shot through the rear of the driver’s side.

“‘They all were still in proximity to the house and they all heard two gunshots,’ he said. ‘They realized immediately that she had been shot, so they were frantically leaving the driveway.’ …

“But Mr. Monahan’s lawyer, Kurt Mausert, disputed the sheriff’s account of the shooting, saying on Tuesday that the vehicles were speeding up the driveway, with engines revving and lights shining, which ‘certainly caused some level of alarm to an elderly gentleman who had an elderly wife.’

“‘Is that a fear-inducing scenario? Well maybe it is,’ Mr. Mausert said. ‘It is not the simple scenario of these people took a wrong turn and within 20 seconds of them taking the wrong turn, this guy’s on his deck blasting away. That’s not what happened …

“‘When there’s a tragedy and a victim, everyone wants a villain,’ he said. ‘But sometimes they’re just tragedies and victims and there are no villains. And this is one of those times.’”

Just so you know, in this case, both the shooter and the victim are white. So, this is one of those times where no matter your race, you can die for looking in the wrong place for the right house.

The wrong apartment, the wrong house, the wrong driveway, or the wrong car. Thirty-six-year-old Kerisha Johnson was nine months pregnant when, just a few weeks ago, she drove her car to pick up some friends from a party in Baton Rouge, La. According to People Magazine:

“The incident occurred on Sunday when three teenagers at a party in Baton Rouge, La., allegedly opened fire on Johnson’s car, telling police they mistook her vehicle for a similar car that drove by the party earlier and fired shots into the air. …

“[A]n arrest warrant says that ‘several individuals’ pulled out guns to shoot at Johnson’s car as she attempted to drive away.

“The three teens arrested in connection with the shooting ‘all stated that they believed the white car was a vehicle from earlier in the night where [an] occupant had fired a round into the air as it drove past the teen party,’ the warrant read, according to ABC.”

She was struck and killed.

I know a bit about the wrong car scenario. Years ago, my mother gave me her old Honda Accord. It was some variety of silver/gray, the same shade as so many other cars around here. I can still remember trying without much thought to open the door of what I imagined was my car in the Price Chopper parking lot. But the key wouldn’t fit. All of a sudden there was loud tapping on the driver’s side window and I looked up to see the driver shaking his head at me.

So, while many might have found it hard to believe this next story, I didn’t. NBC News wrote about the “Man arrested in shooting of two Texas cheerleaders after one mistakenly got into the wrong car.”

According to the story, Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, has been charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, after firing multiple shots into a car at an H-E-B parking lot.

“Lynn Shearer, owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer Co., told NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin that the two people shot were cheerleaders who were on their way home from practice.

“Shearer said the cheerleaders typically carpooled from the Austin area to her gym. On Monday night, she said at least four cheerleaders were on their way back to the Austin area and had to stop at an H-E-B, where some of the members had parked their cars.

“One of the girls accidentally tried to get into the wrong car, Shearer said. That’s when, she said, a ‘guy got out and they saw that he had a gun. And so they tried to speed off and he shot his gun, like five times or so into the car’ …

“According to ABC News, Heather Roth, a cheerleader with the Woodlands Elite, said in an Instagram Live post that she was the one who got out of her friend’s car and opened the door of another vehicle she thought was her own, only to notice a man was in the passenger seat. She said she got out of the car and back into her friend’s vehicle, the report said.

“Roth reportedly said the man approached their vehicle and she rolled down a window to apologize. That’s when the man started shooting …”

Anyone who has played ball on city streets or country lanes has at one point or another lost control and watched as the ball went sailing too far or too wide. Recently, this kind of mistake in North Carolina resulted in the shooting of a six-year-old. ABC News reports:

“Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill would not say Wednesday what sparked the attack near Gastonia, a city of roughly 80,000 west of Charlotte. He said the shooter was 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, 24, but declined to discuss the ongoing investigation further.

“However, neighbor Jonathan Robertson said that before the attack, some children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into Singletary’s yard. He said Singletary went inside his home, came back out with a gun and began shooting as parents frantically tried to get their kids to safety.

“A 6-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet in the left cheek, she and her family said. Her father, who had run to her aid, was shot in the back and was hospitalized with serious wounds. The girl’s mother was grazed in the elbow.”

Now I know from noise: In the earliest years of my time renting on Rosseter Street in Great Barrington, I was often woken late at night from the loud sounds of those picking up their drugs from the dealers down the street. My early mornings sometimes began at 5 or 6 a.m. when the delivery trucks would back down to the Great Barrington Food Co-op’s first storefront. And the refrigerated trucks would keep their motors running until the staff arrived an hour or two later to unload. It’s fair to say those days my curses faded at night with a sleep too soon interrupted by another morning and yet another reason to curse. Yet through it all, I remained non-violent.

CBS News in Chicago tells the story of a man with less patience:

“A neighbor has been charged with the murder of a man in unincorporated Antioch near the Wisconsin state line a couple of weeks ago.

“Authorities said it all stemmed from a quarrel about a noisy leaf blower.

“Ettore Lacchei, 79, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting that killed his next-door neighbor, William Martys, 59.

“Lake County Sheriff’s police said on Wednesday, April 12, Martys was using a leaf blower in his yard in the 40700 block of North Black Oak Avenue. Lacchei got into a quarrel with Martys and shot Martys in the head, police said.

“Martys’ [sic] was found unresponsive in the driveway that evening and was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where he died.”

Stephen Hawking would tell you it’s impossible to go through life without making mistakes. Like it or not, fallibility is an immutable part of our process. So, what does it say about us that more and more completely understandable and normal, everyday, fairly simple mistakes are met with death?

Impatience, anger, over-reaction has always been with us. So too murder. And just maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention in the 1950s, but it seems to me we’re facing an epidemic where more and more of us skip from understandable annoyance to shotgun blasts, when being pissed off or afraid somehow justifies bullets flying.

For all of life’s difficulties, for all our impatience and for everything that others did to infuriate us, it was rare in the 1950s to see ordinary mistakes met with gunfire. Today’s shootings are so common we’re becoming used to accepting—even normalizing—what ought to be unbelievable, not to mention unacceptable, over-reactions. And because it’s become almost automatic to immediately invoke the Second Amendment, it’s now far too easy to regard these shootings as justifiable, as one more example of the understandable need to “Stand Your Ground!” But many times, isn’t it much more accurate to say it’s not your ground that’s being attacked, but theirs?

And, of course, this is no longer the Second Amendment of a necessary militia. This is Antonin Scalia’s and the far-right’s Second: The Constitution appreciates that everybody needs a gun to protect yourself from them — not with the muskets of the militias of yesteryear but a semi-automatic with armor piercing bullets and extended magazines.

With this Second Amendment at the ready, we often forsake prosecution and accountability and, by extension, turn what are obvious, disastrous, and lethal mistakes into seemingly forgivable and understandable reactions. These woundings and killings of children, of handymen, of next door neighbors, of lost drivers become no big deal.

How has it become so very easy to ignore the fact that we are talking about non-existent threats? I can’t help but think that this is just another variety of the dehumanization that’s happening all around us. Whether it’s denying medical care to transgender folks, discriminating against gay and lesbian people, villainizing drag queens, banning books, or refusing to allow school discussions of slavery and racism, or banishing young Black Democratic state legislators who demand we act to prevent school shootings, we are becoming pathologically suspicious of anything that’s different, of the other.

Somehow, the rights of those who innocently and mistakenly wander into the ever-larger zone of fear, anger, and paranoia of American gun owners have taken a back seat to the need to proclaim the primacy of the Second Amendment. What has happened to the benefit of the doubt? What has happened to acknowledging that one time or another we all have gotten lost? Haven’t we all hoped that, if we needed it, someone down the road would be willing to help?

It’s mind-boggling how quickly we’ve adopted the notion that a wrong turn, or the desire to fix a leak or retrieve a basketball, is somehow enough of a threat to justify a shotgun blast or a bullet in the head. No questions asked. With no opportunity to explain. Why has intemperate murder become an integral part of American normality?

There has never been a time when evil wasn’t present. That is why we continue to need armed police. We expect them to intervene, to protect us. But more and more, we are experiencing unexpected violence from our neighbors, people who live in our towns, folks whom we imagine are pretty much like us.

And these days, there are now more folks than we seem willing to fully appreciate who, when they experience similar kinds of stress that we do, or imagine themselves as put upon as we often do, believe these everyday annoyances entitle them—require them—to start shooting.

What has become of what we once praised as good neighborliness, the notion of tolerance and mutual respect that has enabled so many of us to live together in peace as decent neighbors, if not as great friends. It was once a veritable calling card for what made living in small town America something special: the sense of community often missing in crowded urban America where one often didn’t even know those living in the same apartment building.

Here’s the latest research from the Pew Center. They write:

“The number of children and teens killed by gunfire in the United States increased 50 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the latest annual mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, there were 1,732 gun deaths among U.S. children and teens under the age of 18. By 2021, that figure had increased to 2,590.

“The gun death rate among children and teens – a measure that adjusts for changes in the nation’s population — rose from 2.4 fatalities per 100,000 minor residents in 2019 to 3.5 per 100,000 two years later, a 46 [percent] increase.” (Emphasis added.)

Gun deaths of children in the United States from 1999 through 2021. Note: Data includes homicides, suicides, accidents, and all other categories of gun deaths. Chart courtesy of the CDC and the Pew Research Center.

The report notes: “The rise in gun deaths among children and teens is part of a broader recent increase in firearm deaths among Americans overall. In 2021, there were 48,830 gun deaths among Americans of all ages — by far the highest yearly total on record and up 23 [percent] from the 39,707 recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.” (Emphasis added.)

When it comes to the toll firearms are taking, there are clear distinctions based on age, gender, race, and geography:

“In the U.S., some groups of children and teens are far more likely than others to die by gunfire. Boys, for example, accounted for 83 [percent] of all gun deaths among children and teens in 2021. Girls accounted for 17 [percent].

“Older children and teens are much more likely than younger kids to be killed in gun-related incidents. Those ages 12 to 17 accounted for 86 [percent] of all gun deaths among children and teens in 2021, while those 6 to 11 accounted for 7 [percent] of the total, as did those 5 and under. Still, there were 179 gun deaths among children ages 6 to 11 and 184 among those 5 and under in 2021.

“For all three age groups, homicide was the leading type of gun death in 2021. But suicides accounted for a significant share (36 [percent]) of gun deaths among those ages 12 to 17, while accidents accounted for a sizable share (34 [percent]) of gun deaths among those 5 and under.”

As for race:

Gun deaths of U.S. children and teenagers by race. Notes: Data includes homicides, suicides, accidents, and all other categories of gun deaths. White, Black, and Asian children and teens include those who are only one race and not Hispanic. Hispanics children and teens are of any race. Chart courtesy of the CDC and the Pew Research Center.

Gun violence disproportionately affected the Black community. Although, in 2021, only 14 percent of our under-18 population was Black, 46 percent of all gun deaths involved Black children and teen victims. The remaining statistics: White (32 percent), Hispanic (17 percent), and Asian (1 percent).

These deaths have a profound effect on parents in our community:

One in five parents are worried that their kids might be shot. Chart courtesy of the CDC and the Pew Research Center.

My parents worried about many things, but not about my getting shot. Parents who are paying attention these days have good reason to worry.

The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll to gauge the experience of Americans “with Gun-Related Violence, Injuries, And Deaths.” Here is one of the most striking key findings:

“Experiences with gun-related incidents are common among U.S. adults. One in five (21 [percent]) say they have personally been threatened with a gun, a similar share (19 [percent]) say a family member was killed by a gun (including death by suicide), and nearly as many (17 [percent]) have personally witnessed someone being shot. Smaller shares have personally shot a gun in self-defense (4 [percent]) or been injured in a shooting (4 [percent]). In total, about half (54 [percent]) of all U.S. adults say they or a family member have ever had one of these experiences.” (Emphasis added.)

Again, race is especially relevant:

“Gun-related injuries and deaths, as well as worries about gun violence, disproportionately affect people of color in the U.S. Three in ten Black adults (31 [percent]) have personally witnessed someone being shot, as have one-fifth of Hispanic adults (22 [percent]). One-third of Black adults (34 [percent]) have a family member who was killed by a gun, twice the share of White adults who say the same (17 [percent]). In addition, one-third of Black adults (32 [percent]) and Hispanic adults (33 [percent]) say they worry either ‘every day,’ or ‘almost every day’ about themselves or someone they love being a victim of gun violence (compared to one in ten White adults). And one in five Black adults (20 [percent]) and Hispanic adults (18 [percent]) feel like gun-related crimes, deaths, and injuries are a ‘constant threat’ to their local community, more than double the share among White adults (8 [percent]).” (Emphasis added.)

Americans’ experiences with gun-related violence, injuries, and death. Chart courtesy of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Gun-related violence has lodged itself into every aspect of our lives. Our notions of normality have been transformed to include the idea that we could be shot at any time, and in any place, while doing everyday, ordinary things. Having attended concerts along with thousands of others in venues across the country throughout the 1960s and ’70s, I would have been stunned to learn that, decades later, angry men would transform themselves into snipers and execute fans of both country music and rap.

Clearly, it is now necessary to take a range of preventive measures that might once have been considered to be indicative of borderline paranoia. Kaiser continues:

“The majority (84 [percent]) of U.S. adults say they have taken at least one precaution to protect themselves or their families from the possibility of gun violence, including nearly six in ten (58 [percent]) who have talked to their children or other family members about gun safety, and more than four in ten who have purchased a weapon other than a gun, such as a knife or pepper spray (44 [percent]), or attended a gun safety class or practiced shooting a gun (41 [percent]). About a third (35 [percent]) have avoided large crowds, such as music festivals, or crowded bars and clubs to protect themselves or their families from the possibility of gun violence. Three in ten (29 [percent]) have purchased a gun to protect themselves or their family from the possibility of gun violence. Smaller shares, but still at least one in seven, have avoided using public transit (23 [percent]), changed or considered changing the school that their child attends (20 percent), avoided attending religious services, cultural events or celebrations (15 [percent]), or moved to a different neighborhood or city (15 [percent]).”

Of course, there’s no gun violence without the guns. Recent events point to the ubiquitous presence of guns in America and the increasing willingness to use those guns that are close at hand. Kaiser explains:

“Four in ten (41 [percent] adults report living in a household with a gun. Among this group, more than half say at least one gun in their home is stored in the same location as the ammunition (52 percent), 44 percent say a gun is stored in an unlocked location, and more than one-third report a gun is stored loaded (36 [percent]). Overall, three in four (75 [percent]) adults living in households with guns say any of their guns are stored in one of these ways, representing three in ten overall adults (31 [percent]). About four in ten (44 [percent]) parents of children under age 18 say there is a gun in their household. Among parents with guns in their home, about one-third say a gun is stored loaded (32 [percent]) or stored in an unlocked location (32 [percent]). More than half of parents (61 [percent]) say any gun in their homes is stored in the same location as ammunition.” (Emphasis added.)

So, if you ask me, there’s more gun violence when you combine the ease of getting guns and having guns with increased mental instability. That kind of instability can lead someone to choose shooting rather than talking, to imagine the worst rather than the best, and can convince a gun owner that a stranger in a car is a severe threat rather than a neighbor who is lost.

According to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health:

“It is estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (57.8 million in 2021). Mental illnesses include many different conditions that vary in degree of severity, ranging from mild to moderate to severe. Two broad categories can be used to describe these conditions: …

“Any mental illness (AMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder. AMI can vary in impact, ranging from no impairment to mild, moderate, and even severe impairment (e.g., individuals with serious mental illness as defined below).

“Serious mental illness (SMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities …

“In 2021, there were an estimated 57.8 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States with AMI. This number represented 22.8 [percent] of all U.S. adults.

“The prevalence of AMI was higher among females (27.2 [percent]) than males (18.1 [percent]).

“Young adults aged 18-25 years had the highest prevalence of AMI (33.7 [percent]) compared to adults aged 26-49 years (28.1 [percent]) and aged 50 and older (15.0 [percent]).

“The prevalence of AMI was highest among the adults reporting two or more races (34.9 [percent]), followed by American Indian / Alaskan Native (AI/AN) adults (26.6 [percent]). The prevalence of AMI was lowest among Asian adults (16.4 [percent]).”

Forbes reports that Florida just recently became the 26th American state allowing people to carry a concealed gun without a permit. This tips “the balance in favor of states which allow this practice. In terms of permitless open carry, it is still 25 vs. 25 states, however, as Florida remains one of the few places in the nation outlawing open carry.”

And while there is concealed carry, there is also open carry. Wikipedia explains: “In the United States, open carry refers to the practice of visibly carrying a firearm in public places, as distinguished from concealed carry, where firearms cannot be seen by the casual observer. To ‘carry’ in this context indicates that the firearm is kept readily accessible on the person, within a holster or attached to a sling … As of 2022, almost all US states allow for open carry either without a permit or with a permit/license.”

Guns are everywhere. And as life becomes ever more stressful, as open carry and more relaxed concealed carry regulations and even less restrictive purchase and possession laws proliferate, it is not difficult to imagine ever more deadly mistakes.

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