Did you hear ??? got shot last night?

[Lee Knight]

As I brushed my teeth this morning the TV news played a teaser going into the commercial. MIRA MESA MAN SHOT AT PARTY.

 

As I work in Mira Mesa, my ears pricked up, and I had a passing thought, "Geesh, that could be one of the guys working at XXXXX".

 

I work as an audio engineer at a large call center, and by and large, our callers are young, going to school, or going nowhere. You know the type... souped up early 90's Hondas, stereos bangin'.

 

Well it turns out that the kid (19?) that I say "hey" to every morning on my way to the copy machine was shot and killed... no reason.

 

He was arriving at a party, the gunman was being kicked out of the party. Wrong place, wrong time.

 

You hear about it everyday, but shit. What did this guy have a gun for? Why?

 

When I grew up in LA in the 60's and 70's, it was knives. Or bangin' someone's head with a bat. Bad stuff happened then too, but not with the ease of some pissed off drunkin' loser deciding to pop someone because he's having a bad day.

 

Holy SHIT!

[Lee Knight]

I like to add...

 

...his cubicle is there right now. Headset hanging from it's hanger. His name up on his wall. Every space around him is busy. His is not and I'm pissed off.

[Bill Roberts]

So sad Lee.

 

As much as it hurts, I know of at least 15 people who were shot and killed. One was an artist I worked with that sang Gosple. He was car-jacked.

 

I don't get out much anymore. Bars, parties, etc. A know of a few live music venues that are pretty "high end" in nature, this gurantees nothing with madmen on the loose. I am not "scared" or anything like that..it is just I have a great time working here. It took a long time to have my facility in my home, in a safe neighborhood.

 

Such a sad state of affairs Lee.

[soundthinker]

Man that sucks. I know how you feel though, I used to do a fair amount of local (Chicago) hip-hop and rap and lost three clients to guns.

 

/jim

[theblue1]

That's sad, Lee.

 

Ultimate responsibility, of course, rests with the people who pull the triggers.

 

But those of us who work in the entertainment industry and who, inadvertantly or directly, glorify violence are paving the road to that kind of tragedy.

 

And those of us who assent to addressing the problem simply by building more prisons help to assure that this senseless cycle of criminality and violence will continue.

 

I can think of more than a few people who are guilty on both counts...

 

... one of them is governor of California.

[Lee Knight]

The Blue One...

 

The first thing I though of was, "The guy must be watching too many Clint Eastwood movies". You're right. Enough agression as entertainment.

 

Thanks Bill and Jim.

 

I am awed by the stupidity of some of the things I see.

[Martin Kantola]

How many handguns are there in the US? How many of these have ever done any good? It's all so incredibly sad.

 

Until recently, something like this has not happened in our safe country, but things are changing fast. Whole families are killed by either parent. With a gun they had in their closet. Why?

 

Martin

[Cozmicslop]

I remember growing up and nearly everyone had guns. I mean 13, 14 year old kids. No one ever used them though. There seemed to be honor in throwing hands, even in gang fights.

 

All that changed in the early 80's. Like a cold front moved in all of a sudden. The only thing more frightening than the number of cowards walking around armed is the fact that that they're often stupid and can't shoot straight. The number of mistaken identity and stray bullet murders is mind boggling.

[AudioMaverick]

I sweat every time I have to drive into Orange or LA county, any more. I had to on Friday, and was really late coming home. On a freeway transition where three lanes suddenly become one, a raked out Celica tried to pass as I was lane changing. My vehicle isn't as fast, and niether is my driving. So, I ended up cutting him off and pushing him an extra lane over. With both our tinted windows at nearly midnight, we couldn't make eye contact. But, man was I nervous, because the car rode next to me for almost a minute. The car had four lanes to drive in, but it stayed right there. What a scary few seconds.

 

Driving to and from home shouldn't be nerve wracking... Or, life threatening. And, no one should be in a position to think it is OK to kill some random person to vent or feel better about themselves.

[AudioMaverick]

Originally posted by Martin Kantola:

How many handguns are there in the US? How many of these have ever done any good? It's all so incredibly sad.

 

Until recently, something like this has not happened in our safe country, but things are changing fast. Whole families are killed by either parent. With a gun they had in their closet. Why?

 

Martin

I never met a malicious gun. It is the person holding the gun that is the issue. Unfortunately, I don't know of any reasonable way to make sure the twain never meet.

 

Since there have been humans, tools double as weapons. there have always been people who kill without social moral considerations. But, I agree that it seems there are more of them, and ones that seem more radical than before.

 

I don't know the answer...

[Lee Knight]

I have no adenda with regards to gun control. I have no answers or solutions. I have only hope that I can share kindness enough to others to personally do my part to make life a little better.

 

I don't want us all to hold hands and start singing... well maybe I do. There doesn't seem to be a solution to this, does there?

[Tedster]

Originally posted by Lee Knight:

I don't want us all to hold hands and start singing... well maybe I do. There doesn't seem to be a solution to this, does there?

...(Grabs everyone's hands)...

 

All we are say-yyyying...is give peace a chance... (sad smile)...

 

It is a true tragedy. And there really can be no sense made of it. My heart goes out to his family.

 

(sigh)...

[theblue1]

Originally posted by Lee Knight:

The Blue One...

 

The first thing I though of was, "The guy must be watching too many Clint Eastwood movies". You're right. Enough agression as entertainment.

 

Thanks Bill and Jim.

 

I am awed by the stupidity of some of the things I see.

Well, at least Clint has, over the last couple decades, made some very thoughtful movies about violence.

[Bbach1]

There isn't anyway to justify a senseless death like that. It's quite a helpless feeling. My thoughts and prayers go out to the young man and his family. Damn, I hate that stuff.

[Lee Knight]

Originally posted by theblue1:

Originally posted by Lee Knight:

The Blue One...

 

The first thing I though of was, "The guy must be watching too many Clint Eastwood movies". You're right. Enough agression as entertainment.

 

Thanks Bill and Jim.

 

I am awed by the stupidity of some of the things I see.

Well, at least Clint has, over the last couple decades, made some very thoughtful movies about violence.

Yeah, I know. I'm not putting Clint at the top of the list or anything. Clint made some very violent movies however. I watched them while I shoved popcorn into my face in the name of entertainment.

 

My friend and I were just talking about how creative some of the writing has become as to blurting out threatening lingo in flix. "Watch it or I'll rip you head off, shove it up your xxx while I feed your xxxs down your open neck. Then I'll..."

 

It's great. Spread the love.

[Super 8]

Sorry to hear it, Lee.

 

Very recently I lost a childhood friend because some bastard shot him in the head. I posted about it here whn it happened. The police haven't caught the guy yet, but I think they know who he is. Looks to be some drug runner out of Chicago.

 

It's beyond me to comprehend why people do this shit. What have the people who killed my friend and your co-worker gained by doing this? What's the point in shooting someone? There's nothing to gain, and everything to lose. It's pointless....

[Martin Kantola]

You are some very kind and wise people talking here!

 

Audiomaverick, how true that the guns themselves are perfectly safe... Still think the combination of watching tons of violence on TV, feeling miserable and having a gun within reach is a dangerous combination.

 

Could be an idea to get rid of TV first, people would have to talk to eachother more, making them feel better.

 

To me, killing a human only makes sense if you intend to eat him.

 

Martin

[offramp]

Guns have replaced dialogue and internal reason.

 

Here, on Mother's Day, a 19-year-old kid tried to get into a rental hall; two cops working securityt turned him away at the door because it was a private party, a post-baptismal thing.

The kid comes back a little bit later, sneaks in the back door, and shoots the cops in the back. One survived, the other didn't, leaving behind a wife and two children (plus, I think, a third child from another relationship). He went home, confessed to his girlfriend (with whom he'd just had a baby), went to work the next day, then took off for L.A., ending up in Mexico at relatives' houses, where they hardly knew him; the cops came looking for him, and they turned him in.

 

What is so fucking important and devastating about being turned away from a door that you should piss your life--and someone else's--away with a gun?

 

This planet has gone to hell.

[Blue Strat]

I've also had a close friend killed by some bastard with a gun. I don't blame the gun, just the dick-head that pulled the trigger.

 

May the Lord help this poor boy's family.

[pseudonym]

It's the "gangsta" mentality and the need to be "wanted" because they know life is a dead-end for them anyway. I'd suppose they feel they get respect or something by doing violence? Maybe, if they though they could have some semblence of the American Dream, they'd get busy doing something productive, they know it's mostly BS and aren't going to work @ McDonalds hoping for respect from the hood or great success, right?

 

So where are all the PHD college trained psychiatric geniuses solving the problem? They're raking-in their $200,000 a year salaries and living behind walled and gated communities, writing books that change nothing, maybe they know it can't be changed?

 

Disparities are created by culture, not by movies depicting violence suppossedly imitating culture, it only adds that extra delusional feeling of power and need for control in them, so yes, that may send them over the edge.

[Bill Roberts]

What can this be blamed on? Could it be the "want it now" and "instant gratification" of the Younger generation? Could it be a derranged person under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol? Could it actually be that this person escaped the criminal justice system and had prior violent acts and was not rehabilitated?

 

Could it be all of the above or none of the above?

 

Well, I certainly have NO answers for this. Gun control would have not made a difference, that is certain. Anyone can get any gun, anytime, especially non legally..(the easy way).

 

Do the young have anything to live for other than the same day?

 

I would like someone with some insight to address one or all of the above hypothesis or just speculation questions I present here.

 

I do think the "do it now"/"want it now"/"instant gratification"; without thought process nor responsability for actions is one of the keys.

 

Did the Murderer get caught?

 

Let's only hope.

[Wewus432]

That's a terrible thing Lee, sorry to hear about that. I'm sorry for your loss, and the loss to the family of that young man.

 

Everytime I hear about someone getting shot I kind of wince because I was shot in an armed robbery about 20 years ago this September. It was just a flesh wound, as they say, but when someone points a gun at you, and pulls the trigger....it does change you in strange ways.

[ihategarybettman]

I'm so sorry for your loss, Lee. I've been fortunate in that I've never had a friend killed by some gutless, stupid, and/or crazy asshole with a gun and not enough sense to use it properly. One of the benefits of living somewhere that some clueless individuals would refer to as a backwater city, I guess.

[Tedster]

My Dad was shot and killed back in 1963 by a drunken lunatic. Again, I don't blame the gun, just the asshole that pulled the trigger. That bastard committed suicide in prison in 1969.

[Wewus432]

Crime is in a large part, a product of poverty.

[Joe Cole]

Guns. No they, in themselves, are not the killers. But why in the world would you need one?

 

That whole "right to bear arms" credo has done more harm then good over the past 50 years.

 

With all the folks here saying that they know someone who died at the hands of a gunman....it really shocked me. That many?

 

What good has come from gun owning? Where is the benefit for society?

[blackfish]

I think the point is that it depends on the society. Ours is pretty f'd up. How many of you know someone who died due to alcohol/drug related crimes? How many of the above were killed because of adrugs and weapons being in the same situation? It doesn't matter what the weapon is...we could only be allowed to use peacock feathers as weapons and we would still be killing each other in droves. sad is the only word that describes it. I'm sorry for the young man that died, sorry for those he knew and loved and sorry Lee your world is this disrupted right now.

[Lee Knight]

There's a lot of good thoughts here in this thread. It's wierd here in the office this morning, the day after the news. All back to normal. Life goes on, right?

 

How painful this must be for his family.

 

I'm going to adopt Google's slogan mentioned in another thread...

 

...don't be evil. Thanks all.

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by Joe Cole:

Guns. No they, in themselves, are not the killers. But why in the world would you need one?

 

That whole "right to bear arms" credo has done more harm then good over the past 50 years.

 

With all the folks here saying that they know someone who died at the hands of a gunman....it really shocked me. That many?

 

What good has come from gun owning? Where is the benefit for society?

How many peoples lives were saved because they owned a gun? The NRA's American Rifleman magazine has a section at the beginning of every issue with news of regular folks that defended themselves from thugs with guns or knives.

 

The whole right to bear arms has everything to do with defending your other rights. The entire constitution would be worthless without the 2nd amendment. In 1776, the people of the colonies defended their rights. This wouldn't have been possible without firearms; they would have been crushed by the British army & navy. The 2nd amendment is just as important today as it was when it was written.

[Wewus432]

If you look at what's going on in this country, our government, in many ways, has been co-opted by special interest groups. The people and corporations with mega-money have finally achieved enough wealth to in effect, buy out the government, to the extreme detriment of The American people.

 

The final check and balance on a government gone awry, or corrupted, IS an armed and organized population doing what needs to be done.

 

Our forefathers designed our system of government as a series of checks and balances, an armed populace is THE final check and balance.