My prayers and condolences go out to the victims and families of the 10 people murdered in cold blood Saturday in a despicable, cowardly attack upon a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket.
The 18-year-old shooter is in custody, and there's no doubt he is a racist with hatred in his heart for blacks, Jews and other minorities. Like many other mass murderers, he had a ridiculous, false machismo, purchasing a surplus Army helmet and wearing body armor as if he were going into battle. A brave security guard -- Aaron Salter Jr., a retired police officer -- fired several shots that failed to penetrate the perpetrator's body armor before the scumbag gunned him down. Mr. Salter undoubtedly saved some lives through his heroism.
After just a couple of minutes, police converged upon the scene. The perpetrator reportedly pointed his gun at his own neck, threatening to kill himself, before surrendering. It is remarkable that police were able to arrest him without killing or injuring him, but it's inevitable that some claim if the shooter had been black, police would have gunned him down immediately. A racist attack will undoubtedly be expanded into a full-blown analysis of policing techniques and tendencies with racial formulations incorporated into the equation.
This heinous attack could have been prevented if police and the perpetrator's parents had intervened more strongly.
In June 2021, this teen had made threatening statements to classmates about plans to shoot up his school in Conklin, N.Y., about 200 miles from Buffalo. He also had exhibited bizarre behavior, such as showing up at school wearing a hazmat suit.
New York State Police took the teen to a hospital for a mental health evaluation after he made his threats.
How was this mentally ill person still allowed to purchase firearms and ammunition? This reminds me of the troubled teen who killed four people at Oxford High School north of Detroit last November. That teen had also made threatening statements on social media and written suicidal sounding messages. Incredibly, his parents bought him a handgun as a Christmas present.
Perhaps specific threats made against individuals or a business or institution should disqualify a person from purchasing any firearms. Sound heavy-handed and too much like Big Brother lording it over us? Perhaps, and Lord knows we already have plenty of surveillance going on.
But look at this this way: If you're in the security line at an airport and you make a joke about having a bomb or that the plane might come down, you can be arrested and end up doing jail time plus pay a big fine.
Granted, monitoring speech is, to use the hackneyed phrase, a slippery slope. Satire, sarcasm or drunken stupidity can be uttered or typed without the author or speaker genuinely intending to harm anyone. But in the case of the Buffalo and Oxford shooters, it was apparent months in advance that something was seriously wrong.
There are Second Amendment absolutists who would disagree with me, and let me emphasize I am not advocating for broad red flag laws that would amount to a backdoor version of gun control. But I do think that when mentally ill loners and losers make threats like we've seen time and time again, selective restrictions may need to apply.
And even if it sounds naive, I'll say it: We should, to some extent, be our brother's keeper. If we know someone and know he is unstable and likely to harm himself and/or other people, it's not a bad thing to seek professional intervention. Especially if that person is a family member. This isn't something government policy or new laws can bring about. This comes from the heart and concern for other human beings.
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