third time was the charm…wonder why?

texas is all about the “four F’s”…

…those being “Football”, “Firearms”, “Faith”, and “Family”.

for the bulk of the state those are listed in order. if you doubt me, try to go to any major business when the game’s on and see how empty it is. or notice that even when a mass shooting takes place IN A FUCKING CHURCH here we still send “thoughts and prayers” (seems like they were doing that at the time and it didn’t help?) rather than gun reform.

so this past week three shootings are being linked together in the headlines as they are, tragically, some of the worst case scenario outcomes to the phrase “wrong place, wrong time”. simple mistakes that ended in shootings that never shoulda happened, but kinda make sense when it comes to how guns are positioned in the american zeitgeist.

these were the victims in order:

first off, a sixteen year old honor student and band geek (bass clarinet, if you’re curious) went to pick up his siblings, got the address mixed up, and stepped onto the wrong front porch and rang the doorbell, as most home invasion kids do, so the white homeowner shot the black kid in the head, and again while he was on the ground, because he “feared for his life”. all the gun stuff on the TV teaches you that guns are needed to protect your safe sanctuary, i.e. your home, from the drugs and crime and violence of urban america (read: black people) from invading your safe space. so when they show up and ring the doorbell? you know what you have to do, right?

on the positive, by the time you’re reading this, the kid has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home.

the second one, i’m surprised, i didn’t hear about when it happened. i’m surprised because…well…look at the victim. when an old white man shoots a young black kid who stepped onto his property that’s a tragedy, but it ain’t a surprise. but when a blonde haired white girl is shot? that’s usually a new lead right there! as ice t pointed out in a 1992 aresnio interview, crips and bloods had been around for decades and nobody in los angeles cared until the crossed into a white neighborhood and a white teenager got killed, and then all the headlines were about the “huge gang problem in LA!” with 50,000 members.

like that shit happened overnight. if so, that’s a membership drive the mormons could only dream of!

and this time she didn’t even ring the bell – she pulled into the wrong driveway. the fucking driveway! the shooter was uncooperative with police, stating that he did so to defend his home as he feared for his life…from two teenage girls…in a car…in his driveway. i guess this is the twenty-first century version of yelling “you kids stay off my lawn!”

after he was taken into custody the police politely explained that given the position of all involved there was ZERO chance he was in danger and was afraid for his life. i’ll be curious to see how the court stuff on this one goes. the twenty year old victim, sadly, didn’t make it.

and then we get to texas. this one, i hate to say it, kinda makes sense on the shock factor, but not the shoot factor. a cheerleader, in a parking lot, got out of her friend’s car and thought she was hopping into her own but sat down in a wrong, and occupied, vehicle. realizing her mistake she immediately shut the door and went back to her friend’s car, undoubtedly to tell the “oh shit, guess what i just did!” story. but the guy in the passenger seat of said incorrect vehicle followed her back to the other car and opened fire. this is CLEARLY not self defense, as she had already exited said vehicle and retreated to another one. the cops agree and the assailant was charged. she’s recovering in the ICU but won’t be able to compete in the cheer leading competition in orlando this weekend with her team.

and then there’s the fourth mistake that happened since this story was released to the services in north carolina, this time an inanimate object (a basketball) rolled into the wrong yard, and the homeowner started shooting down the street clipping a six year old, her mom, and her dad. the first two just got grazed, but dad went to the e.r. with non fatal injuries. but off a damn basketball rolling into the yard? daphuk?

and to show how white people are starting to lose some of what makes them them, the last two shooters in the these stories were latino and black, respectively. yay for diversity?

i have to agree with one of the expert from one of the articles i read on this – it’s not a gun problem, per se…it’s a common sense problem, which is “difficult to teach or legistlate”. but it’s not difficult to litigate or educate, so let’s start there, huh?