America's toxic mix of guns, fear of crime -- and fear-mongering

[Nevilledog]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/18/guns-ralph-yarl-kaylin-gillis-crime/

No paywall
https://archive.is/Tw5cJ

Last Thursday, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl went to pick up his siblings at a house in Kansas City, Mo. But Yarl went to the wrong house. Andrew Lester, 84, allegedly shot Yarl twice after the teen appeared on the doorstep; he told police he was “scared to death” by the unexpected visitor. Luckily, Yarl survived.

Kaylin Gillis, 20, didn’t. She was in a car with three other people that pulled into a driveway in rural Upstate New York on Saturday night. Realizing they were at the wrong house, the driver began to turn the car around. It was unable to pull away before Kevin Monahan, 65, allegedly fired two shots. One struck Gillis.

Both Lester and Monahan now face criminal charges, but the damage is done. In each case, the residents responded to unexpected visitors with gunfire. It is, in retrospect, perhaps an inevitable development, given America’s long-standing interest in firearms and our more recent obsession with elevating stories about violent crime.

It is not a secret that Americans own more guns than the residents of any other country on Earth. Civilians in the United States own 120 guns for every 100 residents, nearly twice the rate in the country with the next-highest level of gun ownership, the Falkland Islands.

*snip*

[Ray Bruns]

1. Whatever happened to asking "Who is it?"

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. OMG, that point about Nextdoor is so true.