It feels like every other day there is some tragic news headline coming out of the United States about some senseless shooting that claimed lives and injured many others.
However, the sheer ubiquity of mass shootings should never mean, even if it takes some effort of cognition, that we become alienated or desensitized. If anything, the frequency should reinforce the notion that there’s a big problem to be addressed, and it cannot be addressed soon enough. Because, while we diddle-daddle without a search for common ground, people will keep on dying. And every death, every single innocent person who loses their life to a firearm, should weigh on policy-makers’ shoulders.
The most recent shooting at the time of this writing took place on Sunday, March 17, Saint Patrick’s Day, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. It was just the other day that Miami Beach decided to “break up with Spring break,” which, in other words, means that in order to discourage the youth from going to the popular Spring Break partying location, measures have been taken, such as establishing a midnight curfew, and increasing parking fees.
Perhaps some legislative measures should be taken to discourage a more rampant problem than Spring Breakers: Gun violence.
Three separate shootings, few injured, and even fewer fatalities
Over the 40 minutes yesterday’s main shooting went on, tragically, one person lost their life, and two others were injured. One factor that may have contributed to the low rate of deaths in this particular incident is probably the fact that, as festivities were going on and people were gathered, there was a lot of police presence in the area, and so the reaction time was significantly faster than in other cases.
However, what is even more notable about this day is that 3 separate shootings took place on the coast of Florida not too long apart. On the beach, just North of Orlando, after a fight broke out, a 16-year-old teenager decided to pull a gun out in broad daylight. The teen would subsequently be arrested and charged, no one having, thankfully, been injured. As Jacksonville Police Chief Gene Smith himself acknowledged at the beginning of the press conference this morning, March 18, his staff handled the situation the previous night with “professionalism, dedication, and courage,” and “that without their efforts the loss of life would’ve been greater.” He also proudly professed to have the best law enforcement staff in the country.
The Chief also relayed the information of how about 400 teenagers had gathered around the location to engage in boxing matches – I wonder where the idea may have come from? According to Smith, it was upon efforts to disperse the crowd had commenced, that the deadly shooting took place.
The first shooting, at the Best Western motel, made three injured, two in serious condition. Two victims/suspects engaged each other in a gunfight, which resulted in an innocent bystander getting injured. In the second incident, there were no injuries reported. Investigators have recovered the firearm from this shooting. Finally, the third incident involved a victim, a 21-year-old Black male. After calls were made to report a disturbance, police found three suspects with guns, of which only one of them had actually shot their weapon. At the time of this writing, the Jacksonville police are still reviewing more evidence, which includes video footage taken from the incidents. To potentially help with the case, you can alert investigators of any additional witness footage that you may be aware is still out there.
A larger tragedy was indeed prevented but one death is already one too many. The problem may be blamed, once again, on Spring Breakers and their hot blood. But it is hard to argue that this would still have happened if these same “Spring Breakers” didn’t also have too-ready access to deadly weapons.