“Déjà vu all over again” Yogi Berra
Back in 2009 Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a
Pentagon review of the deadly shooting that left 13 dead and another 24 wounded
at Food Hood to help ensure that “nothing like this ever happens again.”
It’s déjà vu all over again.
5 years later a depressed Iraq veteran potentially suffering from post
traumatic stress shot and killed 3 people and wounding 16 others before turning
his gun on himself at Fort Hood this past Wednesday, April 2, 2014. According to the New York Times (April 4,
2014), “Specialist Lopez bought his gun at the same shop near the base where
the 2009 gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, bought his weapon. Each shooting started in a medical support
area for troops, and each ended when the gunman confronted a female police
officer rushing to the scene.
It’s déjà vu all over again. Just this past September there
was another shooting spree leaving 12 people dead at the Washington Navy Yard.
It’s déjà vu all over again.
Every month New York Times columnist Joe Nocera publishes a list of gun
violence occurrences in order to put a human face to victims and not let them
be an anonymous number. Here is his
April 3 Gun Report:
Joshua
Lee Nun, 9, was shot to death by his 12-year-old brother near Panama,
Okla., Wednesday afternoon. The boys were reportedly playing with a gun,
and it discharged and hit the victim in the chest. The boy’s mother and other
children were home at the time. Authorities are investigating how the children
got the gun.
A
9-year-old girl was hit in the back by a stray bullet as she was doing homework
in the dining room of her home in Youngstown, Ohio, early Tuesday.
Police said the girl was caught in an exchange of gunfire several yards from
the home. No arrests have been made.
Three
people—Lacravia Collier, Franklin Mitchell and Lashawn Tyson—were shot and
wounded following an argument outside an apartment complex in Greenville,
N.C., early Wednesday. Police believe the shooting stemmed from a fight at
Buffalo Wild Wings earlier that night. No arrests have been made.
Marquis
Sams, 20, and Wilneka Pennyman, 19, were killed in a drive-by shooting in front
of a home in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami, Fla., early
Wednesday. Pennyman tried to run off but collapsed outside the home. Sams was
found dead in a car parked outside. Police are not sure if they were targeted.
Melissa
Vaughn Green, 33, was shot and killed by a man who then turned the gun on
himself at an apartment complex inRussellville, Ky., Wednesday
afternoon. A neighbor said the suspect, Kenneth Temple, was the victim’s ex-husband
or ex-boyfriend, and he had just spoken to the woman’s current boyfriend before
opening fire in the parking lot. Green and Temple leave behind two children.
Casey
Nicole Mitchell, 33, a mother of four, was shot and killed during a domestic
disturbance at a home in Brunswick, Ga., Tuesday. Jermaine Javon
Thomas, 37, fled the scene but was arrested the next day.
A
45-year-old woman was shot and killed in front of her children during a dispute
with her domestic partner in Newton County, S.C., Tuesday night.
The victim’s 12-year-old daughter was shot in the hand, and the suspect’s
3-year-old grandson witnessed the shooting. Aaron Garsua McClain, 45, was
arrested at a motel inGeorgia.
A
20-year-old man was shot and wounded while trying to defuse a domestic dispute
in an apartment in Fall River, Mass., Wednesday afternoon.
Guillermo Santana, 29, is being sought.
A
man shot himself after crashing his car into the car of a woman with whom he
was having a domestic dispute in Loudoun County, Va., Tuesday evening.
He is being treated for life-threatening injuries.
A
21-year-old man was shot and killed at a home in Markham, Ill.,
Tuesday night. Police have launched a widespread search for suspects.
Ralph
Quarels, 21, was killed and another man was wounded in a shooting in east Oakland,
Calif., Tuesday night. The victims were shot while driving a rental car.
Police don’t have a motive and have not yet made an arrest.
A
35-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman were shot multiple times and killed in
north St. Louis, Mo., Wednesday afternoon. Their bodies were found
in a car across the street from a middle school.
A
woman was shot and wounded in a townhouse development inLower Paxton
Township, Pa., early Wednesday. Neighbors said the woman kept a low
profile. She is not cooperating with police.
A
25-year-old man was found lying in a driveway with a single gunshot wound to
his chest following a disturbance at a home inOwasso, Okla., Tuesday
night. Witnesses told police the shooter was Ryan Brashier, 23, who surrendered
to officers outside a QuikTrip store. Police did not reveal a motive.
Tarrance
Roshawn Campbell, 24, was shot multiple times and killed in High Point,
N.C., Tuesday night. His body was found lying in the road. Anyone with
information about the incident is asked to call police.
Jarrick
Boone, 21, was killed and a 23-year-old man was wounded in a shooting in Beverly
Hills, Mo., early Wednesday. There’s no word on suspects.
A
woman in her 60s was shot during an attempted robbery inYork, Pa.,
Wednesday night. Police are searching for a suspect.
A
man was shot and wounded during a fight in front of a home inDesert Hot
Springs, Calif., Wednesday evening. Police are asking anyone with
information to contact them.
Dominique
Curtis Scott, 23, was shot and killed at a home inRidgeland, S.C.,
Tuesday. Devin Dwayne Swinton, 23, is being sought. He is considered armed and
dangerous.
Emery
Lorenzo Williams, 64, was killed in a drive-by shooting while on his way home
from church in Spartanburg County, S.C., Wednesday night. The
victim was on the phone with his wife when he was shot, and his car crashed in
a parking lot across from a fitness club. Police said the shooting appears to
be random. No arrests have been made.
Samuel
Sawyer was shot in the face during an argument with his neighbor involving
romantic jealousy in Valdosta, Ga., Tuesday night. The victim’s
fiancé said Hubert Heflin, 48, called her a bad name, and has been trying to
break up her relationship for years. Heflin, an ex-convict, was arrested.
Police said the victim will likely lose his eye.
Nathan
Benjamin Trapuzzano, 24, was shot and killed during an attempted robbery while
he was power walking near his home in Indianapolis, Ind., Tuesday
morning. Surveillance video shows one of the would-be robbers shooting the
victim in the stomach. His wife was expecting their first child. “As with many
tragedies, this seems so senseless, and yet the outpouring of love and support
reminds us that there is so much good in this world,” his family said in a
statement. No word on arrests. In a separate shooting late that night, a man
was found shot and
critically injured in an alley behind a row of houses on the northwest side
of Indianapolis. No word on a suspect.
A
17-year-old boy was shot and wounded while allegedly breaking into a home in
the Montbello neighborhood of Denver, Colo., Tuesday afternoon. The
homeowner was not arrested. Police will present their findings to the district
attorney’s office, which will determine charges.
A
woman was shot as she walked out of a business along a busy stretch of Stockton,
Calif., Tuesday night. Officers were responding to a fight and gunshots
outside a nearby restaurant when they located the victim in her car. A possible
suspect was spotted running from the area.
A
woman was shot and critically injured in the Berea neighborhood of Baltimore,
Md., late Wednesday. Police have not released a suspect description or
motive.
A
28-year-old man was shot and killed on a street in the Harlem neighborhood
of Manhattan, N.Y., early Tuesday. Police canvassed the area for a
shooter, but he or she remains at large.
Koruth
Deon Mangle, 43, was shot to death in his apartment inHarvey, La.,
Wednesday night. The victim’s son said family members were in their apartment
when intruders kicked in the door and shot the victim in the head, “like it was
personal.”
A
22-year-old man was shot multiple times and killed in a suspected gang-related
attack in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif.,
Wednesday afternoon. The victim was found on a sidewalk. No arrests have been
made.
A
16-year-old boy was shot in the thigh in a home in the Point Breeze
neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pa., Wednesday night. Investigators
said someone is in custody. No word on a motive.
Sinque
Hagler, 24, was shot in the stomach and killed inWilmington, Del.,
Wednesday afternoon. The victim, who went by “Man-Man,” was found in his car
near the Wilmington Housing Authority’s Riverside project. He leaves behind two
daughters under the age of three.
Gerid
W. Forste, 31, was shot and killed during an argument at his apartment in Valparaiso,
Ind., early Wednesday. The suspect, who shot the victim multiple times with
an AR-15 rifle, confessed to police at the scene. No motive was given.
A
man was shot and killed on the north side of Saginaw, Mich.,
Wednesday afternoon. At the time of the shooting, local police were preparing
for a citywide anti-violence march.
A
21-year-old woman was shot in the knee in an apartment building in the
Englewood neighborhood of Chicago early Wednesday. A man was
detained for questioning. No word on a motive.
According
to the Gun Violence
Archive, 4,280 people have been injured by gun
violence in America and 2,624 have been killed since Jan. 1,
2014.
I wondered how the 4 children in the Haggadah would respond
to all this gun violence? Here is my
take.
The
Four Children and gun violence
The
wise child says: The vast majority of Americans want sane gun laws to curb
senseless gun violence and needless death. “Over 75% of the American people are
on our side; American mainline denominations are on our side; 75% of NRA
members are on our side. The only possible thing that could stand in our way is
to forget who we are (that we are created in God’s own image) and why God put
us here (to be His partner to perfect the world). “ (America and its Guns Page 213)
The
wicked child says: There are no
circumstances when regulation or restriction should be placed upon the
acquisition of guns. Guns don’t kill, only people kill. Guns represent
Judaism’s most cherished values of self-preservation. Besides I don’t know anybody personally who
was killed by gun violence.
The
simple child says: Why would anybody
want to come into my school with machine gun and kill so many of my friends?
The
child who doesn’t even know how to ask just weeps.
