When things like this happen, this kind of response always interests me.
Gun ownership isn't new or particularly less regulated. In fact, more homes in 1960 owned a gun than they do now. The question then is what happened? Did things like this always happen and the only reason it's major cause of concern now is because we're all oversocialized via mass media? Did these things not happen and in-fact the rise in gun violence is more likely correlated to a loss in social trust and a deterioration of the social fabric, rather than gun ownership itself?
I tend to agree with conservatives when they say that extensive gun legislation seems more like a lazy, half-baked punishment than an actual coherent policy. It might work to reduce gun deaths, but would it actually solve the malaise undergirding the issue?
I think this has always been happening.
I was an avid newspaper reader since my paperboy days, well before the internet and cable-tv. I always remember stories like this in my city, usually involving parents shooting their own kids, or relatives, neighbors, or lost drunks.
That this guy shot a young kid in the back at some distance in the public street, while the kid was running away, is a bit unusual though. The stories I remember usually took place in the inside, or immediately at a door or window.
One of the saddest stories I remember is of a father shooting his teenage kid in the dark, as the kid was slipping through a window he jimmied to regain entry into his own family house.
It turns-out the kid snuck-out at night to drink with his teenage friends, and his pops thought he was a prowler as the kid tried to sneak back into the house in the middle of the night. The old man never knew the kid had left. He turned on the light after having fired-away in the dark, only to realize that he had shot his own kid!
This was decades ago, and I don't remember if the kid was shot fatally. i was a teenage when this occurred, and it was very relatable. Like the teenage victim, I wasn't adverse to sneaking-out at night, crawling back-in through a basement window! And yes, the men in my family were vets and had firearms, which I'm sure they would use if they believed the need arose!
abcnews-go-com.cdn.ampproject.org
