Doubting Thomas Blog

Archive for the ‘guns’ Category

Is it just me, or did anyone else find the fact that the megachurch has armed security guards disturbing?

From cnn.com:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) — “It seemed like it was me, the gunman, and God,” said Jeanne Assam, describing her feelings as she confronted a man who charged into her Colorado Springs church Sunday firing a weapon.

Assam, a church security guard with law enforcement experience, fired her own weapon at the invader and stopped his attack, police say.

Also, when did “megachurch” sneak into the national vocabulary?

I don’t think I have anything cogent to say about yesterday’s shootings at Virginia Tech yet.

But something about the reporting of the massacre was bothering me, so I started browsing the innerweb to see whether my suspicisions were correct. And the way the innerwebs work, I bumped into some other ideas along the way.

A. Most massacres are named after the place where they occured.

B. If a mass murderer’s ethnicity is white, the press doesn’t mention ethnicity. But if the mass murderer is non-white, his ethnicty, and the ethnicity of his non-white victims, are included in the media report.

C. Mass murderers are almost never female.

D. Every massacre is rated as the “worst since…” or is ranked as the “second worst” and so on.

E. Both sides of the gun-control argument use gun-based massacres to try to make their points.

B. Of course the ethnicity of the September 11 murderers was a major part of the news story, so I am not saying that our news media are somehow racist by including that as part of the story. And I’m not implying that there’s something wrong with a news report that read “Dylan Kliebold, a white student from Columbine High School…”. But you may have noticed a white bias in our culture. The way we talk about criminals just shows the way we think. We tend to notice when someone doesn’t look like us. If I get in a hit by a car as I bike home tonight, you won’t ask me the driver’s ethnicity. But, if I get run down and seriously injured by someone who doesn’t have the same skin color as me, the report in the news (I’m so vain to think my injury is newsworthy, aren’t I? ha ha) will most likely mention the driver’s ethnicity.

C. I can’t think of a single mass murderer who was female. I know there were women serial killers, but I think they did all their killings one-at-a-time.

D. Perhaps it is something they teach in journalism, you know, being thorough about your reporting and all, but sometimes I find it annoying to have these kinds of news events rated against each other.

E. Lastly, you may already know where I stand on gun control, but I won’t bring it up now; the timing’s wrong, if you ask me.

note that cnn.com has
his nickname wrong:
Buck, instead of Bucky

I was heading home at about 10 pm, when I saw about 25 state police vehicles racing up I-190 with their lights flashing, and I had a feeling they were taking Ralph (Bucky) Philips to jail. Or ECMC.

I really didn’t expect him to be captured alive. After they said on the news earlier today that he was seen pointing a gun at an officer, I thought for sure someone would shoot him–because he seemed willing to shoot at the troopers.

I turned on the TV news at 11 and was saddened to see a woman say she was glad Bucky had been captured, but that she really didn’t care if he was dead or alive, she just wanted it to end. Now that I’m writing that thought out, I have another thought: there’s probably a lot of people who feel the same as the woman on TV.

And now I’m thinking, what’s wrong with me, or something like that, that I can’t wish someone dead. Even if they killed someone else (which hasn’t been proven yet–this is America, where you’re innocent until proven guilty, remember?), I just can’t want someone to die.

More news about people killing people with guns.

‘I just killed a kid’
Neighbor charged with shooting teen who walked on his grass
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) — A man who neighbors say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn was charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard.

Charles Martin called 911 on Sunday afternoon, saying calmly: “I just killed a kid.”

Police, who released the call’s contents, said Martin also told the dispatcher: “I’ve been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up.”

Larry Mugrage, whose family lived next door, was shot in the chest with a shotgun. The high school freshman was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Martin, 66, allegedly told police he had several times had problems with neighbors walking on his lawn. He remained jailed without bond Monday. His jailers said no attorney was listed for him.

Neighbors said Martin lived alone quietly, often sitting in front of his one-story home with its neat lawn, well-trimmed shrubbery and flag pole with U.S. and Navy flags flying.

Joanne Ritchie, 46, said Mugrage was known as “a good kid.” She said she always also considered Martin to be friendly.

Union Township is near Batavia, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Yes, I was reading cnn.com with my coffee this morning.

Police: 3 dead in restaurant shooting
People fled and hid in the bathrooms during the shooting
Thursday, March 16, 2006

PISMO BEACH, California (AP) — A man armed with two handguns opened fire inside a Denny’s restaurant during the lunch hour Wednesday, killing two people and wounding a married couple before taking his own life, police said.

As many as 15 people were inside the restaurant at the time, authorities said. Many fled or hid in bathrooms for safety.

“The shooter randomly and calmly walked down the aisle and started shooting,” said police Chief Joe Cortez, describing a surveillance video.