Two shootings at two 4th of July Celebrations. The Highland Park, Illinois shooting claimed six lives and over two dozen injuries and the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shooting appears to have targeted the police directly. Two officers were hit by gunfire but neither seriously in the Philadelphia attack.
Illinois
The shooter in Highland Park was apprehended after a manhunt and brief chase into Lake Forest, Illinois. The 22 year old suspect has not been tied to a motive for the attack at this time but is alleged to have a fairly extensive online profile, styling himself a rapper or hip-hop artist of some manner.
The rifle has not been identified beyond “high powered” and it is said to have been purchased legally. The suspect lived with his father and uncle so it is not known if the shooter himself purchased the rifle, thus being background checked and having a FOID on file with the state, or if the firearm was owned by the father or uncle instead.
The father is said to have run for mayor and is a local business owner.
Highland Park’s Mayor, Nancy Rotering, is calling for another look at gun laws as she says attacks like this are happening weekly.
“I think it’s pretty clear what needs to be done. We need this nation to have a very strong conversation about what it means if we are coming together to celebrate our freedom and independence and people have to face a terrorist on a rooftop with guns that were obtained legally. That’s a problem.”
This is where we get back into political posturing, unfortunately.
I think it’s pretty clear what needs to be done.
It apparently is not, since we keep having the same circular conversation of anti-gunners wanting the impossible and getting mad when they are reminded that it is a combination of impossible and highly illegal infringement upon enumerated civil rights.
We need this nation to have a very strong conversation about what it means if we are coming together to celebrate our freedom and independence and people have to face a terrorist on a rooftop with guns that were obtained legally.
Mayor, I know what you mean by ‘strong conversation’ and isn’t a conversation. It’s a lecture of what you would like to see done regardless of facts, opinions, and rights to the contrary. Terrorists, fun fact, do not have a magical tag that pops up over their heads identifying them to NICS or state agencies unless, wait for it, they’ve been tried and convicted of terrorism.
Background checks do not work if there is no background to be checked, and no a bunch of ‘violent’ rap music videos don’t count, otherwise most musicians in many genres would be automatically disqualified. Violent video games, sharing questionable memes, reading books with violence in them, and any number of protected forms of expression that do not correlate to a logical prohibition on owning arms.
That’s a problem.
It is several problems. Not all interconnected either. Motivations for shootings and security to prevent and respond to shootings are all different problems with layered solutions. None of those ‘solutions’ are going to be perfect though and people like Mayor Rotering have a hard enough time properly outlining the scope of the problems and they tend to be married heavily to their ‘common sense’ solutions.
I hope everyone else had a good weekend however.
