The Ways of the Guns?

This past Saturday, there was the tragic killing of a twelve year old boy, in a city park, by a police officer. The story is one that happens all too frequently in the USA. The youngster was sitting in a swing at a family park, brandishing his weapon at and scaring other people as they walked by. Numerous calls were made to 911. One caller even told the dispatcher that he thought the gun may be a toy. The police arrived on the scene, repeatedly asked the young man to put his hands up, a request the boy ignored, instead he reached back for the gun tucked, in plain sight, in the back of his waistband. An officer fired his weapon. Early Sunday morning, 12 yr. old Tamir Rice died from wounds he received from an, as of yet, unknown Cleveland police officer's service weapon.

This is a tragedy in so many ways, parents have lost a precious child, it's possible that siblings will not grow up with a brother, grandparents will never be able to hug a grandson, aunts and uncles will never see their nephew graduate, friends no longer have a buddy to play ball with and so on and so forth. Perhaps forgotten in the tragedy is the officer involved who will live the remainder of his life, knowing he killed an unarmed child.

The 'gun' reported by several at the park was an “airsoft” type replica gun which resembles a semi-automatic pistol. Apparently they come with an orange tag that marks it as a 'toy'. The tab had been removed. Of the numerous people frightened by young Tamir, as he removed and replaced the gun back and forth, into his back waistband after pointing it at and frightening them, only one told the CPD dispatcher he thought it may be a toy. The dispatcher did not relay that information when she put out the radio call to the zone cars. No one will ever know why Tamir was scaring people or, why he didn't raise his hands when the police asked him to. This is definitely, as is said at times, a senseless tragedy.

In trying to make sense of this atrocity, I cannot help but come back to my feeling that this is just further truth that we have too many guns in this country. Yes, this was a 'toy'. A toy the manufacturer attempted to make look like, exactly that, a toy gun. Unfortunately, the toy gun could be altered easily enough to transform it into looking like the real thing. Certainly, Tamir, had most of the people he aimed it at feeling fear for their lives. In addition, he also had professionals, the police officers involved, believing in the authenticity of the weapon.

Years back, many years back, youngsters had toy guns. Rarely did this cause a tragedy like the one on Saturday because largely, the only other guns we were exposed to were in the holsters of our local police officers. Most of us grew up with a healthy respect for guns and what they were capable of. The nonchalance toward guns today has done nothing but make them more dangerous. Everywhere you look, there's someone flaunting his gun ownership, wearing weapons of war across their shoulders while buying milk for their kids breakfast. Children see these people on the news, across the Internet where the news is flashed that gun owners are welcome to protect their rights while Christmas shopping in WalMart with an AK47 at his side. Kids just want to be cool. While living amidst a gun culture, they just want to fit in by being a badass with a gun, real or not. I know many may disagree but, I am not alone in believing we have far too many guns on the street, today.

#guns #police #children