yet another active shooter

[drewkitty]

14 dead in Binghamton, NY. Active shooter at immigration services center. Joy:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/Binghamton-Gunman-is-Reportedly-Laid-Off-IBMer-408098/

I get these kinds of alerts through California EDIS and (nationwide) PoliceOne. None of them are hypotheticals and I hope for the best for all of those affected.

But I notice that I only get news alerts for active shooters and for missing kids in danger ("Amber Alerts.") In other words, extremely unusual incidents.

If I look at the CHP Web site, I can see that right now in the state of California, there are four (4) confirmed serious injury accidents to which paramedics are responding as I type this. Another has wires down and persons trapped. http://cad.chp.ca.gov/ "Hot Spots"

The roads kill over 50,000 people every year. It's a river of blood despite everything we can do with driver education, safer cars, better roads, improvements in law enforcement, stronger EMS systems and hospitals, and the best efforts of MADD/SADD and other anti-drunk driving organizations.

I guess that kind of carnage just isn't news any more.

A typical freeway weekend in California takes more lives than this massacre, but do we see any public outrage? Do people avoid the roads? Call for banning cars? Demand more CHP units on the road? Support their local trauma centers? Write car manufacturers and politicians demanding safer cars with mandatory side airbags and other life-saving features?

Comments

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Traveling on the public roads by automobile generally has a constructive purpose. for example, today I delivered construction materials. Last weekend, we drove to LA for a memorial service.

Deaths on the road are rarely the result of deliberate attempts to kill. They are more often the result of poor/inattentive drivers, poorly maintained vehicles, bad conditions, or a combination of the above.

Oh, people do demand more safety features in cars. And increased requirements for driver's licenses.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

How deliberate is the crazed act of a madman? I haven't seen good research on this point, partly I suspect due to the difficulty of data collection.

I could devil's advocate this one with respect to drunken drivers. A person who gets behind the wheel drunk is choosing to play Russian Roulette with the lives of hapless strangers.

[mortefina.livejournal.com]

It's funny you mention drunk drivers. A co-worker and I were amazed (horrified) by the general media's reaction (rather lack thereof) to a football player's most recent issue: while driving drunk he struck and killed a pedestrian. we were appalled that last year a football player that was found to be abusing animals was strung up in the court of public opinion and run out of the league. we basically determined that dogs were more newsworthy (and important) than humans. maybe people just don't really value human life after all.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

As I point out in my other reply, driving while impaired is negligence. Exceedingly stupid, criminal negligence that in this case cost a man his life, but it is not the same thing as organizing a criminal enterprise based on animals killing each other.

[finnkveldulfr.livejournal.com]

Exceedingly stupid criminal negligence with *FORESEEABLE* results-- the football player should still be locked up with a Murder2 conviction.

His crime-- deliberately and willfully putting other people's lives in danger (and in this case-- actually killing someone) by choosing to drive after drinking alcohol-- is at least as bad as the crime of organizing and running a dog-fighting ring.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

In this particular case, deliberate enough to block to only means of escape before beginning to shoot.

Drunk driving is negligence. I don't think I've ever heard of case where a drunk got behind the wheel with the intention of killing other people. It's probably happened, but I'd wager that it is extraordinarily rare. Likewise, I do know of cases of intentional vehicular homicide, but the vast majority of car-related deaths are accidental.

Comparing deaths on the road to gun deaths is a false dichotomy. According to the Federal Highway Administration, the 200 million licensed drivers in the US drove 3.0 trillion miles in 2005. With that amount of traffic, accidents and deaths are going to happen.

Remember that I'm as much a gun nut as you, but I also see no harm in requiring a license to show that a person has taken a gun safety/basic firing course and passed a background check.