Raw Story: Authorities in Oregon are considering whether to charge an off-duty security guard who accidentally shot and killed his girlfriend’s 9-year-old daughter while practicing drawing his weapon.Sandy Hook got our attention because of sheer number of deaths all at once in one place. But the fact is that there are the equivalent of about two Sandy Hook massacres every single day. They’re just not one crime, in one place, by one shooter. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, “In 2008, 2,947 children and teens died from guns in the United States and 2,793 died in 2009 for a total of 5,740—one child or teen every three hours, eight every day, 55 every week for two years. Six times as many children and teens—34,387—suffered nonfatal gun injuries as gun deaths in 2008 and 2009. This is equal to one child or teen every 31 minutes, 47 every day, and 331 children and teens every week.”
Oregon City police spokesperson Lt. Jim Band said that 32-year-old Joseph Wade Wolters was at home on Sunday prepping for his new job as an armed security guard by holstering and unholstering a loaded weapon. Fourth grader Shayla May Shonneker was about 50 yards away when the gun discharged, sending a bullet through a wall and striking the girl in the face while she was playing outside.
The girl was later pronounced dead after being rushed to Oregon Health & Science University Hospital by LifeFlight helicopter.
47 kids shot every single goddam day and the soft-on-crime crowd is fine with that. They don’t want to do a damned thing about it. Two Sandy Hooks a day and that’s an acceptable amount of collateral damage. And hey, we don’t have to do anything about guns, right? We can put armed security guards in all the schools, because if this incident has taught us anything, it’s that underpaid and under-trained rent-a-cops are great with firearms.
Just another average day in America. Pay no mind to all the blood.
