Shortly after noon on Tuesday, word spread that an active shooter was barricaded in a house at the corner of Main Street and North Harbor Street in Branford firing at random into the Richlin plaza.
How many of us travel that stretch of road each and every day?
People quickly fled into the laundromat and sought shelter elsewhere as local police, state police, SWAT teams quickly established a heavy presence. It would continue for seven long hours, while news reporters broadcasted updates, social media exploded, and people asked, “Why? In our quiet town of Branford.”
Thus far, there are more questions than answers. Who was this guy? What caused him to take out his vengeance in a busy neighborhood? How did he accumulate such an arsenal, enough to hold off police for such a long duration?
Unlike the spate of other recent shootings – in Colorado, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, among 130 thus far in 2021 (according to the Gun Violence Archive) – only one person was injured and is expected to recover. But “only” one person is one person too many.
Police attempted to make contact with him. But in the end he was dead, by his own hand. And not before traumatizing a whole town and taxing the resources of law enforcement.
What is it about our culture that makes people cling to weapons like some kind of security blanket? Are they so insecure that they must use weapons instead of words? The impotence of Congress in addressing this issue is evident with each headline. Although President Joe Biden is making some inroads through recent executive actions, automatic weapons and high capacity magazines are still all too readily available. Rhetorically, WHY would anyone need an AR-15?
The toxic gun culture of this country came home to roost on Tuesday.
Reporting by the New Haven Register/ShoreLine Times:
New details emerge about suspect in Branford armed standoff
Branford standoff neighbor: ‘He could have shot me’
Medical examiner: Suspect in Branford armed standoff died by suicide
Back to normal? At site of Branford standoff and shootings, that’s a relative term
No comments:
Post a Comment