Common Folk Using Common Sense

From the LA Times:

Shots rang out today inside a Toys R Us store in Palm Desert, killing two and causing shoppers at the busy store to scramble for cover.

Palm Desert Councilman Bob Spiegel told The Times that based on early reports, two rival groups shopping at the store had some kind of argument and then shots were fired. Two men were killed in the exchange of gunfire, he said.

Sara Frahm, 25, of La Quinta was shopping for electronic toys at the time of the shooting. She told The Times she heard two women fighting and swearing in an aisle next to her. She said employees went to break up the fight and that all of the sudden a number of people yelled, “He has a gun!” She said she heard six or seven shots.

Mike Stitt of Yucca Valley was shopping with his wife and two children when he saw two women fighting and calling each other names. Both were with men. One of the men pulled out a gun and shot it in the air, then shot the other man in the back, Stitt told The Times.

OK, so let me get this straight. Two couples were doing some post-Thanksgiving shopping at a Toys R Us store. I would assume that they’re doing the shopping to buy Christmas gifts for younger family or friends … you know, toys for kids.

“Rival groups”? Shouldn’t Councilman Bob Spiegel have used the phrase “thug gangsta gangs”, or is that way too politically incorrect?

But the two women got into an argument, which included foul language and fighting. Some reports state that at least one of the women was bleeding. Then their men friends entered into the altercation, drew their guns, and started shooting. Some reports state that the men ran through the store alternating between hiding and shooting. In the end both men apparently killed each other.

KTVU-TV reports:

The man who was with the woman being punched pulled a gun halfway out of his pocket, then shoved it back in …

The other man pulled a gun and pointed it at the first man but forgot to cock it …

The first man tried to run but was blocked by the line of people, then ran back toward the store’s electronics section as the other man fired his gun …

The first man reached a dead-end in electronics, turned around and ran toward an exit, pulling his gun and firing back …

In other words, complete chaos and carnage by two less-than-upstanding citizens. There was no lethal threat here, simply two people that got into a heated argument. The men … if they were real men … should have tried to separate and cool down the women, not start shooting. The women were guilty of using no self-control, and probably of being hot-heads, but the men are the ones that escalated this to lethal force.

Now come these comments from the Intellectual And Cultural Elite© at Huffington Post (I do not link there):

• What a terrible story. In a country of hundreds of millions of weapons, where bloody death is frequently a form of cinematic and game-console entertainment, the masses are ’shocked’.
  The right to bear arms should be repealed.
• And does anybody still think concealed weapons laws are a good idea?
• Unless you are in law enforcement or have a legitimate threat to your person, I don’t think you have any business carrying a weapon. You protect your family with laws and community, not having guns on your person.
• Scientific research has proven gun loving men have very little self-esteem. And the weapon somehow prolongs their tool, so we can expect some impotence as well.
• I see no problem in having a gun. I do see a problem in having a gun on your person, unless you’re hunting or target practicing.
• Not only do guns continue to be legal inspite of their inherent stupidity, we make it easier for someone to get an handheld killing machine than to get a driver’s license.
• How disgusting. Americans and their guns.
• Constitutional rights or not, any normal, sane person doesn’t need a gun.
• Time to mandate putting a computer chip in EVERY gun manufactured so they can be traced, identified; and the Republican manufacturers of these deadly weapons can be sued.

There is evil in this world. Evil can attack anyone at any time at any place. An eruption of evil can also affect innocent people that had the bad luck to be nearby. The police could not have stopped this event from happening. All the gun laws in the world would not have stopped this from happening. Regardless of whatever Utopia the Liberals continue to dream for, evil exists and impacts the innocent, and we all have a choice on how to react.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see all the Toys R Us store nationwide to put up signs declaring themselves to be “gun-free zones”. Yeah, that will certainly stop this kind of violence, because ain’t no thug going to carry his 9mm into a store that tells him not to, right?

If I am ever find myself in a life-or-death situation I will not simply cower and hope the bullets miss me. If there is gunfire nearby I will not pray that a cop just happens to arrive in time. If my wife or children or grandchildren are under lethal threat I will not simply stand there and wet myself in abject fear. I am sick and tired of violence, especially against the innocent, and I will no longer stand idly by.

Who would ever carry a gun into Toys R Us? Because of this story, I would … and I have, and I will.

Toys R Us, shooting, gun

Spread The Word: