Stephan: My original plan for today's issue was to commit the entire issue to the stories about the Thanksgiving mass shooting and murders. Think about that, But, when I laid it out it was just too much, so I am doing just this one article. In the United States so far this year we have had 608 mass shootings and murders, and nearly 40,000, that's right not a typo, 40,000 have died by gun fire. We have gotten to a point in this country where if you are non-evangelical Christian, LGBTQ, or of any race but White, and you gather socially someplace, you are at significant risk of being killed or wounded by some hate-filled, resentful, fearful individual -- almost certainly a White man, usually armed with an AR-15 style military weapon. There is no other country in the world unless engaged in open warfare, where this kind of random murder occurs. And it just goes on and on. Other than President Biden, do you hear anyone in Congress, particularly a Republican member, talking about creating gun controls? No, neither do I. And that is the problem. Are you as sick of these mass murders as I am? Then I urge you to write your Representative and senators and tell them to pass real gun control.
Visitors hug Wednesday at makeshift memorial near the scene of a mass shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Credit: David Zalubowski / AP
It was the final hour of extended store opening on Tuesday at the Walmart Supercenter in the commercial heart of Chesapeake, Virginia’s second-largest city. Shoppers scrambled to make last-minute purchases for Thanksgiving. Then shots rang out.
Shortly after 10pm an employee, said to be a manager, entered a break room at the back of the store where staff were gathering at the start of the overnight shift, and according to an eyewitness “just started spraying”. The gunman used a pistol to shoot his victims and then turned the weapon on himself, all within minutes.
Donya Prioleau, a worker at the store, captured on Facebook the horror of the moment. She expressed not only her own trauma at seeing three friends killed by a silent gunman right in front of her, but also a wider despair at yet another mass shooting two days before a holiday meant for reflection and celebration.
She wrote: “Somebody’s baby, mom, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, […]
You are absolutely right, Stephan! These military style weapons are not needed in the USA, just like Biden just said yesterday (or the day before).