I’m putting this in MPSIMS on purpose, not because I think it’s mundane but further discussion and debate on this board seems pointless. I don’t want to debate, I don’t want to hear both sides, and I don’t want to pit anything.
This isn’t even that newsworthy outside of San Francisco, it happens all the time everywhere. We have gang-bangers, we have drug dealers, and then we have nuts. In this story, some nut with a gun shot some random young guy getting off the streetcar, in the back of the head (it’s not clear from the stories what the killer did next, presumably he also got off at that stop and went home which is nearby). Fortunately there was video and people were able to identify him. He lives about three blocks from me, and I ride that line all the time, so I guess you could say I have dodged an unlikely bullet. But I guess that could have been me.
Sad and pointless all around. The killer is probably mentally unbalanced, based on the video (the video is not attached to this version of the story, but you can probably find it) and on his actions.
Why did he have to have a gun? He could have attacked his victim with a knife or a hammer, and the guy would have had a better chance of surviving. As it is, instant nothing. No good guys with a gun nearby could have helped, there was no warning. I guess they could have shot the killer immediately afterwards and saved the state some money, if your mind runs that way.
I don’t know what or how, but we as a society need to find some way to keep guns out of the hands of the nuts out there. That’s all. Arm yourselves to the teeth if you want to, as far as I’m concerned, as long as you’re not a nut.
Roddy