Mourning In America: Thousands of Gun Deaths Since Newtown By Jason Cherkis | HuffPost | 03/23/2013 8:35 am EDT Excerpts: On the morning of his murder, Feb. 11, Devin Aryal, 9, dressed to the ticking of his race car clock. His collection of stuffed animals, won from those arcade claw games, stared back at him from their perch on his top bunk. Devin felt he had outgrown the cutesy animal prints that had adorned the walls of his Oakdale, Minn., bedroom. He was in fourth grade now, after all. Without telling anyone, he had yanked the prints off his walls one by one. The morning was usual," recalled Melissa Aryal, Devins mother. "We got up and we got ready. I dropped him off at day care at 7:45." On the seven-minute ride in their minivan, Aryal, 39, kept the radio off so she could talk with Devin. "He had so much to say," she recalled. Their morning conversation always ended the same. "I love you, Aryal told her son. I love you more," he replied. That evening Aryal picked him up from the babysitters house. He got into the back seat of their forest green 2004 Nissan Quest minivan. Aryal pulled onto 7th Street and began the same drive she had taken for 5 1/2 years. She just wanted to go home and snuggle with Devin in front of the TV. Aryal thought she heard a noise coming from under the minivans hood. She did not see the man in the green jacket and black jeans firing round after round into the street with a 9 mm handgun. As Aryal turned left onto Hadley Avenue, her right arm suddenly went numb. Blood spurted. She pulled into the Rainbow Foods parking lot, jumped from the minivan and dialed 911 on her cellphone. As she was calling, she turned and looked back. The minivan back window was shattered. The emergency dispatch operator came on the phone. Aryal's eyes found Devin in the back seat. I just dropped the phone and I ran to him screaming, she said. She found her son slumped over in his seat, unconscious. He was making long, deep breathing sounds, and was bleeding from his head. Id seen the exit wound on the top of his head when I was holding him, Aryal remembered. She held her sons head in her arms. I love you. Just hold on. I love you. Just hold on. Mommys here. Aryal held on to her son until the ambulance took him to the hospital. He died within the hour. After a 34-year-old stranger with a 9 mm pistol and a backpack full of bullets shot Devin in the head for no apparent reason, Aryal only hears her son in her dreams. One month, two months, two years, nine years since those fatal shots - the grief never leaves. In the first week after the Newtown, Conn., massacre on Dec. 14, more than 100 people in the U.S. were killed by guns. In the first seven weeks, that number had risen to at least 1,285 gunshot killings and accidental deaths. A little more than three months after Newtown, there have been 2,243. read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/gun-deaths-us-newtown_n_2935686.html .....[/B ]IMO: How do strident voices demanding preservation of 2nd Amendment rights compare with this story of one womans inconsolable grief at the senseless murder of her son? How are we, as a civilized nation, to deal with the thousands of other murders that occur daily? And the numbers will keep growing until we make gun ownership registration under strict guidelines mandatory. Assault weapons have no place for use in the general citizenry. You know the type that killed 20 school kids and 6 teachers in minutes! Or have we become a nation of killers....in wars and in America?
Ah, yes....per usual, the totalitarian progressive left drags out yet another "proper"* dead baby to emotionally extort support for their unconstitutional, individual rights and liberty stealing agenda. * while ignoring the war zones in their useful idiot laden welfare states.
This is a really sad story with out any solution. We had more deaths by automobiles than that, do we ban cars, what about wars and cancer. We have been spending billions on cancer and still no cure but it sure make for profitable business in the pharmacy business. How about instead of telling us what is wrong offer a solution. I have an idea, no gun was ever fired with out a human behind it. We could eliminate humans.
if instead of giving the shooter welfare we gave him an education and job training this would not have happened..but the left love to believe that just throwing money to people will solve the problem..its education and job training
So, what do we do when these types of tragedies still occur after they take away our guns? The same tragedies will be happening but we'll have left ourselves competely defenseless against a ever hungry monster of our own making. A totalitarian government. Now, tell us what we are going to do to get our freedom back? Silly, emotion first, womanish thinking on the OP's part.
Is there even any proof this actually happened? I mean, its written in a story format for the purpose of appealing to emotion only. There is no objectivity what-so-ever. Therefore, I don't believed this really happened. Guns forever, control never.
Stop killing babies within the womb and you will save exponentially more lives. Or, do you prefer your hypocrisy?
it happened early last month..feb..it was in the news back then..the shooter was depressed because he lost his job and could not find another one..
A man was too afraid of the state, the media, lawsuits, judges, ect to stop the shooting......... He should have dropped him but after watching the George Zimmerman lynching, I can see why he didn't. Pre-Left social revolution, he likely would have lit him up and be hailed as a hero of Oakland, California. - - - Updated - - - I see an "Obamanomics" defense coming. Its better than the "Twinkie" defense.
When it comes to guns, NO, we are NOT a NATION of killers. But you could argue that point if you consider there are over 1.35 million abortions per year. So, you want to talk about a "civil" society? OK, compare a little over 1,000 gun related deaths per month vs an average 113,600+ per month abortions and tell me which stat disturbs you most.
These people are my neighbors, and this happened a few blocks from my house. I shopped at that Rainbow Foods just last night, and I can't drive into that parking lot without getting a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. As a neighbor of this family, and simply as a human being, this terrible tragedy just makes me feel as though my heart is being ripped right out of my chest every time I drive down that block and see the flowers and the teddy bears stuck in the snowbanks as a tribute. As an ardent defender of the 2nd Amendment, who currently owns 9 firearms, I am ready to discuss realistic solutions to stopping or minimizing these senseless, horrific crimes. As a voter, I'm disgusted that legislators continually focus on the most sensational and dramatic aspects of the gun control issue (assault weapons, hi-cap magazines) at the expense of the biggest problem - crazy people with handguns. Over 70% of all gun-related homicides in this country are committed with handguns, only about 2 to 3% with assault-style rifles, and yet every major piece of gun control legislation is targeted primarily at assault-style weapons. If a legislator wants to discuss serious solutions, then they need to show up with something that sounds like it's intended to be a serious solution to the biggest problem, not just some back door attempt to further an ideological agenda. You want to talk about gun crime, come to the people with some ideas on how to keep handguns out of insane hands. Don't start out babbling about assault weapons, because if that's your opening position, you've pretty much told me right from the first sentence that you're more interested in scoring political points than in reducing gun violence.
He was reportedly also upset about traffic noise. It's a fairly busy street, with a long, open straightaway leading downhill to a stoplight, and when people come up over the crest of the hill and see the light green a block way, they often race down the hill to make the light. He was against this. Felt the engine noise was an unacceptable burden to bear. Despicable. It's almost impossible to imagine the kind of thought process that would lead someone to do something like this.
Therein lies the problem. We are not a civilized nation. There has never been a record of a civilized nation in the history of our planet as far as I know of. Why would you believe we're civilized? The precondition of a civilized society is the barring of physical force from social relationshipsthus establishing the principle that if men wish to deal with one another, they may do so only by means of reason: by discussion, persuasion and voluntary, uncoerced agreement. According to that precept we've steadily been becoming more uncivilized. You shouldn't be shocked at the world you desire and build.
