U.S.A. — “Quadruple shooting in Edgewood possibly gang-related, police say,” CBS News Baltimore reported Wednesday. “Police said that while no motive is known, it is believed that the victims and suspects were known to each other and that all victims were active gang members or associates.”
“Baltimore police detectives continue to interview victims of Sunday’s mass shooting that left two people dead and 28 others injured in an ongoing investigation,” NBC’s WBAL TV 11 reports on an earlier incidence of violence in the oxymoronically-named Charm City. “Gunfire caused chaos and panic at an annual Brooklyn Homes block party celebration.”
“A shooting in a Kansas nightclub early Sunday morning left seven people with gunshot wounds and two more people hospitalized after being trampled in a rush for the exits, police said,” AP reports on yet another urban shoot-‘em-up. “Shots were fired from at least four guns inside the club…”
“73 people shot, 11 fatally, over July Fourth weekend in Chicago that began and ended with mass attacks,” the Chicago Sun-Times weighs in, showing when it comes to bloodbaths, Chi-Town takes second place to none. This was “a slightly higher toll than last year when the holiday lasted only three days…”
“Fourth of July brings several late-night shootings to St. Louis,” NBC’s 5 on Your Side notes. “At least five separate shootings occurred in a matter of hours on July 4. One person was killed, and six others were injured.”
Meanwhile, over at the nation’s capital, “Nine people were shot and wounded, including two juveniles, early Wednesday morning at a July 4th celebration in Washington, D.C.,” USA Today observes. “A dark-colored SUV was seen driving through the neighborhood before it stopped and then shot at the victims, who were outside enjoying the July 4th holiday…”
But wait, as they say in TV infomercials, there’s more!
“Just hours after July 4th fireworks shows, more gun violence erupted across New York City overnight in three boroughs,” ABC 7 Eyewitness News relates. “At least 11 people were shot overnight and two were killed.”
Moving on, per NPR we find “A Philadelphia man has been charged with murder, attempted murder and other crimes for allegedly carrying out a shooting spree in the city on Monday that left five people dead and several others injured, including a toddler.”
And all the ‘right” boxes are checked when we’re told the identified shooter “allegedly wore body armor and a ski mask and used an AR-15-style rifle during the shooting. He was also found with a 9mm handgun, which was an untraceable ‘ghost” gun.’”
What we then find are dueling narratives. If you go with the one being pushed by that “most trusted name in news,” CNN, we’re told he “did it to clean up the neighborhood” and that a “since-deleted social media page believed to belong to the accused gunman … includes a series of posts about guns, the Second Amendment and the ‘loss of freedoms,’ according to a law enforcement source,” and that he “shared posts from pro-gun groups supporting former President Donald Trump and the Second Amendment.”
We’ll have to take the unidentified “law enforcement source’s” word for it, though, because the Facebook page in question is “unavailable.” Meanwhile, over at the New York Post, they’re claiming the killer is a “BLM activist who wore women’s clothes,” and they have creepy photos to back it up.
Experience tells us which narrative will gain traction if it can and which will be suppressed if the truth is inconvenient. But no matter, because the messaging that will be the constant is that the problem is with guns (combined with systemic racism) and the solution is more prohibitions. That’s despite every city mentioned being Democrat-run and headed up by a member of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Guns (I left out “illegal” because they want them all to be), and no “white supremacists” or “Christian nationalists” were on scene.
Still, someone and something’s got to take the blame, and Baltimore Mayor “Let’s Go” Brandon Scott, fresh from the launch of the punching bag, video game, Narcan kit, and snack-equipped “Peace Mobile” is ready to point fingers at guns.
“You’re talking about a country where it’s easier for a 14-year-old kid to order pieces together, to put a gun together and go out and use it and commit a crime than it is for me to get Claritin D from CVS,” Scott declared in the WBAL TV 11 article. Obama would have said books or vegetables, but you get the picture.
Interesting though, that he just admitted criminals bypass all the hurdles and hoops that only affect the “law-abiding,” meaning doing the same thing ad nauseam will never “stop the violence.” And focusing on that and ignoring the real issues as a political strategy is as evil as it is insane.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
