This might seem like a non-story on the surface of it, because in fact, everything began with a motorcycle which backfired.
But people reacted, understandably mistaking it for the first shots in a mass shooting. After all, most of us can agree that there have been far too many mass shootings as of late.
This caused a bunch of people to start running, and it became almost like a stampede. Some people there were trampled on. No reports of deaths or even very serious injuries, but it goes to show just how jumpy people have become, and how much we seem to be almost expecting some mass shooting these days.
Nor was it relegated to New York City. Something very similar happened at The Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City, Utah, when there were actually reports of an active shooter. People there panicked, and there were people running and hiding. A loud banging noise had been the cause of the panic. The mall closed early, even though this was not a real active shooter event, and there were no reported injuries.
Sometimes, it feels like this nation is going mad. When we seem to collectively have accepted random mass shootings as the new normal, it indeed seems like we have lost a grip on our collective sanity.
A very sad, yet very telling, couple of stories yesterday in New York and in Utah, about what we have come to accept and expect these days. Mass shootings are commonplace I this country, in yet another category that we sadly stand alone in, and for all of the wrong reasons. Now, it is causing mass panics, just from fear of being caught in one of e all too common active shooting situations.
All of this so that the NRA and the gun industry can continue to rake in big profits, and that members of Congress and other prominent politicians (mostly, but not exclusively, Republicans) can continue to receive serious funding from the gun lobby for their political campaign. The right to bear arms for a well-regulated militia has somehow been turned around to mean that any homicidal lunatic, literally, can get assault rifles. According to some of the most extreme interpretations of the second amendment, even terrorists should not be subjected to background checks, or have their right to bear arms infringed in any way.
Unbelievable.
Here are a couple of links to this story:
Times Square panic: Backfiring motorcycle causes crowds to flee in NYC by Eyewitness News, August 7, 2019:
STAMPEDE IN TIMES SQUARE AFTER MOTORCYCLE BACKFIRES, SPARKING SHOOTER FEARS BY MATT KEELEY ON 8/6/19:
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