Miami Herald: Its the Gunshine State-an argument at Publix or road rage on I-95 could get you killed

[tenderfoot]

Customers yelling at store attendants about masks. Protesters threatening school officials over pandemic restrictions. A spike in unruly passengers prompting an airline to ask the federal government to create a no-fly list.

And don’t even mention the vitriol on social media.

We’re a society on edge.

In a state that preaches residents should be armed to the teeth, shoot first and ask questions later, anger can be easily explode into violence — and death. The weekend shooting of a man in a Coral Gables Publix lottery line makes that clear. Police said two men were seen on surveillance footage arguing, and the confrontation escalated with one of them getting shot in the chest. Franklyn Pineyro died in the hospital. Osmel Lugo-Gutierrez, who, the Herald reported, admitted to police that Pineyro was unarmed, was charged with second-degree murder on Monday.

Another rage-fueled incident in Miami-Dade County last summer made national news after footage was recently released of a man who opened fire while driving on Interstate 95 in North Miami. The incident reportedly began when Eric Popper’s car changed lanes and cut off another driver going south near Northwest 151st Street. The other driver beeped and threw a water bottle, the Herald reported, and tailgated Popper for a short time, making hand gestures out of his driver’s window. In the video, Popper waits until the other driver passes him and, with a gun taken out of the center console, aims and fires through the right front passenger door and windshield. He shot 11 rounds. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article258171348.html

[tenderfoot]

1. Is it a matter of bad temper?

Is it a matter of bad temper? Self-defense? Are there details about the cases not yet disclosed that will help us better comprehend them? Or is this the result of a culture that teaches citizens to think of their fellow citizens as potential threats to be neutralized with the exercise of our Second Amendment rights? A pressure cooker where tensions, already heightened because by a disruptive pandemic that has divided us, come to fruition through the barrel of a gun?

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article258171348.html

[PortTack]

2. Wouldn't dream of going to FL..may never go again. Yes, there are other hot spots but FL

Takes the lunacy award

[Scrivener7]

3. Forget it, Jake. This is America. That could happen in any state. Though I do take your point

about Florida being a particularly gun soaked one.

[smirkymonkey]

5. Not really, much less likely in MA or most of the states w/ stricter gun laws.

I never see anyone packing. They might be, but it's a big risk here and we are not a gun culture in this state, or at least most of it. I hate guns and I would completely freak out if I saw anyone carrying one in public.

[Scrivener7]

6. I live in NY. We have strict gun laws, but stuff like this still happens.

[smirkymonkey]

10. I used to live in NYC and i rarely saw it in Manhattan.

I would have been horrified if I had seen it.

[Scrivener7]

13. My work took me around the Bronx. I was personally involved in 3 shooting incidents

as an endangered bystander.

Yes, it was quite horrifying.

[smirkymonkey]

15. I think it's more common in the boroughs, especially the Bronx.

I have only been there once and it scared the s**t out of me. I am sorry for your experiences. I would be interested to hear about your experiences if you care to share them. What a nightmare!

[tenderfoot]

11. Can you cite some 'stand your ground' incidents in NYS?

Oh yes, there's shootings there but I'm not seeing the insanity that makes up Florida these days.

Your blasé stance is disturbing.

[Scrivener7]

12. Sorry I am offending you. I personally have been involved in three shooting incidents

in NYC during the normal course of my work that took me around the Bronx.

No, we don't have stand your ground laws. Neither of the incidents cited in the article had anything to do with stand your ground.

What about my words makes you think my stance is blase? What part disturbed you?

[tenderfoot]

14. You don't seem to care

that's what upset me.

[Scrivener7]

16. What in my words makes you think I don't care?

Have your words indicated caring in some way mine have not?

[tenderfoot]

17. Forget it, Jake. This is America.

MEH... BFD... SFW...

[Scrivener7]

18. SMDH.

[tenderfoot]

19. Meh... happens everywhere...

SMDH indeed.

[modrepub]

4. Guns Only Part of The Problem

Would be interesting to see what these people's credit score/debt to income ratio is. My guess is they reflect a person who has a fair amount of debt and has relatively low job income.

Being stressed out about you financial situation, plus this pandemic seems to have a lot of people on edge and prone to fits of anger. Put a weapon in their hand and you've got a recipe for trouble (not to mentioning our Byzantine health care system's impact on the whole equation).

[Scrivener7]

7. No, debt doesn't cause shootings. Guns cause shootings.

As you pointed out yourself, the shooting doesn't happen till you put a gun in their hand.

[Cosmocat]

8. Yeah

It isn't "economic insecurity," it's tweaking out on hate / rage media.

[tenderfoot]

9. Yep, that guy shooting out his windshield at someone he cut off did it because of economic anxiety

[Chainfire]

20. Parts of Florida are worse than others

I have lived here all of my life and have never been witness to gun violence.

I tend to believe that gun violence, like many other crimes are generally concentrated in urban areas. I live in the country where the population is thin enough to reduce anonymity. In a city, you can do bad things to other people, and stand a good chance of never seeing them again, not so in a rural area. I did live in Miami for several years, and there were things about it that I adored, however, I found it too tense to offer a good quality of life. You really had to watch your back 24/7. I will never forget the morning that I was driving to work and saw two men, in suits and ties, doing fisticuffs in the median of the road. Like I say, the atmosphere is tense.

I returned to my rural home, and while not free of violence, it is easier to avoid places where trouble is more likely to start. What is really interesting is that my rural county actually has a higher rate of violent crime than Miami, but it is mainly concentrated in the drug distribution circles. Most of the time with young men with more testosterone than sense. (and the more testosterone, the more likely you are to carry a gun.) Since I get my dope at the pharmacy and not behind the minute market, I avoid that issue. I also treat everyone that I meet with respect and courtesy which tends to be calming to all parties. Eye contact with confidence, a nod and a smile is disarming.

The gun statistics are interesting. While ultra-conservative Texas has the most guns and the most per capita, they are way down the list of gun violence. California, the liberal stronghold, has some pretty strict laws regarding gun possession but nearly leads the nation in the number of guns in the hands of the people.

Guns, and gun violence is a complicated issue and has not received the serious study that it deserves. While many of us would prefer to see a country devoid of firearms, it is wise to recognize that that will never happen as long as we are a Democracy. What the far right does not consider is that if they get their way and assume total rule, the conservative leadership is liable to do what liberals were never able to do. I can see confiscation of firearms as happens in all dictatorial states; sometimes folks get what they deserve.