It's bad enough that there are four guns for every three people in the United States of America. Even worse is the potential for suicide and other kinds of self-harm, and for crimes that wouldn't have happened otherwise. I am thinking, of course, about mass shootings, of which we've had three for every two days here in the US, and mass killings, nearly all of which happen by gunfire and of which we are on track to have nearly twice as many in 2023 as in any previous year.
But I also have another kind of tragedy in mind: the kind that unfolded just before noon yesterday in New Haven, Connecticut. A man was cycling down Chapel Street, between Ferry and Poplar. He stopped to help a driver who'd fallen asleep at the wheel. Another driver started to argue with the cyclist. Then he shot him.
The cyclist went to the emergency room and is expected to survive. But it makes me think about the times I've stopped to help people while I was riding. What if someone else took issue, whether for a rational reason or not? And what if that person had a
weapon?
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| From Edmunds |
For that matter, I have to wonder whether, one day, some motorist who resents my presence on "his" road might decide to make his point with the tip of a bullet?
