RIP Aaron Shannon, Jr.

5-year-old fatally wounded in gang shooting - latimes.com:

image via LA Times

'This is absolutely horrific. This is 2 p.m. on Halloween,' said Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Pat Gannon, who oversees South Los Angeles' policing. 'This little boy was getting ready to go trick-or-treating. It is one of the most exciting days of the year for young children, and then they opened fire on this innocent family.

'There is no reason for this shooting,' he said. 'It makes no sense. This family has no gang ties. The shooters … they are nothing but cowards.'

I can't, I won't note every death by shooting in this country. There are simply too many of them to keep up with. It's also unbearably sad. The Spider-Man costume the boy was wearing when he was killed is the exact same one my son wore last Halloween; seeing that picture along with the headline was like being sucker-punched. The devastation wrought by gun wielding cowards (worth repeating, as Menino said the other day, and as Gannon said here, that guns are for cowards) is a national disgrace.

When somebody can explain to me how making handguns available accomplishes the establishment or maintenance of a "well regulated militia," I'll listen. People, that's the Armed Forces; we have it covered. Bleat all you want about 2nd Amendment, coward, that vote you cast for a pro-gun candidate, that check you write to the NRA, might as well be written in Aaron Shannon's blood.