[thechat] Snowball fight turns... umm... I don't even know how to express it...

[Chris Marsh]

> > PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia man angered by a
> > children's snowball fight retaliated with a drive-by shooting
> > that left a 10-year-old girl critically injured with a
> > gunshot wound to the head, police said on Monday.
> >
> http://tinyurl.com/6cy9
>
> "This little girl had nothing to do with anything. She wasn't
> even involved in the earlier fight. That's what makes it even
> more tragic," Police Capt. Charles Bloom told reporters Monday.
>
> *That's* what makes it even more tragic. Not that a 32-year-old
> man was *shooting at children*, but that the girl he *happened
> to hit* with a chunk of hot lead WASN'T THROWING SNOWBALLS!

Whilst I'm with you thus far...

> And people wonder why I'm for gun control. Good god, sometimes

...and gun control reduces gun crime? Um, how does that colossal leap of
faith work? We have "gun control" in the UK. We also appear to have
increasing gun crime.

"Homicide statistics show that 858 deaths were initially recorded as
homicide in 2001/2, an increase of 1 per cent on 2000/1. Firearms were
used in 12 per cent of homicides, an increase of 32 per cent (23 cases)
on 2000/01. A Home Office research report, 'Reducing Homicide' also
published today examines ways to reduce homicide in the UK drawing on
international research and other literature.

"Firearms, excluding air weapons, were used in 9,974 recorded offences
in 2001/2 - an increase of 35 per cent compared to 2000/1. In 24 per
cent of these offences the firearm was fired. Air weapons were used in
12,340 recorded crimes, a rise of 21 per cent compared to 2000/01. In 95
per cent of these offences the air weapon was fired."

http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/statistics26.htm

> I wonder why a good portion of the population of North America isn't
> kept locked in padded cells.

Regards

Chris Marsh