Last week, I was talking to the two men — East Side residents named Jimmie and Charles — who cut my grass and mulch my leaves, and I asked them if they had big New Year’s Eve plans.
Almost before I’d finished the question, Charles began shaking his head and said: “July 4 and New Year’s Eve, I’m in bed before the gunfire starts.”
I laughed, but, of course, there’s a lot of truth to what he said.
From celebratory shooting to shooting with malice, New Year’s Eve is a day we usually get a lot of gunfire in the Kansas City area.
The last day of 2016 and the first hours of 2017 were no exception: Three triple shootings occurred between Saturday and Sunday in Kansas City. Fortunately — and I say that loosely — only one of the nine people injured in those shootings died.
But that one death pushed the 2016 homicide count to 126 for last year — the city’s highest homicide count since 2008.
The headline on The Star’s year-end crime story was: “2016: The killing began quickly and never let up.”
That’s a hell of a commentary, isn’t it? To lift a phrase from the Jackie Chiles character on “Seinfeld,” “It’s outrageous, egregious, preposterous.” But in this case, it ain’t funny.
And here’s something that makes me squirm: Of those three triple shootings, only one occurred in what most of us would consider the “inner city.” That was in the 5800 block of Blue Parkway, near Sni-A-Bar Road.
One of the others occurred in the 1700 block of Missouri Avenue, near the Della Lamb Community Center in northeast Kansas City. And the third shooting, in which a man in his 20s died, took place on Ninth Street, between Broadway and Washington, near The Peanut’s downtown location.
I don’t know about you, but I am frequently in the vicinity of Blue Parkway and Sni-A-Bar; it’s my go-to route to Kauffman Stadium. And the Milwaukee Delicatessan, Ninth and Baltimore, is my second favorite pizza place (after Minsky’s).
As much as I’d like to wave off those incidents as not being in my frame of reference, I can’t do that. In fact, there are many places we all go that have been the scenes of shootings and that probably will be in the months and years to come.
The rate of shootings and homicides has to be a major concern for all of us. As Damon Daniel, executive director of the AdHoc Group Against Crime, told The Star: “Today’s shooters are very young and never stop to think about the collateral damage they cause to families and the community at large.”
A shooting might start with the mildest of personal slights; or with revenge in mind and no reflection on the likely consequences; or by accident, with a novice criminal wielding a handgun during his first armed robbery.
And what’s the common thread here? Duh, it’s the guns. They’re everywhere.
I got this from the Washington Post: The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world — 89 guns for every 100 people — and the highest per capita rate of firearm-related murders of all developed countries — 67.5 percent.
Think about that: Eighty-nine guns for every 100 people. And I don’t know if that includes the unaccounted-for guns on the streets, the guns that are being used in many of the shootings in the Kansas City area.
We can be grateful, I guess, that we’re not as bad off as Chicago, which recorded 762 homicides in 2016. That’s the most murders Chicago has had in 20 years and more than New York and Los Angeles combined last year.
A story in today’s Kansas City Star about Chicago said this: “The bulk of the deaths and shooting incidents…occurred in only five neighborhoods on the city’s South and West sides, all poor and predominantly black areas where gangs are most active.”
What a scourge…and not just for Chicago. It’s a pox upon all of us, but particularly on generations of elected officials for allowing this situation to descend to the current, perhaps irredeemable level.
And it’s a rotten shame for the most advanced, most ingenious nation in the world to have to own this problem. All of us, as the saying goes, “have to wear it.”
Obviously, I don’t have the answer…I’m with my lawn guy Charles: It’s a good idea to be in bed before the shooting starts.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Happy New Year Jim!
Good blog!
We’re still dealing with the fear and disgust in our neighborhood from an incident Christmas Day. Some seriously intellectually and morally challenged individual stepped out of a house less than a block from where we live and fired a volley of rounds from a semi-automatic firearm, hopefully into the air, every time the Chiefs scored a touchdown. The owner of the house assures the neighborhood it won’t happen again. The police were notified but have not contacted the perps as yet. The neighborhood is divided between those that see it as a dangerous outrage that needs to be addressed swiftly and harshly and those that see it as harmless exuberance. I fall in the first category but the police seem to fall in the latter.
Nothing will change.
Holy shit…
I LOVE the Jackie Chiles quote!
Probably a Larry David creation…
Not that it’s right, but celebratory gunfire is nothing new. I can remember a New Year’s party in the late 70’s-early 80’s where a guest shot off a tree branch in his exuberance — and he was a law enforcement official.
I’ll be interested to see what the new administration does with the crime problem.
That must have been an interesting night…
Fitz, I am not pro-gun. I don’t like guns…don’t have one…never have and probably never will. Scare the poop out of me!!!
I found your data on murder rates by guns a bit suspect. First, it states the data are from “selected” countries? Why so? Is the US really 4 times worse than the #2 country? I tried to investigate and found more data than I could handle but did note that there were many South American and Caribbean countries in their lists.
I enjoy your blogs and had to take some action. No big words this week, so I decided to attack your data!
John — I think the key word — in both the text and the graphic — is “developed” countries. Mexico, for instance, is in the category of “developing,” not developed, and many South American countries are not considered “developed.” Good point you make, though; I wondered about that myself before I homed in on the distinction.
To those who think firing a gun into the air is harmless exuberance, tell that to the family of that 9-year-old girl who was killed by a flying bullet on 4th of July a few years back by a holiday reveler.
You’re absolutely right, Mike…The victim in that case was 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane, who was struck by a falling bullet near Riss Lake on July 4, 2011. About 1,000 feet from where Blair was, a man named Aaron Sullivan and three other men were passing around a gun that Sullivan owned and firing it into the air — for kicks.
This from a 2015 Mark Morris story in The Star:
“He (Sullivan) served two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, admitting at his sentencing hearing that his conduct was stupid, negligent and lethal. It was not known who fired the shot that killed Blair.”
Here’s the link. http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article10571597.html
I used to post items about the more egregious shootings, but I finally came to the realization that America simply doesn’t care. So I gave it up.
Mr. Blakeney is correct, the data are suspect. However, even embracing that data, if you do, as you did with Chicago, and remove 4, or 5 cities from the equation, and within those cities the 4, or 5 neighborhoods that cause most of the problems, and the US drops to the fourth from the bottom. Keep in mind that those cities, like Chicago, are the cities with the tightest gun control laws.
I would argue that the problem stems from an entitlement culture that has destroyed much of the inner city black family and robs young men of legitimate avenues of expressing their manliness. Prior to Lyndon Johnson’s (I would argue) racist war on the impoverished blacks had higher marriage rates than whites and virtually every social indicator of the inner city was healthier than they are now.
Also, Will Notb is correct, we don’t care because the average citizen recognizes that, as long as society abounds with predators, when seconds count the police are only minutes away and we want our natural law rights to defend ourselves our families and our property.
I hear people questioning the data…Just don’t see anything refuting it.
That’s why I said, *even accepting it as fact* and then adding in the caveats regarding around four, or five major urban centers and we drop almost to the bottom of the heap.
There’s so much bad data out there on gun issues that it would take a librarian devoted to the issue to keep track of it all, which leads, as Will Notb concludes, to people not giving a hoot. They just know they feel safer owning firearms.
You’ve misconstrued (perhaps deliberately) my meaning. I would enact a national ban on all guns, along the lines of what Australia did when they finally came to their senses.
That’s not realistic. I saw that in Cuba, and I don’t want us to be like Cuba.
I understood that, Will. Your opposition to guns was clearly unmistakeable. I merely addressed the part of your comment where you indicated that people didn’t care. And the gun ban did not solve Australia’s, or Britain’s problems. Bans only redirect the problems into other channels.
Criminals do not honor bans. That should be clear from the cities that have strict gun control laws and other banned substances like marijuana and the attempt to ban alcohol decades ago. Gun control laws only disarm honest citizens. That realization is why both Kansas and Missouri have now joined the ranks of states with what is referred to as “Constitutional Carry”.
Fritz: Neither America (for the moment) nor Australia are like Cuba; don’t believe the comparison stands. Banning guns certainly didn’t turn England into Cuba, n’est-ce pas?
John – I would argue that Americans don’t care because they feel powerless to stop the gun violence; the fuckin’ NRA owns more Congress Critters than they are ever going to. Hence, they turn their attention elsewhere.
‘Constitutional Carry’ is disingenuous, to say the least. The only way individual gun ownership would be constitutional would be for every gun owner to be part of a militia. Moreover this view is backed up by SCOTUS itself.
See DC v Heller, wherein that (dead) bastion of Conservatism Antonin Scalia wrote:
“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited…”. It is “…not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
“Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
“We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. Miller (an earlier case) said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those “in common use at the time”. We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’ ”
The court even recognizes a long-standing judicial precedent “…to consider… prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons.”
as to you thought that criminals don’t honor gun bans, true, all too true. But the latest stats from gun banning countries show deaths by scofflaws and miscreants to be less than miniscule when compared to America.
I think there is a road sign indicator, and it looks ominous to me. Used to be road signs on back roads would get shot up, generally shotgun damage, or small caliber rifle. Almost always in relatively people-free locations. Now road sign damage is common in very public places that most of us wouldn’t expect. Exhibit A is the stretch of I35 between exits 17 (MO route 291) and 20 (US 69 toward Excelsior Springs). This is Liberty, and there is dense suburban development no more than 150 feet from I35. Driving south on the access road (Glenn Hendren Drive) one can see a gaping hole on a large road sign by northbound I35. This monster is probably 2 inches across, and it took a big gun to do the trick, with all kinds of houses behind the sign, as well as Liberty Hospital. It’s just crazy. It takes either a complete idiot or a psychopath to discharge a weapon that way.
I don’t think we will see a reduction in firearms anytime soon, if ever. Even if we could…do you remember zip guns? They can still be easily made at home. But I do think a look at NYC is instructive. Low incidence of homicides, which is likely a result of intensive policing in problem areas, and the liberal use of stop and frisk. Of course, we would have to nullify the permitless concealed carry law to give the cops an ability to make an arrest for “possession”.
I’d never heard of the road-sign barometer. I’ll be watching for that in the future.
A segment of the kids you see in the classroom, (often in the matter of a few years), are the ones who are suffering and responsible for the gun violence. What do you see? How should it be addressed? We have them, capitive, in schools for 13 years. Let’s do something in school, when we have them. No wait, never mind. Years of worthless English/reading test prep and useless math in order to acheive a “number” is MUCH more important.
It’s not just about “numbers.” It’s also about making a good impression and giving a semblance of intelligence by not misspelling words.
Note that Metro Chicago’s pop is about 9.551 Million vs. KC at 467,000, which means Chicago has .007978% murders/capita vs. KC at .027% per capita.
Gotta correct you there, Jim…KCMO’s population is about 467,000, but Chicago’s population — the city itself — is about 2.7 million.
You know, that apples to apples business…