Brunswick Beacon, 10.20.22
A 15-year-old white male wearing camouflage and carrying a long gun and handgun left a two-mile trail of bloodshed through a Raleigh neighborhood last week. Five died, including an off-duty police officer. A second officer was injured. A seventh victim and the shooter are in critical condition.
The killings began around 5 p.m. but the shooter wasn’t arrested until 9:37 p.m. “It was a long standoff, a long situation,” Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said. No active shooter alert was issued throughout the ordeal.
H.R.6538, the Active Shooter Alert Act (ASAA), would create a national Active Shooter Alert System. It passed the House in July and is now before the Senate, where a Republican filibuster could kill it.
The ASAA is endorsed by the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National Association of Police Organizations, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Police Foundation, and the National District Attorneys Association. The National Sheriffs’ Association calls it “an important step in keeping communities safe, by eliminating delayed alerts.”
There have been 533 mass shootings in 2022. In North Carolina 128 people have been killed and 463 people have been injured in 123 mass shootings since 2013.
Who would oppose warning people about a mass shooter? Who would deny them the chance to protect themselves and their loved ones? Ted Budd and David Rouzer, that’s who. They voted against the ASAA, just as they voted against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act which made it harder for the mentally disturbed to get guns.
Budd owns a gun store and says mass shootings boost gun sales. Since 2016 he’s taken $191,364 in direct and indirect contributions from the gun lobby. Since 2014, Rouzer has taken $207,100.
Your elected officials should represent you, not the gun lobby. Vote for Cheri Beasley, Charles Graham, and Eric Terashima on Nov. 8.
Ron Veronese
Holden Beach