On April 26th The New York Times had an article titled "Suspect in N.Y. Trooper’s Death Is Presumed Dead". After briefly skimming the story I saw there was a related piece with a more personal view of the shooter, Travis Trim, 23. "A Young Man’s Troubled Path From Pride of His Family to Murder Suspect."
Immediately following my consumption of these two pieces were thoughts of the Virginia Tech shooting, the accessibility of guns, and how these two shooters were on opposite sides of the "mental" spectrum, yet still capable of taking lives. Or at least shooting at people in the case of Travis Trim.
I add this last sentence in because although the New York Time's article accuses Trim of killing a Trooper, he did no such thing. Yes he did shoot and injure trooper Matthew Gombosi, the previous day when he was pulled over in a stolen vehicle however the statement "The authorities said Mr. Trim then shot Trooper Brinkerhoff in the head..." is false. In fact check out these other articles:
Newsday-
"Friendly fire apparently killed a New York state trooper as he searched a Catskill-area farmhouse for a suspect in the shooting of a colleague, officials said Friday. "
Daily News in the Globe-
"Friendly fire apparently killed a New York state trooper as he searched a farmhouse for a suspect in the shooting of a colleague, officials said yesterday."
Notice a trend?
Can someone please tell me why in these two leads it was "apparently" friendly fire that killed Trooper Brinkerhoff, but in the New York Times' article it was clearly factual that Trim did the slaying..."Mr. Trim then shot Trooper Brinkerhoff" Perhaps the authorities should get their facts straight before they go pointing fingers. No one seems to want to own up and say..."Oops my bad" there always has to be a scapegoat.
One example that comes to mind is the unfortunate death of ex-NFL star Pat Tillman. Tillman who left pro football to join the army was killed in Afghanistan in 2004. Then in 2005 it was released that the cause of his death was friendly fire as well. In fact his family is still fighting to find the truth to their son's honorable death.
This excerpt is from the San Francisco Chronicle"FAMILY DEMANDS THE TRUTH-New inquiry may expose events that led to Pat Tillman’s death"
According to testimony, Tillman, who along with others on the hill waved his arms and yelled “cease fire,” set off a smoke grenade to identify his group as fellow soldiers. There was a momentary lull in the firing, and he and the soldier next to him, thinking themselves safe, relaxed, stood up and started talking. But the shooting resumed. Tillman was hit in the wrist with shrapnel and in his body armor with numerous bullets.
The soldier next to him testified: “I could hear the pain in his voice as he called out, ‘Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat f—ing Tillman, dammit.” He said this over and over until he stopped,” having been hit by three bullets in the forehead, killing him.
Granted officials are probably ashamed of the mistakes they've made. However,they should be freer about owning up to these accidents. How are we, the people, supposed to trust that they, the authority, are there to protect us when they hide imperative facts from us?
A lot of issues seem to tie into the story of this one gun man, as previously stated how did this guy get a gun? Some articles say he found it in the house he was charred in. Others say he stole it. Also in an interview on youtube.com with Trim's friends they state that they have never seen Trim with a gun, so how? Also, why did Trim have possession of this weapon? And finally...are guns too easily available to the common public?
I've heard different verisons on how to get a gun, but apparently it isn't too hard.
They supposidely do background checks but do they have mental background checks? In the Virginia Tech case that shooter got a gun in a matter of hours...
"Markell said he was not in the shop when Cho bought the gun but said nothing stood out about the purchase. Cho produced a Virginia driver’s license, a checkbook with a matching address and an immigration card. Cho was a resident alien from South Korea."
Is it really THAT easy?!
Here's Katelyn Whitcher, a senior at UMass, with her opinion on gun laws and just guns in general.
