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Boy, 11, shot dead after playing doorbell-ringing prank in Houston, police say
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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The kid was shot in the back You know, cause he was running away and all.
It is wild to me that someone hears their doorbell and their instinct is to grab their gun. I cannot imagine losing your child this way. I know school and mass shootings are awful and kill many more children. The difference is the intent; on some level Americans are aware existing means we could be the victim of gun violence. We do not expect idiots to shoot at us with no intent to go on a killing spree and especially not at our children outside of schools.
I almost don't blame parents for not wanting to let their kids play outside anymore
Seriously, my first instinct (like any normal person's) when I hear my doorbell is to pause whatever I'm watching or playing, turn off the speakers, and slowly and silently creep towards the door to peek through the peephole and see if whoever rang without scheduling first has already gone away and I can go back to my normal life.
What am I going to do with a gun, shoot the bastard and cause even more people to come to my door‽
Fox news fucked up this whole generation.
Child homicides and violent crimes are lower now than they were 40 years ago. Around 1992 was when it was the worst in the past 45 years. That's not even per capital either. Just number per year. In 1980 the population was 226 million. Now it's 340 million, so even though there's over 100 million more people, there's still less violent deaths.
Kids are safer. It's just blasted all over the news and internet anytime something fucked up happens.
While that's all true, I think it's a worthwhile exercise to examine if the number of people being shot for ringing a doorbell or turning around in someone's driveway has experienced a statistically significant increase over the number of instances 40 years ago*.
It could be argued that the media (and the fascist scum running the country) blasting stories about made-up or exaggerated crime are directly responsible for any increase in insanity by chicken-shit gun-fetishists.
* Of course, you'd also need to factor in the reality that 40 years ago, in some areas you could murder someone for ringing your doorbell, and depending on the skin tones involved it might not even be reported.
You also have to factor in that parents these days don't let their kids go outside and do anything by themselves. My aunt won't let her 10 year old grandson walk by himself 150 ft from her son's house to hers, in broad daylight while she is at the door watching out in the safest suburb of a small city.