“Greenwich Village, the birthplace of the U.S. gay rights movement, remained in shock on Sunday over the shooting death of a gay man by a gunman who police said uttered anti-gay slurs before targeting the victim.” Is there any group that might want to avail themselves of armed self defense more than gays and lesbians? Although they’ve found a much greater degree of acceptance in recent years, that doesn’t mean they’re not targeted for abuse, intimidation and armed violence. Just ask groups like the Pink Pistols. It’s becoming more frequent in the Big Apple, too. As reuters.com notes . . .
The attack marked the 22nd anti-gay hate crime in New York City this year, compared to 13 incidents at this time last year, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
And those are just the incidents that are reported. Not that any of that cuts much ice with people like Michael Bloomberg, who views shootings like this as evidence that New York needs still more gun control laws.
He and his fellow big-city mayors are only too happy to use gays to advance their own careers when it’s convenient. But they wouldn’t dream of allowing Mark Carson – or any other New Yorker, for that matter – permission to exercise their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms in their gun-free utopias. That’s what the police are there for. Until they’re not.
From nydailynews.com:
The unidentified suspect fired a single round into Mark Carson’s head on W. Eighth St. near Sixth Ave. on Friday night, after he taunted the gay man who was walking with a friend, cops said….
But as they turned the corner, the suspect and one of his cohorts confronted the pair again and taunted them by shouting “f—-t” and “queer,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
One of the bigots got nervous and ran away as the suspect asked the two gay men, “Do you want to die here?” Kelly said.
Suddenly, the suspect whipped out a silver .38-caliber revolver and shot Carson in the face. The shooter ran away as Carson collapsed on the sidewalk.
No cop could have responded quickly enough to save Carson. Even if he’d been carrying a gun, Carson might not have been able to do anything to save himself from an attack like this. But he should at least have had the opportunity. The Constitution says he does. Mayor Mike disagrees.