Mitch Perry
Here’s a news flash: we’re all going to die.
Ideally, it’d be after a long life, but we know that it always doesn’t work out like that. Whether through illness or accident, there’s always the potential for today to be our last day.
But nothing brings death quicker than a gun.
There are gun deaths that happen every day in American; once in a while, when more than a few people (usually white) die at one time, it makes news.
Over the weekend, former New Orleans Saint defensive end Will Smith died due by gun violence, and his coach, Sean Payton, went off on guns in a USA Today interview published Tuesday. He didn’t say he supports gun control; he said he hates guns and doesn’t care if it makes him the most unpopular man in Louisiana.
“Two hundred years from now, they’re going to look back and say, ‘What was that madness about?’ “ Payton said. “The idea that we need them to fend off intruders … people are more apt to draw them (in other situations). That’s some silly stuff we’re hanging on to.”
Payton went on the Internet on Sunday night to try to find out whatever he could about the weapon that was used to kill Smith.
“It was a large caliber gun. A .45,” Payton said. “It was designed back during World War I. And this thing just stops people. It will kill someone within four or five seconds after they are struck. You bleed out. After the first shot (that struck Smith’s torso), he took three more in his back. We could go online and get 10 of them, and have them shipped to our house tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t believe that was the intention when they allowed for the right for citizens to bear arms.”
That’s real anguish being expressed in a way that you rarely see or hear in our country. His concerns shouldn’t be dismissed easily. But in a country awash with 300 million guns, it probably will be.
In other news …
Officials say it’s just a coincidence, but nevertheless, Hillsborough County PTC Chairman Kyle Cockream will be stepping down from the agency shortly. The news comes a day after this site reported about his meetings with Palm Beach County Commissioners at the request of an official with the taxicab industry.
Rick Baker has opted not to get into the CD 13 race.
Bob Buckhorn gave one of his finest speeches of his Tampa mayoralty on Tuesday, as hundreds watched him give his 2016 State of the City address.
Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor says she doesn’t get how the state Department of Health went back and reduced the number of HIV infections in Florida in 2014, and wants the feds to investigate.
Tuesday was Equal Pay Day, the date that symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. Castor invoked the plight of the U.S. women’s soccer team, which appears to have a very legitimate argument in regards to their pay vs. theme.
And say hello to David Singer, the Tampa land use attorney who becomes the first Democrat to enter the House District 60 Hillsborough County legislative seat.
