(Screenshot from NBC 10 Boston)
What I find absolutely remarkable about the near mass shooting which took place in Cambridge yesterday afternoon is how little conversation I've heard on the subject.
I did not learn about what had happened until right before I retired for the evening nearly 12 hours after the event had occurred. This was not discussed during work today at all. The first time it was brought up with me was when my mother sent me a text after work this evening.
As someone who has walked that stretch of Memorial Drive hundreds of times over the two decades plus, I can tell you that a man brandishing a high-powered rifle on a busy day in broad daylight wantonly shooting at people in Cambridge, Massachusetts is quite out of the ordinary.
While I understand that anything can happen anywhere at any time, there isn't a city in the world where I feel safer than Cambridge. Yet the fact that I have not heard this discussed within my own daily universe tells me how desensitized we are to gun violence.
As it stands now, two people are in hospital with life threatening injuries. Of course, it would have been much, much worse if not for a Massachusetts state trooper and an ex-Marine with a license to carry who subdued the assailant. It was a classic case of good guys with a gun triumphing over a bad guy with a gun.
Still, questions remain of how the assailant got this high-powered rifle. Did he steal it? Did he access it through family or friends? Or did he buy it legally? If he bought legally, when and where was the purchase made? Especially in view of his lengthy criminal record which included another shootout with police officers in Boston's South End almost exactly six years ago.
What is clear is that this man must spend the rest of his life in confinement in a correctional institution or in a high security mental hospital. Unfortunately, there are some people who simply cannot be part of a free society due to their reckless disregard for human life.
Memorial Drive overlooks the Charles River which divides Boston and Cambridge. The assailant could have fired his rifle from Cambridge and shot someone walking in Boston. Fortunately, this did not come to pass. However, if not for the state trooper and ex-Marine, this could have very well come to pass with tragic results. At the very minimum, more people would have been shot.
For many years (usually on a Sunday) I would walk on Memorial Drive while listening to the Red Sox game on the radio. I have also attended various festivals and other gatherings such as the Head of the Charles Regatta which takes place each October. So, I can easily picture myself at the scene just as I could picture myself standing on Boylston Street during the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon in 2013.
In this particular case, I would have been on foot and would have very tried to flee to safety without attracting attention to myself while negotiating panicked vehicular traffic. I can only hope I never have to experience something so horrifying.
Of course, I cannot permit this event to stop me from living my life on my terms. However, it does serve as a reminder that I must keep my wits about me at all times yet do so with the knowledge that nothing is full proof.
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