If you’re laid up in a hospital with a gunshot wound, you don’t appreciate the phrase “dodging a bullet,” but the latter probably applies in Baton Rouge right now.
In two recent cases, large parties in the Capital City ended in blazes of gunfire that, miraculously, left no one dead.
Many bystanders literally dodged bullets during shootings at Dior Bar & Lounge on Bennington Avenue last weekend and at an off-campus Southern University fraternity party last October. But in many other parts of America recently, gunshot victims fared far worse.
Our community braces for more violence as 2023 seems to bring one mass shooting after another amid a culture of gunslinging, here and elsewhere.
The national record keepers struggle to keep count of the violence and its deadly toll. Researchers Gabriel R. Sanchez and Carly Bennett at the Brookings Institution reported “an astonishing 36 mass shootings” already in the new year — and that count predates California’s recent surge in gun violence.
What’s most astonishing, perhaps, are the ages of some perps, including a 72-year-old man in one case in the Golden State. He killed 10 people.
The recent rash of gun violence is not just a case of young men mixing testosterone and bad judgment into a toxic brew. Mental health struggles affect people of all ages. And politics as well as partying can lead to gunfire throughout our society.
We in Louisiana well remember that a 66-year-old leftist shot our own Steve Scalise, a Republican from Jefferson Parish, at a practice for the congressional baseball game in 2017. Other violent incidents, including the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — which led to five deaths — were inspired by leaders on the far right. All involved older people who should have known better.
The recent shooting at Dior Bar & Lounge was a targeted attack that apparently followed a dispute among the shooter and a victim or victims, according to Baton Rouge police. The shooting at Southern's off-campus fraternity house on Harding Boulevard in October, which wounded 11, apparently resulted from an argument at the dance.
Cops described the 72-year-old shooter in California as upset and not getting along with others. He took out his anger and frustrations on folks at a Lunar New Year event.
Amid this multiplicity of motivations and locations — particularly California, which has much stricter firearms restrictions than Louisiana — what lessons can we draw from this sickness across America?
According to experts, California still has significantly fewer incidents of gun violence per capita. That fact belies the argument that sensible controls on gun purchases make no difference.
At the same time, guns connected to crimes flow across state lines easily enough: Louisiana sends more illicit guns to Texas than the other way around, according to federal tracking statistics, even though the Lone Star State has seven times as many residents.
Numerous car break-ins in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and elsewhere appear to be searches for weapons to put into the illegal marketplaces of death.
When partying at a bar leads to violence, the response can include a review of liquor licenses. Louisiana's Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control announced it has issued an emergency suspension for Dior, and a hearing will be held on the case.
Whatever the causes, each case provides a study in societal dysfunction — and the recent cases in Baton Rouge remind us that these are not far-away tragedies.
Let us also remember that, to the extent we have dodged any bullets lately, too many among us haven’t been so lucky.