Jacksonville, FL experienced another mass shooting Saturday afternoon. The shooting ended with the shooter, Ryan Palmeter taking his own life after barracking himself at a Dollar General. The shooter had a Glock pistol and an AR-15-style automatic weapon that has been the weapon of choice in most mass shootings in America. He had been refused access to a historically black campus college, Edward Waters University a few miles away before heading to his final destination at the Dollar General store. The shooter had drawn a swastika on his weapon and had made racial slurs against the black population on social media and at the location. The murdered victims included Angela M. Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jarrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29.
DeSantis touts that crime in Florida has been the lowest since he has been Governor. The stats do not support his wishful thinking. In addition, he made this statement without all the grandiose fanfare he normally drums up with the news media. Then as he continues to demonize minorities and history itself it is bound to encourage those who want to make the news, suicide by cop, and are motivated by hate to conduct these attacks. The media lists approximately 470 mass shootings to date this year. That is 2.25 mass shootings transpiring every day this year alone. When will it stop? This gunman is not noted to have had an arrest record or a mental health issue but was legally able to purchase these two weapons over the last few months.
- DeSantis’s rhetoric and actions minimizing minorities in his state of Florida and frankly immigrants at the border are only inspiring hate, suspicion, and murder of these populations. Yes, he is responsible. We have become numb to such hate speech and dog whistles to this point. What will it take to re-normalize our American society?