The headlines read: “4 Firefighters shot, 2 killed at Webster, NY fire”. A 62-year-old man, who spent 17 years in a New York state prison for beating his grandmother to death with a claw hammer, decided to ambush and murder again. This time, he used matches and guns.
He set a car ablaze and waited behind a berm with a gun for first responders. When firefighters arrived, he started shooting. Two firefighters were wounded, another two died.
Firefighters couldn’t fight the fire until the scene was secure. Police responded quickly. One officer shot at the man and ended up chasing him, according to reports. Eventually, the guy killed himself. But, like what usually happens in those situations, in order for the scene to be declared safe, it took officers several hours of methodical clearing and investigation to know exactly what happened. After all, there could have been more than one shooter.
Because the fire was still going, several homes ended up burning down. A SWAT team rounded up residents and escorted them to a bus to get them out of the area.
The felon wasn’t suppose to even own firearms, but it’s not like he was a law-abiding or morally upstanding citizen in the first place. I mean, he viciously bludgeoned his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer. Then he deliberately started a fire with the intent of killing innocent people.
In disturbing cases like this, I often wonder what’s wrong with some people. I wonder how it is that people bent on killing themselves want to harm other people just before they go. This murder-suicide phenomenon is madness.
I’m reminded of the Columbine murderers and the helpless feeling those first responders—both firefighters and police officers—must have felt. It just feels like there is no justice to be found, when a man kills himself after going on a rampage that takes innocent lives. But dead is dead. Sure, it would be good if evil people could be stopped and taken into custody; but if they’re in the act of killing and it’s justified to stop them using lethal means, then they need to be killed before they kill more people.
In the case above, the grandma-murderer-turned-arsonist-murderer 17-years-later took a plea deal for a charge of manslaughter. Instead of murder charges, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and released prior to serving a full sentence.
Now I believe in second chances, but I also believe there are some crimes that demand the death penalty. For really evil crimes I think there should be something like a one-strike-and-you’re-dead law; forget three strikes before you’re punished, especially when it involves heinous murders.
I envision a 92-year-old frail grandmother lying on a bed and her face being beaten in with a hammer—all by her grandson who was at least in his late 30s or early 40s. Mental illness, illicit drug use or not, such a horrific murderous crime should receive equal punishment, minus the cruel and unusual torture. While that man tortured his grandmother to death, the law under the 8th Amendment says he doesn’t deserve the same cruel and unusual punishment, and I agree.
I say then, just shoot him. Sadly major news media often side with the anti-death penalty voices. These politicized news reports almost never highlight the horror the victim experienced, the awful atrocities that were committed by the criminal on death row, or the seemingly endless appeals these monsters were afforded. Like this recent case in Oklahoma, reports focus on misinformation regarding how horribly painful it was for the man who was killed by lethal injection. They focus on the cruel and unusual platform while forgetting about what’s really cruel and unusual: the way the man violated, slaughtered and buried his innocent victim alive (which is not even mentioned).
Do some people need to be killed? In my opinion: absolutely.
And forget about outlawing guns as the solution to human violence! Murderers use hammers—sometimes more frequently than guns—to kill. Murderers murder with any weapon they can find. The solution is tough laws against crime that include the death penalty, not legislation to ban guns (or hammers for that manner). It’s not like convicted felons who are banned from using guns will listen anyway, right?
In the first case mentioned, if the murderer would have been executed for the killing over 20 years ago, two firefighters would be alive today, and two more wouldn’t have been shot. Wives wouldn’t be mourning for their husbands and children wouldn’t be crying for their fathers. Six homes wouldn’t have burnt down.
Life is precious. Life is sacred. Life should be valued to the point that, paradoxically, some lives should be taken away early to preserve the lives of others. In short, some people need to be killed.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of Guns.com.
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