Back in the 1980s, home from college, I visited my sister’s new rental house in Vancouver one night and, as the evening progressed, I ran to the store for something. When I returned, I opened the door and walked inside, only to stop in my tracks as I noticed the couch in the wrong place — and a man asleep on it.
I backed away quietly and ran to my car, heart pounding as I realized I had entered the wrong house. A horrible mistake, yes. But worthy of a death sentence?
In spite of my GPS, or perhaps because of it, I’ve often found myself motoring down the wrong driveway while looking for the home of someone I intend to interview. Sometimes I’ve even knocked on a stranger’s door to seek directions.
Not anymore.
In my younger days, I loved wandering in the woods alone or climbing a mountain trail, meditating on God and the beauty of his creation.
As kids growing up in a small town, we often kicked our balls or chased our pets into neighboring yards.
None of these activities warrant the death penalty. But the past week — and the last year —we’ve seen irresponsible gun o wners pull out weapons and slaughter innocent people.
I’ve always supported the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, although I’ll admit I never quite understood the need for an AR-15 assault rifle to hunt a deer or protect a home.
Yet recent years — and especially the past week — have shown the deadly dangers of guns in the hands of irresponsible people.
• When Ralph Yarl rang the doorbell at the wrong house in Kansas City, Mo., to pick up his younger brothers on April 13, 84-year-old Andrew D. Lester opened fire with a .32-caliber pistol, shooting the black teenager in the head and the arm. Yarl, 16, is recovering, and Lester faces up to life in prison on charges of first-degree assault and another felony.
• Twenty-year-old Kaylin Gillis, one of three passengers in a Ford Explorer that mistakenly turned down the wrong driveway in Hebron, N.Y., on April 15 and then backed out, was shot and killed when the homeowner, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, fired two shots at the vehicle from his front porch. Monahan faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted of a second-degree murder charge.
• Following a late-night cheerleading practice, two teenage girls were shot outside a grocery store in Elgin, Texas, April 18 after one — Heather Roth — inadvertently climbed into what she thought was her car but quickly jumped out after seeing a man inside. She returned to her friend’s car, and when the man approached, she rolled down her window to apologize. That’s when 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. opened fire, shooting both Roth, who was grazed by a bullet, and Payton Washington, 18, who remains in critical condition with injuries to her back and leg. He has been charged with engaging in deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, and may face additional charges.
• A 6-year-old girl and her parents were shot by a neighbor in Gaston, N.C., April 18 after neighborhood children chased a stray basketball into his yard. After yelling at the children, 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary went inside his home, retrieved a gun, and fired shots as parents tried to shepherd their children to safety. A bullet grazed the cheek of Kinsley White, 6, while her father, Jamie White, was shot in the back and remained hospitalized with liver damage. Her mother, Ashley Hilderbrand, was shot in the elbow. Singletary was arrested on four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
That’s just last week. We’ve seen dozens of stories about road rage erupting into gunfire that wounds or kills innocent people as well as mass shootings in schools, banks, and churches.
And, of course, we have the fatal shooting of 49-year-old Aron Christensen of Portland, who was hiking near Walupt Lake south of Packwood in East Lewis County last August with his 4-month-old puppy, Buzzo, when he was shot and killed by Ethan M. Asbach, 20, of Tenino.
We’ll never know if a call for emergency assistance could have saved the lives of Christensen or his pet, since nobody called for help. Asbach reportedly confessed to Lewis County Sheriff’s Office personnel that, while walking in the woods late at night with his 16-year-old girlfriend from Rochester, he fired the 9-millimeter bullet that killed Christensen and Buzzo.
Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer recently announced his office won’t file charges of manslaughter and animal cruelty against Asbach, even though his reckless firing of a gun took a life. The prosecutor blames a sloppy investigation by the sheriff’s office and cross-contamination by the coroner’s office during autopsies of the victims. The sheriff blames the prosecutor for not filing charges.
But a man died. A son. An uncle. A musician. A friend.
Accidents happen, and perhaps a jury would acquit Asbach of any wrongdoing in Christensen’s death, but the case should be placed before a jury to decide.
Decades ago as a teenager, I took a hunter safety course and learned basic firearm rules:
• Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
• Treat all guns as if they’re loaded.
• Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
• Always be sure of the target and what’s beyond it.
It behooves responsible gun owners who advocate for Second Amendment rights to push for prosecution of people firing guns irresponsibly. More shootings like those we’ve seen lately will only increase the push to remove firearms from the market.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
