THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 38 lines
A little girl cowers in the bathroom as men with guns create a ruckus downstairs. Thinking all is safe, the 7-year-old child ventures out and is shot in the neck. She is pronounced dead on the scene.
Did this happen in Bosnia? Burundi? Belfast? No, it happened in Portsmouth - on Tuesday.
As a result, Blanca H. Garcia lies dead. The details of the shooting are still murky, but it appears that the three men who were quarreling were injured, none with life-threatening wounds. One has been charged in the shooting.
This senseless killing tops the grisly news we've been inundated with in recent months: two hikers slashed along the Appalachian Trail, a young woman abducted and killed along Route 29 in Northern Virginia, another victim of a serial killer in Hampton Roads.
None of these other tales of carnage is more blood-chilling than the thought of an innocent young child caught in the crossfire between irresponsible adults with loaded weapons.
What can be done? This is not something local law enforcement has the tools to prevent. Gun laws are lenient in Virginia, and permits for carrying concealed weapons are easy to obtain.
If parents and other adults allow children to be placed in harm's way, there is little a police officer can do to stop it. By the time the police arrive, the damage has been done.
In the name of Blanca Garcia and Taylor Ricks - a 3-year-old who was shot to death in April - parents need to demand a cease-fire from gun-toting thugs who use firearms to settle their differences.
And society needs to be a lot quicker to get children out of homes where violence occurs. Those who commit gun violence need to be removed from society permanently. by CNB