A Death in New York City

I was checking the news just a little while ago and I saw a young woman, Nicole duFresne, was shot to death in New York City early Thursday morning. She was an actress, a playwright, and had everything to live for. She had a fiancé who was with her when she was shot.

She, her fiancé, and another couple were accosted by two men. She intervened when one of the robbers grabbed the other woman’s purse and asked, “What are you going to do, shoot us?” He shot her in the chest.

This post is not about resisting or not resisting violence. I could say she should not have intervened. I could say just give up your money since it is not worth your life. I don’t know if she really resisted or acted out of a momentary impulse—a human reaction to help a friend. I don’t even know if she or others in the party could have saved her life with a legally held gun. I wasn’t there.

I do know that her assailants had at least one gun and I doubt they bothered with New York City’s notoriously hard to get gun licenses. I doubt they bought them at a gun store or in a gun show. They probably bought them on a street corner.

Firearms licensing does nothing to end the violence. The robbers saw the gun as a tool and a young woman as prey who tried to fight back. They shot her and probably feel no guilt—unless they are caught, then they will give a big show to the judge and jury.

The robbers will do anything they can to get their robbery tools and they could’ve just as easily used a knife. No ban, no license will end street violence. If you melt all the guns in furnaces, someone will make more. If you erase all knowledge of guns, predators will still kill their prey.

Get real. Punish the mutant scum who commit these crimes. Perhaps education or churches can take the violence out of mutants like these two robbers. We only distract ourselves when we try to ban the object.