COVID-19 rulebreakers and senseless shootings: At least 9 people have been shot due to restrictions

Between shelter-in-place orders, stay-at-home orders, social distancing orders, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and an economy floating over a cliff like Wile E. Coyote, people are stressed. Regardless of how you are experiencing this global pandemic, you are likely dealing with different levels of stress. How that manifests for you is likely similar to some people and different from others. For me, getting to sleep is tough. I’ve been able to bring down the time I spend anxious that I’ve caught the virus to less than an hour a day. This is down from about three hours out of every day when the first stay-at-home orders went into place.  

There are various restrictions being employed by states and counties and businesses to try to accommodate social distancing guidelines to protect workers and the public at large. The Trace has chronicled no fewer than nine shootings since March that are related to people having problems complying with some of the most simple social amenities in our pandemic times.

In May alone, the Trace found four separate cases of people being shot, including Calvin Munerlyn, a security guard at a Dollar General store in Flint, Michigan who was shot and killed after asking a woman to wear a mask when entering the store. That number also includes a woman who shot up an Oklahoma City McDonald’s after she became enraged over its closed dining room, injuring three employees. After a bus driver refused to let a man board a bus without a mask in San Antonio, Texas, the man and his licensed conceal carry firearm ended up shooting the bus passenger who confronted him.

Other examples of coronavirus-related gun violence include a police officer shot in Lexington, Mississippi, after he responded to reports that a nonsocial distancing party was taking place. A liquor store owner reportedly shot a customer who attacked him over frustrations at the occupancy restrictions being imposed at the business. A Waffle House employee was shot after he confronted a customer who refused to wear a mask in Aurora, Colorado.

In general, tensions are high, which is part of what makes the idiotic, jingoistic rhetoric and economy-above-life protests stoked by right-wing groups like the NRA even more awful than they normally are. Like many right-wing protests, the participants have legitimate misgivings: There hasn’t been enough done to support small businesses and people out of work, and the Trump administration has refused to force big businesses to protect their workforces in exchange for taxpayer money. Like so many right-wing protests, the protestors are directing their anger at the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/36jQpvT