Slayings Under The Radar

On the morning of June 4, several hours after the deadly terrorist attack in London, Donald Trump- now a Bible-believing, evangelical Christian man of God- no doubt was preparing to attend Sunday worship.

Nevertheless, he did find time to issue several tweets about the incident, including the most despicable, when he twisted the words of Sadiq Khan, typing "at least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is 'no reason to be alarmed.'"

However, twelve minutes later, at 7:43 a,m., Trump issued a tweet which, while garnering far less attention, was nearly as reprehensible: "do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now?
That's because they used knives and a truck."

No, that's not why. It's because it simply is not permitted.

In news most people missed, Slate's Ben Mathis-Lilley informs us that one week before the London terrorist attack

eight people in the U.S. were killed by a single shooter who was angry at his estranged wife.

The details: On May 27, a sheriff's deputy in Bogue Chitto, Mississippi, responded to a home where 35-year-old Willie Cory Godbolt was arguing with his wife about custody of their two children. Godbolt then shot and killed the deputy and three of his wife's relatives. He would later shoot and kill four other individuals he was related to or acquainted with, including an 11-year-old boy, before being arrested. Godbolt had a long rap sheet that included serious domestic violence charges; it's not clear how he obtained the gun used in the killings. (Domestic violence homicides—and the deaths of individuals who are "corollary" to domestic disputes—are very common in the U.S.)

Then the same day terrorists struck in London, Mathis-Lilley continues,

there were three firearm homicides in Baltimore, three in St. Louis, two in South Carolina, and one each in California, Georgia, Las Vegas, Louisiana and Alabama. A toddler who'd found a gun under a bed also accidentally killed himself in Pennsylvania, making for 14 total known gun violence deaths in the country on that day. (That's actually an unusually low daily total.) On Monday morning, meanwhile, five people working at a business near Orlando, Florida, were killed by a former co-worker. 

Part of the reason Orlando- and Baltimore and St.Louis and South Carolina and Bogue Chitto- were largely ignored was because, as the Slate man noted, "reports say the incident was not 'terror-related.'"

Nonetheless- and inconveniently for the NRA and the gun huggers Trump was pandering to-

French police shot a man outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on Tuesday after he tried to attack them with a hammer and shouted "This is for Syria" in a terror incident just two days after the London attacks.

French media said the man, who claimed to be an Algerian "student", was also in possession of two kitchen knives and other unsophisticated weapons. One policeman, aged 22, was lightly injured in the neck.

French media cited a source close to the inquiry as saying the injured assailant claimed to be a "soldier of the Caliphate", presumed to be a reference to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil)....

Lacking a gun

the unnamed attacker had swung his hammer at a police officer guarding the top tourist site, landing a blow. But before he could do any more damage, his colleague opened fire, hitting the assailant in the legs.

Journalist David Metreau, who said his office overlooks the square, tweeted that there were two "blasts" that sounded like shots, and posted a photo of a body lying seemingly inert on the ground.

Elite officers armed with automatic weapons and bullet-proof vests swiftly sealed off the main square to check for accomplices, but soon announced that the situation was "under control"....

England's interior minister evidently is notably relieved that police officers, armed with firearms, had an advantage the attacker didn't.  The report continues

Visiting the scene shortly afterwards, Mr Collomb said: "Three police officers were patrolling the site. A person came up behind the officers armed with a hammer and started hitting one of them." 

Keeping a cool head, his colleague stepped back and opened fire "ensuring the attacked officer didn't suffer any more serious harm."

Once again: the incident, featuring an assailant unable to kill anyone because he was armed with a hammer, appeared to be an Islamic terrorist because

He added that during the attack the man shouted: "This is for Syria."






Give the NRA credit.  It keeps its mouth shut after multiple firearm murders in the USA- and in France, a (apparent) terrorist attack in which the assailant fails because he doesn't have a gun. But then, it has Donald Trump and a "liberal media" to ignore the obvious lesson.






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