by Her husband put up this memorial plaque in a small garden a few blocks away from were I live and where she worked. Sad.
A blog about New York City, my books, and my cats. Mostly.
A blog about New York City, my books, and my cats. Mostly.
Her husband put up this memorial plaque in a small garden a few blocks away from were I live and where she worked. Sad.
I had ‘Waitress’ (her last film) sitting on my DVD player for months-as I can’t bring myself to watch it.
Her utterly senseless demise makes it impossible to believe in God.
dpk
Waitress is a wonderfu movie, and the very last shot will make you cry knowing that she was murdered.
This is one of those tragedies that might have been prevented if only Adrienne Shelly had been in possession of a firearm.
In my part of the country, Texas, guns are a pretty ordinary part of life. There are still burglaries, but sometimes these burglars get shot. This happens fairly often.
Now of course it is possible that Adrienne Shelly would not have had the time to retrieve her gun even if she had one. However, on the other hand maybe she would.
And the fact that this was an illegal alien makes it all the more egregious. Down here in the border states illegals are a constant source of crime. Now even local gangs like the Texas Syndicate sometimes hire Mexican nationals to come across the border to make hits.
We even had one serial killer who was an illegal and came across the border often enough to kill 15 or 16 people before he was caught. The Texas Rangers had to go to Mexico and deceive this killer in order to get him back to face a jury.
So many senseless deaths could be avoided if only the family member had a gun and could defend herself.
Greg, these statistics are for you:
$2.8 Million per firearm fatality $249,000 per hospitalization for gunshot victim
$73,000 per emergency room visit for released gunshot victims
(Phillip J. Cook, Gun Violence, ;The Real Cost; Oxford University Press 2000)
Estimated Annual Treatments for Gunshot Victims:
$100-$126 billion per year (Miller & Cohen) (Linda Gunderson, ;The Financial Cost of Gun Violence; Annals of Internal Medicine 1999)
Children and Firearms:
More than 10 children, and teenagers 19 and under, are killed by guns EVERYDAY, and many more are wounded.
77% of murdered juveniles 13-19 are killed by firearms.
39% of households have a gun, 24% are handguns.
Annually 1,409 children and teenagers have taken their own lives with guns.
Guns kept in the home for self protection are 22x’s more likely to kill a family member or friend than to kill in self defense (;Facts For Families; July 2004)
The Comparison of Gun Violence in the US and other countries — the total of murders by handguns:
11,789 United States
373 Germany
151 Canada
57 Australia 54 England & Wales (total)
19 Japan *These numbers only account for homicides, does not include suicides; (The Brady Campaign to prevent Gun Violence)
(You can access this information and more at http://www.violencepreventioninstitute.org).
Not to start a flame war with you on Stacy’s blog, but your attitude towards guns is so idiotic, it’s sad. And please don’t give me that old NRA canard that guns don’t kill people, people kill people because look at the above statistics of the countries that have strict gun laws and their death counts and ours.
(Stacy, I apologize for taking over this conversation, but I feel really(!) strongly about this.)
Karen, one of the things I enjoy about Stacy’s blog is that she discusses subjects other than all the tiresome political arguments so easily found on the Internet.
Naturally, I disagree with you, and if you have any interest in perusing a rational presentation of the other side, I would suggest John Lott’s book, More Guns, Less Crime.
The last Supreme Court decision on this matter leaves very little room for any other determination than gun ownership as an individual right.
And of course as we both know, really a Texan like myself has no political authority to say what should happen relative to gun regulations in North Carolina. I’m sure that you North Carolinians will do a conscientious job of trying to determine the role of gun ownership in your state.
Good luck, and God bless you and yours.
I doubt that Ms.Shelley would’ve qualified for a pistol permit under NYC law. Furthermore, I doubt that she was the type of person who would’ve availed herself of the privelege, if it was available to her.
FWIW, I see this case as the by product of the rampant greed that threatens to destroy this country. More and more employers are unwilling to hire ‘legimate’ employees that they require the payment of social security, medicare and son-on. They’d rather hire an illegal who will take the money under the table with only the minor threat of deportation hanging over their head.
david
I don’t have any answers. I know my cop friends wish people couldn’t get guns so easily.
What I want is for Adrienne to still be alive. I don’t give a fig about public policy. You have to realize that once you have walked into a room where a murderer is willing to kill you, public policy has already failed.
It either was not effective or perhaps does not have the capacity to be effective.
I taught self-defense for 8 years. And I had a chance to examine these issues very thoroughly.
My only concern is that Adrienne should be alive, making her movies, dealing with her family and friends, and having a great life.
And when in the course of events she died, i would have preferred her to die of old age, surrounded by a loving family. And I’m for whatever would achieve that end.
The rest of it is just a bunch of abstractions.