Old Men with Guns

Ralph Yarl is a sixteen year old Black teenager who was going to pickup his younger twin brothers at a friend’s house in Kansas City. He mistakenly went to the wrong house. Instead of going to Northeast 115th Terrace, he went to Northeast 115th Street. An understandable mistake. It would change his life. Yarl rang the bell or knocked, it’s unclear which. Two gunshots came through the glass door hitting Yarl in the forehead and the right arm. No words were exchanged. The shot to his arm may have been fired when he was on the ground. Eighty-four year old Andrew Lester, who is white, was taken into custody. He was held for twenty four hours and released without charges. After neighborhood protests, an arrest warrant was issued. Lester was charged with first degree assault and armed criminal action. The prosecutor said there was a “racial component” to the shooting.

Yarl managed to stumble to a couple of neighbors’ houses before one neighbor, James Lynch jumped into action. Lynch heard the gunshots and saw Yarl banging on another neighbor’s door. He was screaming, “Help! Help! I’ve been shot.” Lynch said he thought Yarl was dead when he got to him. He used his old Eagle Scout training to administer first aid until paramedics arrived. Yarl’s mother said her son was doing “considerably well”. The bullet in his head was removed after 12 hours. Ralph is expected to recover, but long term effects are unknown. He is back home and even took a call from President Biden.

A couple of days later in rural Hebron, New York four young women were driving looking for a friend’s house. It was at night. The women turned into the wrong driveway. They realized their mistake and were turning around when the homeowner, sixty-five year Kevin Monahan, fired at least two shots at the car. One hit twenty-year old Kaylin Gillis. Her friends drove six miles to a nearby town before they could get through to 911. Emergency workers responded and tried to save Kaylin’s life, but she died.

We can look at these events in different ways. They were terrible mistakes. Two men mistook the situations as dangerous and responded with the worst possible solutions, firing a gun at an unknown target. They are old. They were frightened. But let’s look closer. The prosecutor in the Ralph Yarl shooting said there was a “racial component”. Old white guy sees Black kid at his door and assumed the worst. He could only be looking for trouble. Instead of asking Yarl what he wanted through a closed door, Lester assumed the worst. No questions. Just gunfire. In the Kaylin Gillis shooting, the homeowner didn’t even have to confront the women. They never got out of their car and were turning around to leave when he decided to shoot.

There are still many questions. Did these men have the guns legally? Had they ever been trained on how to use the weapons? Did they have any mental problems? I submit these incidents are products of the fear and mistrust that has permeated American society. Pro-gun advocates would say they had the constitutional right to have the weapons and they were defending their lives and property from the what they believed was a potentially deadly threat. But it wasn’t. What if they didn’t have guns? Ralph Yarl wouldn’t have had his life changed forever and Kaylin Gillis would be alive with a full life ahead of her. They could have been our children or brother or sister who made an innocent mistake. No threat to anyone except old men with guns.