Just knocked on the wrong door and got shot dead

In suburban Detroit, a 14-year-old boy gets lost and finds his way. In Kansas City, a 16-year-old boy goes to the wrong address to pick up his younger sibling. In a small town in Alabama, a 12-year-old boy rummages around in a yard. In New York, a 20-year-old woman goes the wrong way. In Texas, a cheerleader gets on the wrong bus.

They all made mistakes, and they all got shot. They made innocent mistakes with simple actions. These are examples of how in America, a country filled with guns, anger, and most states granting gun ownership through new self-defense laws, mistakes can be deadly.

While there are no exact figures, such shootings are relatively rare in a country where nearly 49,000 people die by gunfire each year. But gun control groups say they are a stark illustration of how America’s gun attitudes can lead to tragic consequences.

Shoot first, ask questions later

This week, the issue of being shot for walking the wrong way has sparked widespread protests and outrage across the United States. But many other cases have gone unnoticed.

In July 2021, a Tennessee man was charged with shooting two cable company employees who mistakenly entered his property. In June 2022, a similar incident occurred with three brothers who wandered into a man’s property in Virginia.

“Shoot first, ask questions later,” said Justin Diepenbrock, a resident of Polk County, Florida, where a father and son once opened fire on a woman who was parking her car after her night shift, thinking she was a thief.

According to activists and researchers, the causes of such incidents stem from a convergence of many factors: fear of increased crime, increasing gun ownership, increasingly extreme political messages about guns, fear-mongering in the media, and marketing campaigns by the gun industry.

“The gun lobby markets guns as necessary for self-defense,” said Jonathan Lowy, a lawyer and anti-gun violence activist.

Between March 2020 and March 2022, about 5% of Americans bought a gun for the first time. (Photo: Reuters).

The belief that crime is increasing, especially violent gun crime, is not unfounded.

The national murder rate has increased by about a third since 2019, according to U.S. government data. Along with rising inflation, burglaries and robberies in major cities increased by about 20% in the first half of 2022, after falling in the previous two years.

Gun purchases have also increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody. According to NORC, nearly 20% of U.S. households purchased a gun between March 2020 and March 2022, and about 5% of Americans purchased a gun for the first time.

In addition, Republican-led states like Florida and Texas have passed new laws allowing people to openly carry or conceal guns without a permit.

More than 30 states have “stand-by” laws, which allow people to respond to threats or force in places where they have the right to do so without fear of criminal prosecution. Some have recently strengthened their home defense laws, making it harder to prosecute homeowners who use guns in self-defense.

“A lot of people become paranoid and overly anxious, and then there are unexpected knocks on the door,” Mr Lowy said.

"Murder with a paint brush?"

Byron Castillo - 51 - knows what it's like to have an unannounced knock on your door.

On the morning of January 30, 2020, Mr. Castillo was assigned to repair and repaint the kitchen of his second-floor apartment in High Point, North Carolina. He knocked three times and announced that he was the repairman. The tenant inside opened the door and shot Mr. Castillo in the stomach without saying a word.

He dragged himself to his truck and drove to the office complex, where he collapsed on the floor. He spent a month in the hospital and five months recovering at home. It turned out he had gone to the wrong floor.

High Point Police Department said prosecutors declined to file charges. Police said the man opened fire because he thought he was a burglar. Castillo did not believe it.

“I had a paintbrush and a paint roller in my hand. Why is that a threat? Killing someone with a paintbrush?” he said.

More than three years later, Mr. Castillo still has a minimum of $30 a week in medical bills and feels discomfort in his chest along the scar from his surgery. Back at work, he yells when he arrives and checks each room to make sure no one is waiting with a gun.

Mr. Byron Castillo with a scar from being shot. (Photo: New York Times)

Homeowner and gun ownership self-defense laws remain a hotly debated issue, with proponents arguing that they deter crime. However, several large studies have shown that they have little effect, but increase the risk of gun violence and discrimination, especially against black people.

According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, shootings of black people by white people are nearly three times more likely to be considered “justified” than shootings of white people by white people.

A 2023 analysis from the RAND Corporation found no evidence that these laws are a deterrent, but there are some signs that they could lead to an increase in gun violence.

Additionally, there are no reliable statistics on the use of guns for self-defense at the local or national level. The Harvard Injury Control Research Center found that guns are more likely to be used for suicide, accidental shootings, burglaries, etc. than for self-defense.

Meanwhile, in a survey led by William English, a professor at Georgetown University's School of Business, about a third of 16,700 gun owners said they used guns for self-defense, so he estimated that 1.6 million people nationwide armed themselves for self-protection that year.

In Atlanta, the parents of Omarian Banks, 19, said their son posed no threat that night in March 2019. After finishing his shift at McDonald's, he went to his girlfriend's apartment and knocked on the wrong door.

Banks tried to apologize, but the homeowner, Darryl I. Bynes, 32, said, “No, that’s the right house,” and shot him dead. Bynes was convicted of murder this summer.

“I know people have the right to protect their homes. But think about it for a minute, because you have someone's child in front of you,” Banks' mother said.

(Source: Zing/New York Times)

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Source: https://vtc.vn/dieu-kinh-ngac-o-my-chi-go-cua-nham-nha-cung-bi-ban-chet-ar767725.html