A maintenance crew member has just arrived to fix a leak in a building in North Carolina. A teenager in Georgia was looking for an apartment for his girlfriend. A support group from Texas was looking for their car in a dark parking lot. All three had the misfortune to come to the wrong address or open the wrong door, so they agreed. executions.

This week, the issue of shooting “at the wrong door” has flared up. demonstrations and outrage when a Kansas City, Missouri homeowner shot and killed a 16-year-old who rang the wrong doorbell. Days later, a 20-year-old woman in upstate New York was fatally shot after she and her group accidentally swerved onto a private road.

Then two cheerleaders were shot dead in Texas after one of them got into the wrong car in a poorly lit parking lot. “They shoot first and ask questions later,” says Justin Diepenbrook of Polk County, Florida. Although no statistics are available, the country apparently mourns about 49,000 shooting deaths each year. Activists and researchers argue that this echoes broader phenomena such as the growing fear of crime, the rampant growth of the gun-owning population, the hype of extreme political messages about gun ownership, the flood of fear-mongering media news, and the advertising of gun lobbies that represent the door. country house as an armored wall against a hostile world. “The gun industry lobby promotes them as something necessary for self-defense,” says Jonathan Levy, a lawyer and anti-gun activist. Since the Kansas City incident, gun rights groups have been largely silent, with many Republicans applauding the prosecutor’s decision to file charges. In response to a reporter’s question, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, a staunch supporter of laws allowing citizens to use deadly force, expressed support for prosecutors. But shortly thereafter, he turned the conversation to the lawlessness that he claims reigns in urban centers.

crimes According to official data, they have grown by a third in the country since 2019. In the first half of 2022, thefts and robberies in major urban centers increased by about 20%. Arms purchases have surged during the pandemic and unrest following the killing of black George Floyd. Approximately one in five American families bought a gun between March 2020 and March 2022. During the same period, Republican-controlled states passed laws allowing citizens to carry weapons in public. More than 30 states have adopted “self-defense” laws.