A Kingsport motorist has been arrested for allegedly brandishing a handgun during a fit of road rage — marking the third such incident in as many months on Model City roadways.In this one location the authorities have become aware of 4 recent incidents. That means there must have been 40, many of which were done by your "lawful" gun owners.
Christopher Adam Lipps, 33, of 105 Lone Oak Drive, is charged with aggravated assault in Tuesday’s incident. A Kingsport Police Department report says it occurred at approximately 3:20 p.m. on Moreland Drive.
Prior to Tuesday, there had been two road rage related arrests in Kingsport over the past three months, while another occurred just outside the city limits. Two of those previous three incidents allegedly included a motorist waving a handgun.
“Unfortunately we have, as do other cities, occasional complaints of road rage incidents,” said Kingsport Deputy Police Chief David Quillin. “My best advice is to focus on the rules of road and being a responsible driver. Ignore other drivers you may have accidentally cut off in traffic, or for whatever reason may have gotten upset.”
This is practically an epidemic, when you consider all the other areas and all the other cities in which this kind of behavior is taking place.
The folks who do this are hidden criminals, guys who on paper are law-abiding, have not sustained any felony convictions, etc., but in reality are irresponsible and dangerous.
The solution is obvious. Stricter gun control laws, which would make it more difficult for people to qualify for gun ownership. Many of the bad apples would be weeded out.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
There's a whole blog dedicated to chronicaling reports of armed road rage:
ReplyDeletehttp://armedroadrage.blogspot.com/
I know for certain that only a small fraction wind up reported there, though.
If you ask those "law abiding gun owners" who commit road rage shootings why they bought their guns and carry them around on them and in their cars, doubtless they'll say the bought them for self-defense. Didn't turn out so well.
You know this for certain how?
DeleteYes. I keep track of media reports.
DeleteSo I take it that you're the author of the named site as well. You say that you keep track of media reports. Does this mean that you don't write up articles on every incident, or are you claiming that incidents happen that don't get reported? If the latter, what evidence do you have of that?
DeleteGreg - I am the author of the blog in question and I don't write up anywhere even close to the number of articles I see on guns and road rage (just don't have the time).
DeleteThis is from the blog:
States have made it easier and easier for motorists to carry loaded guns in their vehicles. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health asked the question, "Are motorists with guns in the car more or less likely to engage in hostile and aggressive behavior? The studies concluded that "riding with a firearm in the vehicle was a marker for aggressive and dangerous driver behavior."
(see Accident Analysis and Prevention, Nov. 2005, issue 38, pgs. 687-695 and 2002, issue 34, pgs. 807-814)
Authors Hemenway, Vriniotis, and Miller write, "Road rage may be most dangerous when an enraged motorists has immediate access to a lethal weapon, such as a gun. Our study finds that motorists who have ridden with firearms in their vehicles are more likely to make obscene gestures at other drivers and to follow other drivers aggressively. They are also more likely to be the victims of these behaviors. Contrary to common claims, it does not appear that 'an armed society is a polite society'."
The only two FACTS we know from the story is that Kingsport police arrested a person accused of brandishing a handgun during a road rage incident ... and it was the third time in three months that police arrested someone accused of brandishing a handgun during a road rage incident. The fourth road rage incident mentioned in the story did NOT involve someone accused of brandishing a gun.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is all the story tells us. THE STORY DOES NOT TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOTORISTS ACCUSED OF BRANDISHING ... whether they were criminals, gang members, citizens with no prior record, or anything else.
All of your claims MikeB have no basis in the story. Your propensity to conflate is astounding. Of course you have to blow things out of proportion to try and make a case for gun control when Canada and several nations in Europe have anywhere from two times to five times higher violent crime rates than the U.S.
When a person is a felon in possession of a firearm, they are charged with that. When they are not, they're not and we can assume they were law-abiding citizens right up until the incident in question.
DeleteNo, you can't assume that. Prosecutors don't file charges for every crime. That happens for a variety of reasons, including the cost.
DeleteThe word, allegedly, plays into this. The supposed bradisher had a Glock sticker on his vehicle window. Did the person making the complaint see that sticker, conclude that the other driver had a gun, and make the charge without actually seeing a gun?
ReplyDeleteMikeb, you say that the number must have been forty. Why do you think that? On what basis do you make the claim that the actual number has to be ten times the number arrested? Making up numbers is fun, but not evidence.
You're right it's probably more like 100, but I wanted to be reasonable.
DeleteReasonable means based on evidence and logic. You're just guessing based on your biases.
DeleteWell, Greggy, you seem to be forgetting the story of NRA Board of Directors member and former NRA President, David Keene.
ReplyDelete"Keene’s son, David Michael Keene, was charged with attempted first degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison for firing a gun at another vehicle during a 2002 road rage incident . At the time of the incident, Keene was working with his father at ACU as an online communications director . Between the ages of 8 and 13, David Michael Keene was institutionalized seven times for “severe emotional problems ,” including “a continuing problem with impulse control .”"
Actually, Infant, Keene is the current president. So you provide one story about one incident. Uh huh. Add that to the four alleged crimes named in the article and you have the grand total of five. So you came out of hiding to tell us this?
Delete