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Ville Platte Gazette Managing Editor Raymond Partsch III.

Partsch: U.S. has one problem bigger than guns

A little over a week ago, a coward with a gun walked into a Lafayette movie theater and reigned terror on mothers, daughters, husbands and sons. The actions of John Houser resulted in the deaths of LSU-Eunice student Mayci Breaux and Lafayette resident Jillian Johnson. Nine other patrons suffered injuries (some severe and some minor) but all will now have the type of scarring that will last long after the physical wounds they suffered have healed.
Like so many spineless spree shooters before him, Houser took one last cowardly act and turned the gun on himself.
As my wife and I watched the live news coverage from our home, we thought and discussed a variety of topics. She wondered aloud, “How could this happen here?” I could give her no real answer, or at least one that gave her any real comfort.
We talked about if we could ever go back there again. The Grand 16 is our movie theater of choice, having just watched “Jurassic World” there a few weeks prior to the mass shooting. In fact, it is where we had our first date.
If and when the theater opens again, we will be back to watch a movie. As scary as the thought is of attending the site of a mass shooting, we both decided that we weren’t going to allow a coward’s actions to cripple us in that manner.
Of course that mental hurdle is miniscule, insignificant compared to what the actual survivors will be dealing with in the months and years ahead. A coward with a gun has forever changed numerous lives, which has become an all-too common theme in our country in recent years.
University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing killed an unarmed African-American man named Samuel DuBose during a routine traffic stop back in July. Tensing, who is white, pulled over the man for not having a front license plate, and after asking him a few questions, Tensing pulled out his gun and shot DuBose point blank.
The officer maintained that he had been “dragged” by DuBose’s vehicle after a physical altercation with him and was forced to pull out his gun and shoot the man.
Of course none of that was true. There was no physical confrontation and Tensing was never dragged by the vehicle, which was later confirmed by the officer’s own body camera. Tensing has been indicted for murder by a grand jury.
He not only took another life but also brought shame to his fellow officers, once again bringing negative light to law enforcement. The majority of police officers in this country are not racist killers and actually have the upmost respect for their job, a job that in many ways is thankless.
Tensing may have dressed the part of a real police officer but he was anything but that. He was just another coward with a gun.
Then there is Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist, who faces poaching charges after he paid $55,000 to a pair of guides to lure a beloved lion named Cecil off protected land in Zimbabwe.
After successfully persuading the lion -- who was wearing a tracking collar nonetheless -- to leave the borders of the Hwange National Park by dragging a dead animal behind a vehicle, Palmer shot it with a bow and arrow.
Then he and his guides waited for 40 hours before eventually shooting the lion with a gun, skinned and beheaded it, and then had its carcass dumped back by the park’s border.
The outrage in the aftermath of the news has resulted in this particular coward to go into hiding, even closing his practice down as protestors picket outside. One of the guides has been charged and Zimbabwe officials are seeking to extradite Palmer for the killing.
Real hunters don’t pay someone else thousands of dollars to illegally lure a prized animal off a protected land so they can kill it for their trophy collection. Palmer is the type of big-game hunter that give millions of true hunters a bad rap.
Just yet another example of a coward with a gun, or in this case a bow and a gun.
In the days following the Lafayette attack, gun control and gun violence has become a hot button issue across this country with political pundits and everyday people alike. This has happened after other mass shootings in the past 15 years, in places like Columbine, Blacksburg, Aurora, Newtown and Chattanooga.
The discussion is without a doubt needed, but will making sweeping changes to gun control stop the senseless bloodshed? Maybe, but cowards like John Houser and Ray Tensing will always find other ways to murder people, whether that is by hi-jacking a plane (9-11) or leaving home-made bombs in a crowds (Boston Marathon and 1996 Olympics).
The more daunting challenge, and one I admit may be futile, is coming up with a way of halting the epidemic of cowardice in our society.
I don’t have the answer of how to do just that. Is that cowardice being nurtured by a lack of love and structure or a lack of faith in the home? I don’t know. The harsh reality may just be that we are just living in the era of the coward.
If that is the case, then that eclipses any fear I may have of stepping back into in a darkened movie theatre.

Raymond Partsch III is the Ville Platte Gazette's Managing Editor. He can be reached at editor@evangelinetoday.com.

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