As we all have sadly heard, a white suspect Peyton Gendron, committed an atrocious hate crime in mid May when he murdered 10 African Americans in a Buffalo supermarket. He then would surrender to police. 

The list of victims which died include:

• Roberta A. Drury of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 32
• Margus D. Morrison of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 52 
• Andre Mackneil of Auburn, N.Y. – age 53
• Aaron Salter of Lockport, N.Y. – age 55
• Geraldine Talley of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 62
• Celestine Chaney of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 65
• Heyward Patterson of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 67
• Katherine Massey of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 72
• Pearl Young of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 77
• Ruth Whitfield of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 86

The three injured were:

• Zaire Goodman of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 20 (treated and released from ECMC)
• Jennifer Warrington of Tonawanda, N.Y. – age 50 (treated and released from ECMC)
• Christopher Braden of Lackawanna, N.Y. – age 55

After the incident, people found the video on the streaming platform Twitch. The suspect was radicalized on the hateful and racist site 4chan. He streamed his atrocity live, as he claimed one victim after another while sparing the white people in the market. Even apologizing to them while they hid traumatized.

Debates about this incident have been ongoing over whether we should blame the ideology or the guns, due to often relaxed attitudes on gun control. Gendron in his manifesto claims to be an “eco-fascist national socialist,” which would explain his AR-15. Although this is a tragedy, there is no doubt that the government will find a way to take away the right to bear arms from law abiding citizens, because of these crazy white supremacists.

Governor Kathy Hochul, feels a personal attachment to the incident, due to the racist massacre happening in her hometown, and she has paid respects to the victims. However, she is now unveiling a gun safety package for the state. The coming debate is mostly going to be about just banning AR-15s, and forcing upstate NY cities and districts to mandate background checks for serious mental illnesses and criminal records. The 2nd Amendment, and the government’s ability to regulate gun ownership, looks to be the hot topic of this summer.

As a society, we can only hope no more of these attacks happen, because it would mean that more and more minority families have to suffer with lost family and friends. Our heart goes out to all the families affected by the shooting. 

Sadly, not 2 weeks later about 5, 6, even 7 mass shootings have occurred in our country, including the one in Uvalde Texas- where police stood by as a mentally deranged teen gunned down teachers and 8-10 year olds. This is truly a tragedy that so many more people have to suffer, because politicians can’t do their jobs.