This was a no-alcohol teen bar. The kids had just arrived and hadn’t even entered. (And minors can’t carry pistols anyway.)
The victims were cream-of-the-drop straight-A Rotary Youth Exchange students, one from Peru, and the other a local girl planning to travel to France next year.
The spot was not a bad or dangerous one. This was just a nutball who decided to ruin lives. I had heard elsewhere that there was an intended target, but I’m unsure if either of the deceased girls was it. This does not appear to be a concealed carry political issue. Deterrents don’t work on nutcases.
I spend a fair amount of time in the establishment next door: Kell’s. There is no way I would let my 16 year old daughter go to “The Zone”, ever.
It may be semi-safe once you are inside, but 2nd street is nowhere to be hanging out on a weekend night. There have been a number of street shootings around these clubs at night. Usually they happen at 2:00 when the bars are closing. A homeless man sleeping in a doorway a few blocks from there was killed by a wild shot fired at the clubs.
My heart goes out to the victims. Yes, they were good kids and didn’t deserve this. I think the adults made a poor decision in choosing this venue to entertain them.
Funny how 'nutcases' never go into gun shops, cop bars, Mafia social clubs, biker bars, isn't it? Odd how street nutcases that supposedly can not take care of themselves never walk in front of buses, or stumble down onto commuter tracks and live outdoors in climates that would make a Seal Team survivalist die of pneumonia in a month?
Odd. All these people grift, er, drift though all the social service, food pantries, half way houses pretty damn fine.