When the bullets are flying outside New Orleans' main public library, as they were last Saturday evening, you have to wonder whether there is a corner of our civilization that guns have yet to invade.
No, you don't, of course. There is no wondering to be done when firearms are ubiquitous and the name of one manufacturer appears time and again in press reports.
To judge from the frequency of media references, Glock must by now qualify as America's go-to equalizer. Of the relative merits of the nation's rich selection of pistols, I am not qualified to render an opinion. But cops seem partial to Glock, and I have heard a purported hit man swear by the brand, too.
Firearms used to seem out of place in a library back in the day when movies would be made about a gunfight, say, at the O.K. Corral.
The way we are going these days, some latter-day Earp will soon re-christen a cubicle in the public library and commence a shoot-out at the O.K. Carrel.
The shots fired last Saturday were apparently designed to teach an “unruly patron” some manners, and it can hardly be denied that public libraries are nowadays less conducive to quiet scholarship than they used to be. In the old days, everyone conversed in hushed tones lest they be turned into stone with a stare from the Gorgon behind the desk. These days the staff at some local libraries will likely not manage to out-bellow the customers with their nonstop exchange of fatuities.
The out-of-line patron on this occasion, Henry Mark, clearly deserved some kind of punishment for throwing a brick that struck private security guard Kia Simmons on the arm. The retribution he faced, however, was swift and out of all proportion. As Mark fled across Tulane Avenue, one of the CBD's most trafficked thoroughfares, Simmons fired 11 times, lodging seven bullets, mostly in his back, and leaving him in critical condition.
Simmons got fired from her job and now faces a slew of serious charges, including attempted murder, but for Mark a lifetime of pain and disability presumably awaits. Simmons, 23, had undergone no more than the scant level of firearms training required by law for a private security license; she passed a background check because the battery conviction on her record did not amount to a felony. Putting her on the public streets with a lethal weapon was asking for trouble, and she delivered in spades.
An alternative plan is not easy to come up with, however. Public safety is in theory the responsibility of the police department, but that works only if the public is willing to pay wages likely to attract recruits of the right caliber in sufficient numbers. There is no chance of that here. NOPD is in no position to patrol the bookstacks.
Still, providing security at public libraries is clearly a necessity in these wild and woolly times, so the first requirement must be security guards who do not follow in Simmons's footsteps and raise the danger level by taking potshots at the customers.
Simmons' reckless fusillade came just as state Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, was abandoning his latest attempt to let pretty much any Tom, Dick or Harry carry a concealed handgun and eschew all training.
McCormick vows to try again next year. He will not rest until guns are everywhere.
Email James Gill at gill504nola@gmail.com.