Warning: this post contains some sarcasm about racism and gun culture in the U.S. See if you can spot it.
I know you will all be terribly shocked to learn that the person pictured above, Jason J. Eaton, 48, of Burlington, is under arrest for the shooting of three Palestinian college students over the weekend. Because we never thought the shooter would be a white middle aged male with military training on Islamophobia plus how to use guns to kill and injure people.
One of those shot had a bullet lodged in his spine and his condition remains critical.
Did you know that around a third of all mass shooters in the U.S. were trained by the military? David Swanson lays out his research on this here. And for context adds:
In the United States, only a very small percentage of men under 60 are military veterans.
In the United States, at least 31% of male mass shooters under 60 (which is almost all mass shooters) are military veterans.
Technically this was not a mass shooting (less than four people shot) but very likely a hate crime i.e. the shooter was motivated by hatred of Palestinians or Arabs in general and was triggered by their attire and spoken language.
Now where would Jason J. Eaton have learned to think like that?
As we in the U.S. know well, only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun.
However, these two U.S. citizens of Palestinian origin (plus a green card holder i.e. legal resident) don’t appear to have been armed with guns. Were they good guys? They were on their way to have dinner at Awartani’s grandmother’s house. Maybe she can shed some light on their character once she’s moved past the shock and trauma of her grandson and his friends being gunned down for existing.
Here’s the joint statement issued by their families. Do they sound like bad guys to you?
