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The Atlanta Shootings Cannot Be Dismissed as Someone Having a 'Bad Day'

By The Washington Post Editorial Board

18 March 21

OURS AFTER a 21-year-old White man purchased a gun on Tuesday, authorities said, he went on a shooting spree in the Atlanta area that killed eight people, most of them women of Asian descent. The question that investigators are trying to answer is why. Was it, as many members of the Asian American community believe, racial bigotry? Crimes of opportunity? Or, as the alleged shooter is reported to have told police, the result of a supposed sex addiction that led him to target spas? No matter the answer, the events in Georgia stand as yet another terrible reminder of the epidemic of gun violence in this country that for far too long has gone neglected.

Robert Aaron Long, arrested following a brief search, is accused of opening fire at three spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight people and wounding a ninth. Six of the people killed were Asian, and two were White. All but one were women. Identified so far: Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Xiaojie Yan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44 and Paul Andre Michels, 54. That police were able to make a quick arrest is a credit to the collaboration of different police agencies, critical cooperation from the suspect�s family and the reach of social media. According to authorities, the suspect was headed to Florida and intent on more violence.

The shootings occurred as there has been an alarming rise in discrimination, harassment and attacks of Asians. Stop AAPI Hate, a group that has collected first-hand accounts of discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, this week reported nearly 3,800 hate-related incidents from March 2020 through February 2021. It connects the attacks to racist rhetoric, including from former president Donald Trump, that suggests Chinese people are to blame for the pandemic.

Authorities said preliminary information indicates the killings may not have been a racially motivated hate crime but stressed it is still too early to know a motive. �Whatever the motivation was for this guy, we know that the majority of the victims were Asian,� said Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, �We also know that this is an issue that is happening across the country. It is unacceptable, it is hateful and it has to stop.�

We agree. But the same things need to be said about the gun violence that kills nearly 40,000 Americans each year. When arrested, Mr. Long had a 9mm gun that authorities said was purchased earlier in the day. Details of the purchase � and whether it was legal � were not disclosed. Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff�s Office said Mr. Long took responsibility for the shootings and characterized the spas as a �temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.� He added, �Yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.�

Really? Have we become so nonchalant about gun violence that we rack up the murder of eight people to someone having a �bad day?� Just as the coronavirus represents a public health emergency requiring scientific solutions and government action, so gun violence is a public health crisis that demands attention and action to put in place common-sense safety laws.