3 mistakes end in 3 shootings: Experts divided on whether they represent a national trend

In the span of a single week, three separate shootings that occurred after victims mistakenly approached the wrong home or vehicle are raising questions about the proliferation of guns in American society.

Last Thursday, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, allegedly shot Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old, after Yarl rang Lester’s doorbell in Kansas City, Mo., thinking his two younger siblings were inside. Yarl had the wrong address, and Lester, who told police he feared for his safety, opened fire.

Two days later in upstate New York, Kaylin Gillis, a 20-year-old white woman, was shot and killed, allegedly by Kevin Monahan, a 65-year-old white homeowner, while driving in a car that mistakenly turned in to the wrong driveway. Monahan was not cooperative with police, who, after booking him into Warren County Jail, said he had no reason to feel threatened.

On Tuesday, two members of an elite competitive cheerleading team in Austin, Texas, were shot by Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, after one of the teens reportedly tried mistakenly to get into the wrong car after practice. One of the victims, 18-year-old Payton Washington, who was shot in the leg and back, was flown to a nearby hospital in critical condition and remains in the ICU.

While the circumstances of what led up to each shooting differ slightly, in each case the gunmen opened fire without warning in the apparent defense of their property.

“I do not think that the shootings are a coincidence,” Kirk Burkhalter, a New York Law School professor and former 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, told Yahoo News. “As simplistic as this sounds, these shootings would not have occurred if not for the proliferation of guns. This is what 911 is for.”

Going a step further, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, in a post on TikTok, said these kinds of shootings, particularly involving young Black people like Yarl, are “exactly what so many mouthpieces for the gun industry have been selling for decades.”

“It’s part of the pitch, that you own one of these weapons ... to defend your homestead, and from the image of urban crime, of urban disorder — of, essentially, Black people,” Bouie said.

But other experts are reluctant to assign much sociological significance to the shootings.

“They are geographically distant from one another and the facts are different,” Kenneth Gray, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven, told Yahoo News. “I would not link these as having some connection between [one another] other than the fact that just the similarity of the type of situation.”

Gray, who spent 24 years at the FBI, also pushed back on the criticism being leveled against law enforcement, saying that gunmen have been charged for the shootings.

But many Americans could not help but see a pattern in the latest incidents. In a Twitter post, Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, wrote, “It’s the guns.”

Guns in the U.S.

Guns remain the leading cause of death in the United States for children and adolescents under the age of 19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, firearms accounted for nearly 1 in 5 deaths of children.

What’s more, data shows that a kind of vicious circle occurs following mass shootings in America whereby gun sales and the number of new background check applications both surge. In turn, the stock prices for the largest firearm manufacturers in the country also spike, as they did after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last May, the San Bernardino shooting in 2015 and the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

“When you think about the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, the Framers certainly didn't contemplate handguns,” Burkhalter said. “I do think there’s a difference between having a shotgun or a long rifle for home protection and hunting versus having a handgun and assault rifle — something that was specifically made to take a human life.”

Burkhalter believes that there are “too many guns in this country” and that the only solution is to take them away.

George Salinas, a personal injury lawyer in San Antonio, Texas, told Yahoo News that a more “nuanced approach that involves laws and public education” is the best remedy for these kinds of shootings.

“There has to be a balance between allowing someone to protect their home and family along with protecting innocent people who step onto someone's property without bad intentions,” Salinas said. “Unfortunately, this also involves common sense, which is hard to teach, or legislate, for that matter.”

Self-defense laws draw renewed attention

Both Missouri and Texas have passed “stand your ground” laws, which remove the duty to retreat before using deadly force if a person is in a place they have a right to be, such as a home, is not engaged in criminal activity and has not provoked their assailant. New York follows the so-called castle doctrine, meaning that a person’s home is their domain and they have no duty to flee a perceived threat and can be justified in the use of deadly force.

Nationwide, 35 states have adopted a version of “stand your ground” or castle doctrine laws, according to the RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank. Such laws are inherently open to legal interpretation, and critics say that instead of deterring gun violence, they do the opposite.

“‘Stand your ground’ laws encourage reckless gun owners to kill first, ask questions later, and claim self-defense to avoid being held criminally responsible for taking the life of another individual,” Kelly Sampson, senior counsel at Brady, a gun control advocacy group, told CBS News.

But states have long argued that such laws keep citizens safe. In 2016, Missouri was the first state to pass a “stand your ground” law. The GOP-controlled General Assembly that year overrode the veto of Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, to push through the legislation. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Kurt Schaefer, called it necessary for bodily protection.

“You’re going to do whatever you need to do if your safety is in jeopardy,” Schaefer, a Republican from Columbia, said at the time. “The question is, what happens in the lawsuit after that? Are you going to be faced with liability after that?”

Burkhalter believes that unless some kind of swift and unprecedented change takes place through legislation or in the minds of gun owners, avoidable shootings like these will only proliferate.

“It’s a horrible place in society where we can shoot first and ask questions later,” he said.

Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Jack Forbes; photos: courtesy of families (2), Twitter