High-Velocity .223-Caliber Gun Used in Shooting
Midday violence rips through seven lives near Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
Our Daily Violence
Violence changes lives. That may seem obvious, but it feels heavy writing it now. The shooting near Cristo Rey Jesuit High School killed one person and injured six others, three critically. Reports say the shooter used a high-velocity .223-caliber gun.
We’re not weapons experts, but this one sounded like it belonged in the military. Yet I can order it for $820 from Great Lakes Firearms and Ammunition. It’s called the GLFA .223 Wylde Pistol – Battleworn Series, available in ten colors with a choice of muzzle styles. The ordering process feels remarkably like a video game.
We’d like to see more reporting that shows the reality of these incidents: the victims, the injuries, the damage. The mangled flesh, the blood from gunshot wounds. Why? Because shootings no longer shock us. This was the fourth mass shooting in Minneapolis this year.
This one was close to home. We pass the high school often. A friend was inside the nearby AutoZone when the shooting started. After about 30 rounds of gunfire, a man pounded on the store window, pressing a cloth to his bleeding face. Another man was shot in the head. A woman lay on the sidewalk after being hit in the arm. Would seeing these images change anything? We don’t know. We watch violence in police dramas every night; would showing close-ups of real victims on the front page make it any more real?
Too Much O’Hara
Just as we start to enjoy the weather and think about the Fair, violence consumes the day. Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters:
“Our city experienced a deeply troubling act of violence. In the middle of the day, a gunman armed with a high-velocity rifle opened fire on a group of people on the sidewalk… The gunman wound up killing one person and wounding six others.”
He called the weapon “completely sickening.”
“This type of weapon is more for a war zone than a city street. The damage done to the bodies of some of these victims is unspeakable.”
Change of Focus
We arrived home this afternoon, intending to write about the press conference on homelessness we attended, but the news of another mass shooting shifted the focus of this newsletter. Minneapolis has already had four this year. What’s the acceptable number?
Yes, crime is down in many categories. But that fact fades when you picture a bloody man scratching at the AutoZone door, begging for help. Scenes like that belong in movies, not in broad daylight on a pleasant 75-degree afternoon.
This is why crime stays high on the list of voter concerns. Property crimes matter, but midday shootings—public, terrifying—fuel anger at leaders who seem uncertain about policing.
We may support violence interrupters and alternatives. But patience wears thin waiting for results. And shootings like this make arguments over parking policy or converting I-94 into a boulevard feel like luxuries. First, we need to keep high school students and bystanders safe from high-velocity, military-style weapons on our streets.
The minimizing euphemisms reflexively repeated by press and media include “injured” and “non-life threatening.”
“Maimed” and “life-altering” are much closer to reality.
Gunshot damage often leaves people permanently disabled and disfigured, with organs, bones, and joints shattered or destroyed.
The media hides these aftermaths, leaving us to fall back TV and movie scenes where the victim, with an arm in a sling, says, “Luckily it’s only a flesh wound.”
Your reflection about whether showing the blood and gore reality of these shootings would help brings the inevitable comparison with Emmett Till. It sure made a difference in that situation.