Current Affairs

Reporters will be reporters – even in the face of a live shooting. Phil Davis, a reporter at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis in Maryland was at the paper’s headquarters when a gunman shot into the glass door of the paper and opened fire, killing some of his colleagues. Presently, five people are dead while two are injured.

Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can’t say much more and don’t want to declare anyone dead, but it’s bad.

— Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

In what has been dubbed a ‘targeted attack’ on the paper, the gunman, identified by law enforcement officials as Jarrod Warren Ramos, was found hiding under a desk after killing five of Davis’ colleagues, including editor Rob Hiaasen.

Yes, you read right – the gunman was found hiding under a desk. Just another spoke in the weird wheel that is America’s complicated relationship with guns.

Unfolding like a tragic, macabre episode, Davis continued the updates, tweeting:

There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload

— Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

Understandably, everyone who was by now riveted to Davis’ tweets were concerned for his safety, prompting him to tweet this:

I’m currently waiting to be interviewed by police, so I’m safe and no longer at the office.

— Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

In a comment to CNN, Davis said that as a crime reporter, he is accustomed to dealing with these topics, but that it is distinctly different to be caught up in the middle of it: “I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff – not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death – all the time. But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatising it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”

Responding to Davis’ tweets, Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen tweeted his sympathies and support to Davis:

Phil, I can’t imagine what you and the entire Capital Gazette team are going through right now. Journalists shouldn’t have to fend off bullets in the newsroom while doing their jobs—this is not normal. Stay strong. https://t.co/hchUMIaMN1

— Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) June 28, 2018

America – you know what else is not normal? That kids go to school and live with the very real fear that the very same thing could happen in their classroom. Once upon a time, it may have been far-fetched to say something like that but in today’s climate, the tragic history of school shootings is evidence of otherwise. Kids shouldn’t have to fend off bullets in the classroom either.

Are you guys living in a war zone? Davis may have described the situation as such (and probably justifiably so) but aren’t guns and how easily accessible they are what exacerbated this problem in the first place?

President Donald Trump likes to say that “The rest of the world is laughing at us”, but not because of your immigration policies. And we’re not laughing at you – we’re upset in the knowledge that it’s only a matter of time before we hear of the next shooting that didn’t have to happen.

Okay, we’ll get off our soapbox now, but you get the point. Guns don’t belong in everyday life. And in America, unless something changes, Phil Davis won’t be the last person live tweeting a shooting.

Source: Huffington Post, CNN