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To Our Readers
BANGOR, Maine -- Tuesday's seven workplace killings in Wakefield, Mass., a few hours south of here, were too close for comfort for this Hawaii visitor. Mass. murders
a grim reminderSoftware engineer Michael McDermott's rampage was a tragic echo of the one in Honolulu on Nov. 2, 1999 for which Byran Uyesugi has been tried and convicted.
After Uyesugi's trial, his defense attorney said, "This is one of the rare cases people will remember as long as they live because it's a great human tragedy." Unfortunately, these cases are increasingly less rare. In July 1999 a shooter killed nine at two Atlanta brokerages and in August 1999 another episode left three dead at office buildings in Pelham, Ala.
Both McDermott and Uyesugi were gun collectors with anger problems -- a lethal combination. McDermott had no permits for the AK-47 rifle, shotgun and pistol he carried when he snuffed out seven lives, but he had no criminal record.
In Hawaii, on the other hand, Uyesugi had duly registered his murder weapon, a Glock 9mm handgun, and 17 other firearms. He also had a record, having been arrested for criminal property damage following an argument with co-workers in 1994.
Uyesugi applied for an eighteenth gun after that incident, but let the application lapse when he was required to submit a doctor's note giving him a clean bill of mental health. Unfortunately, this raised no alarms and he was allowed to keep the guns he'd already registered.
Clearly, in both cases the measures we take to keep guns and ammunition out of the hands of criminally dangerous people failed. While Massachusetts, like Hawaii, has strict gun controls, local media were quick to point out that laws in neighboring New Hampshire, a half hour's drive from Wakefield, are lax enough to make local controls a sham.
We're certain to hear from some that the answer is to carry guns for self-defense, but that's like trying to dowse a fire with gasoline. Can a society armed to the teeth be safe or civil?
John Flanagan is editor and publisher of the Star-Bulletin.
To reach him call 525-8612, fax to 523-8509, send
e-mail to publisher@starbulletin.com or write to
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.