The Miramar Beach Killings

The crazed shooting of five Chilean exchange students at Miramar Beach is a horrible tragedy. Our deepest sympathies go out to the victims and their families.

[T]he shooting happened about 1:45 a.m. [Thursday] when Dannie Baker, 60, approached Unit 12 in the Summer Lakes townhome complex and opened fire through a window. When he was done, Adkinson said, he went back to his home at Unit 25.

Not surprisingly, news of this shocking massacre is all over the media throughout South and Central America. From that distance, understandably, the site of the slaying is perceived to be somewhere 'north' of Miami. The largest city nearby -- that is to say, Pensacola -- is getting much of the blame:

Todos estos jóvenes estaban en el barrio de Miramar Beach, en la ciudad de Pensacola, cuando en la madrugada del jueves fueron atacados por un sujeto identificado como Dannie Baker, de 60 años.

Let it be known that Pensacola and Pensacola Beach should not be confused with Miramar Beach. The site of the tragic shooting by a racist G.O.P.volunteer is near Destin. That's two counties east of Pensacola. We do not consider Miramar Beach to be "near" or envolvió a la comunidad de Pensacola. It is not "20 miles" from Pensacola; more like 50. La playa de Miramar está cercana a Destin, dos condados al este de Pensacola. No es "miles" 20 de Pensacola; más bién 50.

Miramar Beach should not be confused with what we know as the "Pensacola area" or, even more embarrassing, Pensacola Beach. We bear no more direct blame than the Walton County Republican Party does merely because the killer worked there for George Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.

Let it also be said, however, that this horrible crime is further evidence, as if any were needed, that Florida's gun laws are every bit as insane as the anti-immigrant hate-monger who shot these young students from Chile. Florida state gun laws are far too lax, far too indifferently enforced.

We have no limits on owning assault weapons, no universal background checks, no limits on large capacity ammunition magazines, no statewide licensing of gun dealers, no license requirements for gun shows, and on and on.

Check Brady.com to read the entire list of reasonable regulations we don't have to see why Florida ranks 36th out of the 50 states when it comes to public safety from rogue gun owners.

We in Pensacola may have had nothing directly to do with the tragic deaths and injuries suffered by the young visitors at Miramar Beach. But along with every other voter in Florida we continue to elect cynical political poseurs to the Florida Legislature, like Durrell Peaden, who make this kind of tragedy a dead certainty by refusing to sensibly regulate the sale of guns.

So, in the most important moral sense, we did it. All of us who live in Florida. To our eternal shame, we conspired at the polls to make it possible for Dannie Baker to kill those Chilean students.

Dept. of Further Amplification

• Judge: Florida Gun Law 'Odd, Irrational'
  
• Rich Man, Poor Man
• Guns, Guns, More Guns
• Calling All Tourists
• Pistol Packin' Peaden
• Visit Florida - If You Dare
• Durrell Peaden's Legacy