(NewsNation) — A teenager rings the wrong doorbell, a young woman pulls into the wrong driveway, cheerleaders get into the wrong car, and now a six-year-old girl is recovering after her neighbor fired shots when a basketball rolled into his yard.
These violent incidents unfolded over the last week across the country, begging the question: why in the span of one week did four Americans pick up a gun and opt for what should have been the last resort?
Law & Crime Network anchor and host Jesse Weber and Jim Clemente, retired FBI supervisory special agent and profiler, join “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” to discuss the recent incidents of people being shot for making the common mistake of showing up at the wrong place.
“People act to their extremes when they’re stressed,” Clemente said. “And I think the fact that this crosses all sorts of racial, racial and economic and social backgrounds, I think it it is indicative of mass anxiety and mass PTSD, because of the pandemic, the economic crisis, the riots and demonstrations of 2020.”
Clemente said all these things are cumulative.
“I think they have now caused people in the United States to be so extremely elevated in terms of anxiety and stress,” he said. ‘That it’s so easy to get them over the hump of committing violent acts.”
These violent incidents occurred over the last week in Kansas City, Missouri, upstate New York, near Austin, Texas, and outside Charlotte, North Carolina. Separate shootings, different states and victims of all ages, races and genders.
“Let’s be very clear: All of these cases are very, very bad,” said Weber. “I was struggling to find justification in each one of them.”
In Missouri, a Kansas City teen was shot twice after going to the wrong home to pick up his younger brothers, raising questions about the state’s “stand your ground” law and heightening racial tensions.
“You could say he maybe was in fear of his life,” Weber said. “I think it’s a stretch because here’s the other way of looking at it. He fires not once he fires twice, including once when he’s on the ground, and then makes a comment right afterward, allegedly saying, Don’t come back here. That would be a set sign. How much were you in fear of your life?”
Jonathan Metzl, who directs Vanderbilt University’s Department of Medicine, Health and Society, said “stand your ground” laws have fueled a belief that people can use guns defensively “anytime they perceive a threat.”
Of all the incidents, Weber says, the Missouri case is “the only case I think there could be an argument because there is a standard ground law in place there.”
Clemente said everybody’s struggling to make sense of the shootings and having a difficult time doing it.
“I think our entire society is on edge,” he said. “Because of the cumulative effect of all these things that have happened over the past few years. And I believe that we need to start listening to people who have different viewpoints. We need to build rapport with people, we need to get these people distressed so that they’re not going to act as extremely as we seen them act right now.”
So what is the solution? Is it immediately attacking “stand your ground” laws?
“I would say, not necessarily, because all of these people are going to have to face justice,” Weber said. “I think these are all really bad cases. And if I had to guess they’re going to be convicted. But at the end of the day, you have lost life. And what’s the solution? I don’t have the answer.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.