The reality of surviving the downturn by setting up camp with a supply of tinned food and shotgun shells seems to be drawing closer. The strategy is sometimes used as an almost comical suggestion for how to get by in a world gone mad. In HALSELL, Alabama 67 year old Jimmy Tanks found out to is cost what happens when guns are introduced to a credit dispute.
HALSELL, Ala. – Alone in his mobile home off a winding dirt road, Jimmy Tanks heard a commotion at 2:30 a.m. just outside his bedroom window: Somebody was messing with his car.
The 67-year-old railroad retiree grabbed a gun, walked out the back door and confronted not a thief but a repo man and two helpers trying to tow off the Chrysler Sebring. Shots were fired, and Tanks wound up dead, a bullet in his chest.
I won’t bore you with the rights and wrongs of this tragedy, or ideas about what can and should be done to prevent this happening again and again as economies all over the world go down the toilet. You can get all that analysis by reading the original story here.
Something that does interest me about this story is the way it is reported.
The shooter Kenneth Alvin Smith is described as “an ex-Marine who preaches part-time and sings gospel music”
After the Columbine massacre in 1999 there were media claims (false claims it turned out) that the shooters were fans of Marilyn Manson. News reports skapegoated the band, there were calls for music to be banned, shows were picketed. Long after the shooting and long after the claims had been debunked one theme park even “disinvited” then band from appearing in a live show.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not fans of Marilyn Manson, but the bands name is still attached to such shootings.
Kenneth Alvin Smith who shot Jimmy Tanks dead is apparently a part-time preacher and a gospel music fan. Yet, no calls for a crackdown on gospel music.
Now, I don’t think gospel music played any part in the shooting of Jimmy Tanks, it’s a ridiculous notion, but then I don’t think Marilyn Manson’s music had anything to do with Columbine or any other shooting.
What interests me is the notion that to this day we still have people who think that music can make people kill. I wonder about what might have been if Harris and Klebold had been fans of Marilyn Manson. How would the story have played out?
Why don’t we look at the music taste of every murderer?
Alternatively, why don’t we look at all Marilyn Manson fans and see how many end up as killers?
In the meantime lets keep a wary eye on the Gospel music fans out there. Until we’re sure that Marilyn Manson’s music is in the clear, we really shouldn’t take risks with other genres.
