Lesbian Corrections Officer’s Guns Don’t Shoot People. Lesbian Corrections Officers do.

Or something like that. This story from the NY Daily News recounts the pertinent info, and dances carefully down a line between titillation and politically-incorrect positions. The pertinent facts are these – a woman got into an argument with her estranged significant other, killed her, went to another location where she shot some relatives, took a child hostage, and ran. The boys in blue arrested her, freed the child, and had the DA charge her with two counts of murder, kidnapping, and assault. Her body count stands at two – her former lover and her uncle. She also shot her grandfather in the leg.

On the prurient interest side of things, the perp is a lesbian (gasp!) corrections officer (who should presumably know better). No mention was made of race in the story, but pictures reveal those involved were African-Americans. As if that makes any difference. In fact, I’m not seeing why (aside from a cheap attempt to sell papers) it makes any difference as to the sexual persuasion of the perp or one of the victims.

To me, the story should read “Corrections Officer Loses It, Goes on Rampage, Killing Two, Wounding One.”

I’d think it would be interesting enough of a story to see that a peace officer (especially one involved in prisons) would go off the deep end and shoot people. I think the lesbian angle clouds what should be the real issue – and it’s NOT gun control. I see the issue here is proper screening of law enforcement officers (not to check their sexual preferences, but to check them for anything that might indicate they would be prone to using their weapons to ice family members rather than the bad guys.

I can’t wait to see how many seconds it takes for Bloomberg and his buddies to find an angle here. Maybe they’ll propose banning guns for corrections officers. Or perhaps they’ll ask for funding for a Minority Report-esque oracle that will predict which officers will go off their nut and start shooting.

Or maybe they’ll realize that these things happen every now and then, and there’s not much anybody can do but to bury the victims, heal the wounded, comfort the living, and punish the perps. Nah…that’s way to reasonable. It wouldn’t generate a story buried deep in the back of Section B.

If it bleeds, it leads, and nobody seems to care who pays the price, when the goal is sensationalism.