Sun Herald Saints Reporter Calls For Gun Control Hours After Smith's Murder

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After Will Smith’s tragic death late Saturday night in New Orleans, Saints reporter Brian Alee-Walsh, listed as “special to the Sun Herald”, could only think of one thing to say: we need a discussion on gun control.

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Although details were still emerging from the incident, in which Cardell Hayes shot Smith following a fender bender in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District, this man thought he had everything boarded up and wanted to nail it down. Quickly.

In an article published Sunday evening titled Smith’s Death Opens Debate for Stricter Gun Control Laws, Alee-Walsh stood tippie-toed on his soapbox and threw a few facts out to his readers with a liberal peppering of condemnation for anyone unwilling to join his mindset.

Some might argue that this is not the proper time to debate the merits of stricter gun control laws, nor demand increased police presence on our city’s streets, especially so soon after the fatal shooting of former New Orleans Saints Pro Bowl defensive lineman Will Smith.

So you tell me: When is the right time? Before or after the next senseless gun-related death? Or, is there any solution to the ongoing epidemic, any middle ground at all, that we can agree on?

I am sick and tired of hearing guns don’t kill, people do. Tell that to Smith’s surviving wife, Racquel, who was wounded in the incident, and their three young children.

As background, Smith and his wife reportedly ran afoul of a man shortly before midnight Saturday after they were involved in a multi-car accident in the city’s Lower Garden District.

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Alee-Walsh then gave a journalistic run down of the incident, including the fact that one of the men Smith had dined with that night was one of the police officers named in a lawsuit Haynes filed against the New Orleans Police after they shot his father years ago.
His article concluded with:

Prayers and condolences poured in Sunday from friends, former Ohio State and Saints teammates and coaches and other well-intentioned leaders, such as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu who called the killing “a tragic loss of life” and “senseless.”

It is on both counts.

Ironically, only hours before Smith’s death, New Orleans voters rejected a proposal to hike property taxes, that if passed, would have expanded the Police Department and theoretically helped to improve public safety.

Voters did approve a proposal Saturday that will throw more money toward street repairs, ensuring smoother rides perhaps but offering no promise of safer streets.

How nice of him to end his bitter diatribe on a snarky note. Obviously, gun control and murder are topics for Sunday evening satire for Mr. Brian Alee-Walsh.
Of course, this article was not a discussion, just another ‘call to action’ against a murderer who has nothing to do with Alee-Walsh’s utopian idea of who “gun control” would prevent from having a gun. In fact, the sports reporter failed to note that in 2014, Hayes pleaded guilty to illegal carrying of a weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia and sentenced to six months’ probation.
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Also not mentioned was the fact that Smith was shot in the back and the right torso, but hey – we really need to have a discussion on gun control, people. Never mind the facts, just sing along to the song of the liberals who seriously believe that criminals and people who wish to do harm to others would follow the rules… if only there were more to follow.

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