The Original Hot Dog Shop Murder

I enjoy the food at Oakland landmark The Original Hot Dog Shop, but I would never dine there late at night as it has long been a focal point of fights that break out between young patrons, altercations that are often fueled by alcohol.

"The O" used to have a uniformed police officer present in the restaurant at night as a bulwark against problems occurring.  Regrettably, that was discontinued last year in an apparent ill-advised action to reduce the cost of operation.

In one of the most serious incidents ever to occur in the more than half century the restaurant has done business, a 24-year-old Brookline man lost his life, an argument that began inside an unprotected "O" moving on to the street where he was shot in the throat by his assailant.

Gun advocates insist that a heavily armed society serves largely, if not exclusively to protect innocent people, yet we see again and again that when hotheads or those that are inclined to fits of rage carry a gun in the ordinary course of their daily lives, it is likely that it will be used for anything but protection.  In the aftermath of gun murders such as the one which occurred on the streets of Oakland, the silence of National Rifle Association and its members and supporters is deafening.

Now a family and community mourns a young man who lost his life at a tender age, and another young man that is responsible for his death has thrown away his life as well, destined to spend many years in a prison cell.  Taxpayers will fund a trial and his defense, and then food, room and board, health care, and recreation, perhaps for decades.  Everyone loses.

I wonder if in retrospect the killer is pleased that he brought his firearm to defend against threats that he perceived could occur during his visit to a restaurant.