NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called out President Barrack Obama on his gun control policies on Sunday. The statement was made after a 5-year-old girl from the Bronx was shot by a stray bullet on Sunday.
“We can never accept the notion that somehow children are going to be a part of the casualty count, whether somebody else is targeted or not,” Kelly said. “Children are not supposed to be collateral damage.”
Kelly went on to compare New York City’s gun problem to that of the president’s hometown. “Maybe the city most affected is Chicago… But barely a peep out of [Obama],” Kelly said.
The victim of Sunday’s incident – Hailey Dominguez – is in critical but stable condition, according to the New York Daily News. Although the shooting was accidental, Dominguez is just the latest child in New York City to fall victim to gun violence in recent months.
In July, 4-year-old Lloyd Morgan Jr. was shot and killed in Morrisania. Kemar Brooks, 14, was also shot and killed over the summer after playing a game of tennis in Haffen Park. Add that to the three children that were shot during one night in Brownsville over the summer. A 2-year-old, a 13-year-old and a 17-year old all received gunshot wounds. Luckily all three survived the incident.
This incident also follows a recent shooting in Wisconsin last month that claimed three lives.
Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have been known to hold strong stances for gun control, and were critical of both Obama and Mitt Romney for not addressing the issue more during the 2012 presidential campaign. Bloomberg was especially critical of both candidates after the Colorado shooting at the premiere of the movie The Dark Knight Rises.
Gun control has always been a hot-button issue in New York City. Mayor Bloomberg went under serious criticism for implementing a “stop-and-frisk” policy that led to over 700,000 stops in 2011, according to the New York Times. This latest incident will only add fuel to the gun control controversy.
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